A Video Introduction to Awakening and Opening Your Heart

The audio book was recently remastered by an audio mastering genius and the new CDs Book sets have arrived!

This 10 minute video introduction to Awakening and Opening Your Heart: A Journey to Becoming Who You Truly Are”, is a Flash preview of the enjoyable, educational and inspiring 6 hour audio-book in fiction form that teaches usable life lessons based on the greatest gem available to us in human existence, our heart.

It is our non-physical heart which is directly linked to the Creator, the Source of Love and Light. The spark of love and light, our spirit or true self, is in the core of our heart. Heart is the center of peace, love, joy and happiness. It is the key to mental and emotional health and the key to true spiritual growth.

Introduction Click here to view and listen to all 3 excerpts.

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Awakening and Opening Your Heart: “A Journey to Becoming Who You Truly Are”, is a self-help book in fiction form that teaches usable life lessons based on the greatest gem available to us in human existence, our heart. It is our non-physical heart which is directly linked to the Creator, the Source of Love and Light. The spark of love and light, our spirit or true self, is in the core of our heart. Heart is the center of peace, love, joy and happiness. It is the key to mental and emotional health and the key to true spiritual growth. Our heart provides us with an inner knowing we can rely on for clarity and insights that cannot be experienced by our brains.

Most of us already know the importance of our heart, because we grew up hearing, “follow your heart” and “listen to your heart.”   We may have also heard about the importance of, “knowing something from the depth or core of our heart”.    When a person does something “whole heartedly” or “puts his whole heart into it”, we trust that they have given their best intentions. When we talk about meaningful communication, we know it is about having a “heart to heart” with someone. We wouldn’t say I am going to have a “head to head”.   We often describe admirable people as having a “huge heart” or a “heart of gold”.   When we refer to gratitude, it is always “heartfelt gratitude”. Head- or brain- felt gratitude just doesn’t feel right.

Take a moment to reflect back on the most special times in your life, a time in which you felt deeply touched, especially grateful or connected to life – perhaps the birth of a child, a tranquil moment in nature, a peak experience or a time of spiritual communion. When you reflect back on those precious moments, how does it feel if you point to your head and say, “I was so touched”?   Even your head knows this does not compute. However, it is natural to put your hand on your chest, and feel how you were deeply touched by that special moment. What is it that made that moment so special above the rest? It wasn’t just the external circumstance. In that moment, the special and precious feeling was your direct connection with your heart. How is it that two people can experience the exact same circumstances without experiencing the same special feeling? The difference…one person experiences it from their head rather than their heart.

Most people live their whole lives with a limited number of these very, very, special moments.   As a psychologist, I frequently work with people in the last chapter of their lives and find they often reflect back to these heartfelt moments over and over.   They look back to these memories to create meaning for their lives. The entire span of life, when all is said and done, and when one is about to leave this earthly plane, it is these select number of heartfelt experiences that provide the greatest sense of satisfaction and joy.

We are meant to live as a heart, so that every moment can be so special and precious where we live life to the fullest with abundant love and joy. To live life from our head is to live a disconnected life, missing out on our deepest purpose for being on earth. People living this disconnected life often do not even know it until life is close to an end. Then, on their deathbed, they must confront the life choices they made. Only when people live from their hearts are they guaranteed no regrets in the end. Every moment, we are a little closer to our passing. Our heart is the key for making each moment the most special and precious gift it can be.

Mindfulness is not the same as heartfullness. Thinking or believing we are in our hearts is very different than the direct experience of being connected to our hearts.   Furthermore, we cannot “follow our heart” from our brain and we cannot use our head to get into our heart. Most people have never received proper guidance or education on how to be in their heart. Even for those with backgrounds in spiritual practices, they may think they are having a great heart experience, while in reality they are only experiencing a minute fraction of what is available. It’s like looking at the tip of an iceberg and not realizing that the tip is a very small part of the iceberg itself.

It took me many years to come to this realization. As a Ph.D. Psychologist and spiritual aspirant, I spent over 30 years studying and teaching body, mind, and spirit modalities to people from all walks of life. My pursuit began in the early seventies and led me to study yoga and meditation for nearly three years in Nepal and the Himalayas in Northern India. Even though I was able to experience deep stillness in the space between my thoughts and   breaths, my spiritual progress was limited. I could not dissolve the duality between my mind and the Creator because I was using my mind to try to overcome the ego. As the “doer”, I hit a plateau and could not find a way of breaking through the limitation. Being trapped in thinking that “I am the one who is meditating” or “I am the witness or observer of my process”, kept me in separation from the Source of Love and Light. Even after extensive hours of sitting in different meditation traditions and modalities, it felt like I was on a journey to reach somewhere that was beyond my grasp. Yet, thinking I understood   my heart, I taught others about how to be heart centered.

I never realized that I was just barely scratching the surface of my heart. How shocking it was to realize that I did not trust my heart or trust the Love and Light of True Source the way I thought I did. Through the Padmacahaya Foundation under the direction of Irmansyah Effendi, I came to experience the core of my heart. My previous striving of always reaching to achieve something and never seeming to arrive, dissolved into a divine sweetness and intimate connection with the Source of Love and Light, beyond anything this mind could ever conceive. As I now teach Open Heart Workshops, it is very common for participants to share that they are experiencing a joy in the depth of their hearts that they never imagined could exist. Previously, the understanding about their heart was an idea, concept or belief and not a tangible experience. Now their feeling of connection to True Source, the Source of Love and Light, becomes so very real.

Experiencing the peace, joy, love and gratitude of our hearts is actually a simple process. Unfortunately, due to our conditioning, many people believe being brain dominant is normal, since it is all they have ever known. When the brain is dominant, we tend to judge people or categorize them such as ‘good enough’ or ‘not good enough’, ‘like’ or ‘dislike’, ‘approve’ or ‘disapprove’ or find them ‘worthy’ or ‘unworthy’. We can also become overcritical of others and ourselves.     When our hearts open, we become less emotionally reactive, more accepting of our own shortcomings, as well as those of others. We easily forgive and share from our heart. Open hearts live authentically with love, humbleness and gratitude. The more we are able to open our hearts, the more we are able to experience a tangible connection to the Source of Love and Light. We feel more sweetness and joy in our relationships and realize that all beings are our siblings.

Opening our heart completely has a profound healing effect on all levels of our being.   It is greatest gift we can offer ourselves and the world. The more we open our hearts, the more we share the gentleness of Love in everything we do, even the smallest of things. Our hearts want to open so we can have the very best that Love offers. From the core of my heart, I realize that no matter what anyone’s past may be, this is something reachable and achievable for all of us. Indeed, it is our birthright to experience our hearts and enjoy the peace, happiness, joy and love within. I wrote “Awakening and Opening Your Heart” as a tool for understanding that an open heart is the safest place to be, and the key to our happiness and spiritual fulfillment. The core of our hearts is calling us Home. Our ultimate destiny to reconnect with our Creator in the here and now, awaits us with open arms like the embracing hug of a loving mom for her baby. I am deeply grateful to be sharing the Divine journey with all hearts who are ready to let the Source of Love and Light give us the best. Deep in our hearts, we all know its time for us to become who we truly are.