What Emotions Come Up In Your Heart?

The Heart Scan is a powerful way to tune in to yourself on a physical, energetic, and emotional level The therapist who guides her clients into deeper connection with their selves by cultivating body awareness. With her Heart Scan Meditation, you can tune in to what your heart is saying at any given moment. The Heart Scan can be done in any environment, but to start, it’s helpful to practice in a space where you feel physically safe. Tell yourself that it is time to slow down. This inner cue will help you shift gears from whatever you were doing before to the quiet place where you want to be. Consciously slow your pace until you can truly connect with what is happening within your body. Slow your breathing, slow your movements. Close your eyes and breathe slowly and gently as you bring awareness to your heart center, in the middle of your chest. Tune in and observe. Does your heart feel open, closed, or neutral? You’re probably not used to describing your experiences or feelings from a sensory perspective or using sensory language. Some examples of sensory experiences you might have when feeling your heart center include tension, tingling sensations, spaciousness, hardness, denseness, blankness, light, expansiveness, or heaviness. Notice if you feel anxiety, peacefulness, or neutrality.

On My Word

Sometimes all of these can be present simultaneously. Simply be with whatever is. As you bring awareness to your heart, you may see images or colors and feel strong emotions. Thoughts, fears, or old memories may arise. Simply observe and notice what happens in your body. As you become more aware, see if your body settles more or becomes more tense. Whatever comes up, go with the flow. We are always changing, from moment to moment. If you feel your thoughts speeding up, tension building, or even a sense of becoming overwhelmed, bring your attention back to your breath. Focusing on the breath for a time can help settle your system and relax you. Continue to name what you’re noticing without getting attached to any specific thought or sensation. Just name things, like shoulder tension, sadness, peace, worry, impatience, sleepiness.

Don't Walk Away

Allow yourself to go with the moment. What is it like to look more objectively at your experience, to feel the sensations in your body, and notice what your heart center feels like? Perhaps you are beginning to get a sense of how this form of intelligence is different from thinking. Now allow an image to emerge that gives you a sense of peace. Maybe it’s walking in the mountains or on a beach, playing with your pet, or when you’re baking or reading. Whatever image comes in, allow yourself to be present with what feels good. What happens in your body? What emotions come up in your heart? Notice any images that arise and just observe what happens in your heart center when you evoke a sense of peace. Now think of a time when you felt loved. You may draw from an early childhood memory or from a more recent experience. If you believe that you haven’t felt loved, imagine what being loved would feel like. When you see this image of feeling loved, notice what happens in your heart. Does your heart feel warm, lighter, more open? Does it start to close down? What thoughts are you conscious of as you imagine being loved? Let them arise, and then let them go. Expand your awareness beyond your heart center.

Worlds Apart

What sensations are you feeling throughout your body? Which emotions are present? If your thinking mind starts to speed up, pay attention to feeling the sensations in your body. If your body feels empty, blank, or if there is a wall or source of separation, become curious about these sensations. Do you see the colors of the wall? How thick is the barrier? As you sit with it, does it change? What does it remind you of? Do any memories come up? Just notice what happens inside. If you feel stuck, notice where you feel it. Allow it to be there. What does it feel like, look like? Does paying attention to it instead of resisting it cause it to shift? Ask your heart intelligence what you can give yourself to feel unstuck. Then imagine yourself receiving it. Bring your attention back to your heart center. Can you keep your focus there? Or do you find you are constantly pulled outside of your self, wondering what others are saying or doing, thinking about work, mulling over the past or planning your day tomorrow? Maybe you observe that you don’t want to be present with the emotions in your heart. Maybe you’re not ready. As you continue to listen to your heart, it may show you what it needs from you to feel safer, more open, more loving, more accepting. These may appear as images or simply intuitive knowings. Notice how tuning in to your heart on a deep level allows you to receive messages from your inner world. When you learn to become present with your heart in this way, no matter what is happening within or without, you will learn with practice and time to feel more connected to a true source of safety, love, and support. Sometimes these will come as feelings and sensations, sometimes as the sense of the inner presence of someone who has cared for us, an Inner Nurturer. This will be a theme we will return to throughout our healing journey together, as the heart is the bedrock of the safe, loving, and supportive inner world that will allow you to be with and heal your painful wounds, find emotional balance, and, ultimately, relearn how to love. During your Heart Scan Meditations, you may become hyperaware of just how loud and insistent these harsh and critical voices may be at times, often there in the background, quick to suggest that you should or shouldn’t do this or that. Little Me was feeling angry and unappreciated.