Heartful: Practices to Awaken the Heart

In today's episode, we hear the ancient Chinese tale of Senjo, a woman caught between two lives. Senjo’s tale invites us to reflect on the ways we might be cut off from ourselves. This severance, as Jack Kornfield writes, often happens "invisibly and unconsciously, in the dark, just like Senjo’s running to follow Ochu’s boat at midnight."

Though we may sense our disconnection in our daily lives, we don't always know what's wrong. In this timeless story, Senjo’s determination to return invites our own return as well.

In this Mindful Monday, Emilía shares a story from a recent outing that demonstrates the power of our assumptions, where assuming friendliness in a challenging situation left the possibility open for the situation to change completely.

“It never hurts to see the good in someone, they often act the better because of it.” - Nelson Mandela

The same lesson has implications for our inner world, demonstrating how we can befriend Mara when he shows up in our lives.

In this Mindful Monday, Emilía reads a powerful story from Frank Ostaseski's Five Invitations demonstrating the healing power of love.

"In the horror of my own suffering, I always had held out the hope that one day someone would rescue me. I had imagined that I would be saved by love coming toward me. Just the opposite. I was rescued when love came through me." - Frank Ostaseski

As we interpret conflict in our lives, we can easily identify with our thoughts and beliefs, often to our detriment. Tsoknyi Rinpoche coined the phrase "real but not true" which honors the reality of our emotional experience. This meditation offers the possibility of coming home to the truth and experiencing a sense of freedom when we are gripped by a storyline where someone is failing in some way.

In this first Mindful Monday, Emilía shares one of her favorite quotes from Father Gregory Boyle and some of the questions this wisdom encourages us to ask ourselves.

“Jesus says, “You are the light of the world.” I like even more what Jesus doesn’t say. He does not say, “One day, if you are more perfect and try really hard, you’ll be light.” He doesn’t say “If you play by the rules, cross your T’s and dot your I’s, then maybe you’ll become light.”  No. He says, straight out, “You are light.” It is the truth of...

In this first episode of Heartful: Practices to Awaken the Heart, Emilía Rún shares a glimpse of the rewards to be reaped from incorporating these practices into your life.

Emilía touches on:

When times are especially divisive, our potential for awakening is so great because we’re so far from our nature. Even just a little bit of meditation and slowing down can help us realize, amidst the uncertainty, what’s truly important, both individually and societally. As we continue on our own unique paths, we may find areas of our live...