Living from the heart
'For me, there is only traveling along roads with the Heart
along every road that has a Heart.
And the only challenge worth taking is
to travel him over his entire length.
And there I travel, looking, watching breathlessly...'
When you hear Heartfulness, you may not help but think of mindfulness. The word heartfulness only came into being after mindfulness came on the scene. When I was looking for a domain name for my website in 2006, I had just completed the Mindfulness trainer training, Google found hardly any results for the word ‘heartfulness’. Just a few results, presumably from Asian sites…? Not a single book about heartfulness. But in that time there were already a few dozen about mindfulness… I thought it was quite strange that no one had thought of that… And because I wanted to work in my practice as a psychotherapist with meditation and mindfulness, from the heart, my domain name was heartfulness.be a fact.
Mindfulness: Cultivating Awareness of the Present Moment
Mindfulness cannot be translated literally. “Be full of mind!” It’s just the opposite of what mindfulness does! Don’t focus on your mind. Mind must therefore be understood in the sense of “attention“. Mindfulness, a concept with roots in ancient Buddhist philosophy, describes the psychological state of being intensely attentive, without judgment, of what you feel and perceive in that moment. It’s about being present, actively engaging in the here and now, rather than obsessing over the past or worrying or thinking about future problems.
This may seem like a fairly simple principle to understand, but in practice, achieving true mindfulness can be challenging. This is evidenced by the experience of many participants whom I have already had the opportunity to meet in more than 100 training courses. In a world where multitasking is praised, where our brain spends hours in front of screens and is constantly stimulated and over-processed, and where distraction is a constant, we are more often than not lost in thought, instead of fully engaged in what we are doing.
Mindfulness involves shifting our focus to the present moment, controlling our mind’s tendency to wander, and awakening to life’s embodied experience. In essence, it is a form of meditation: a way to cultivate awareness and reduce stress. By practicing mindfulness, you can learn to live life more fully, engage more effectively, reduce stress, and enjoy more.
Imagine enjoying a walking meditation. It’s not just about moving your feet that you now follow with attention instead of what you do every minute of the day: walking on autopilot. It’s about feeling the wind on your skin, hearing the birds chirping, being aware of the rhythmic pattern of your breathing, and seeing the clouds painting vibrant hues in the sky. That is essentially a moment of mindfulness.
Heartfulness: The Path of Fullness of the Heart
Heartfulness has roots in many ancient philosophies and traditions, particularly those of Eastern spirituality and Mindfulness. However, the term “Heartfulness” has become more popular and more widely understood due to its use in modern psychology and personal growth contexts. It is considered an important aspect of emotional intelligence and is widely practiced in cognitive behavioral therapies.
While Mindfulness asks us to be present with full attention (mind), Heartfulness asks us to fully connect with the heart. To experience the heart from all its dimensions: physical, emotional, the wisdom of the heart and the energetic qualities of the heart.
Fundamentally, the practice of Heartfulness involves exploring the heart completely. You have a physical heart, an emotional heart, a mental heart, and an energetic heart. From this holistic vision you explore the heart and you will change the rhythm, discover the Universal love, seek wisdom and develop the power of heart energy. The essence of this methodology lies in opening up to and listening to your heart through meditations. But it requires a lot of other necessary techniques to free the heart, which is closed to most people, from the armor so that it can shine in its pure nature. That is quite a journey through life and all kinds of techniques will help with this.
"Mindfulness takes you into the realm of the present. Heartfulness leads you to the kingdom of the heart"
Centering, the wisdom of the wheel
Heartfulness, as it is given by me, in Lifestream, therefore starts from the philosophy of Centering®, the wisdom of the wheel. Centering is based on an age-old holistic view of man and his environment: ‘the medicine wheel’ and the enormous fascination and classical wisdom of and for the human body. In that wheel I place the heart in the center… From the wisdom of this wheel you will look at your heart in a specific way, always circular. In other words, no more causal-consequence, white-black, low-high. Not: I experience this in my heart, and that is the cause. Everything is connected so emotions of the heart have their effect in the body, in the mental, in your energy system.
The wheel is supportive, nourishing, equal, and everything is connected. Nothing can really be looked at separately. By gaining insight into how this wheel works, what processes can occur, by getting to know its dynamics, you get closer and closer to your essence, who you are, with what goals you were born here and what qualities you have.
More insight into the wheel, how it works,… you can read in what is Centering?
The heart on four different levels
Heartfulness works with four different levels: personal, relational, earth, and universal level. Each level can be imagined as a circle, a wheel. Each person (the personal level) is interwoven in a relational context (the relational level which is influenced by our partner, children, parents, work colleagues, municipality, groups, country…). This relational field takes place at the earth level and is also influenced by it. Conversely, the earth is also influenced by each individual and the relational fields. All of this is subject to the universal level… All these levels are inextricably linked and it is clear that they also influence each other continuously.
Heartfulness is the way of the heart, the way of connection:
- There is the heart on the personal wheel. Here we look at the heart and make the connection between the physical, mental, emotional and energetic bodies that are interconnected and continuously influence each other. This means that if something is going on emotionally, you will immediately have an influence on your physical body, your thoughts and your energetic body, but also vice versa.
- With your heart you also connect with others (partner, team members, children, colleagues, friends, etc.). We are looking for real contact with the other: from the heart level (with partner, children, parents), from the pelvic level (sexuality, tantra) and from the being level (with friends, colleagues, like-minded people,…). And here too we work with the four directions: we influence each other from the physical heart, the mental heart, the emotional heart and the energetic heart…
- Nature and the environment, the earth would benefit if man would experience the earth from the heart. At this level, a connection is made with the environment, society, nature,… Also in the four directions…
- We can also connect with the larger universal laws, which are centuries old and the starting point in yoga philosophy, but about which we still know so little. (Why is it that now everything at any level, the economy, banks, governments, the Middle East, is subject to major changes? Could it just be ‘coincidence’?). But the scientific world is finding more and more connection between microcosm and macrocosm and human life…
The role of meditation in mindfulness and heartfulness
Meditation plays an essential role in both Mindfulness and Heartfulness. While the pursuit of both paths shares a common tool – meditation – the way this practice is carried out differs between the two.
Mindfulness meditation is, at its core, a practice that aims to cultivate a heightened state of mindfulness in the present moment. The goal is to acknowledge and accept things as they are without judgment. Meditation here is a tool that helps you train your mind to observe thoughts, sensations, and emotions as they arise so that they can pass without getting caught up in them. You learn to become a witness and to see the transient nature of your experiences. This promotes mental clarity and emotional calmness.
Heartfulness meditation, on the other hand, focuses on the heart and fosters a deep connection with the inner self. As the name suggests, Heartfulness emphasizes feeling over observation. While it also uses the strategy of Mindfulness meditation to sit quietly and focus inward, the intent of Heartfulness meditation is to promote genuine qualities such as compassion, compassion, empathy, and love for yourself and others. It is about experiencing the wisdom of the heart and fostering a sense of harmony and peace.
In a nutshell, both Mindfulness and Heartfulness meditation nurture an overall sense of well-being. When practiced together, these practices reinforce each other. While Mindfulness keeps you grounded in the present, Heartfulness helps you to connect with your deeper emotions, with the energetic heart, a deep wisdom, emptiness and silence, Being in Love. The practice of Heartfulness nourishes a holistic development of mind and heart, which manifests itself in four directions, on four levels.
Would you like to know more about the different workshops at each of the levels? Then read the following blog articles:
- The personal heart: 4 different modules
- The heart in relation to the other: 4 different modules
- The heart and the non-dual field