Heart that’s pounding…
Sally Seltmann sings of ‘…having a shot at the best day of
her life’, before it is prematurely ripped from her hands. We all have a shot,
in every moment, at the best days of our lives and all too often it is us that
prematurely rip them away.
What’s love got to do with it? Nothing and everything. We
need love to exist, to have a reason for being and to feel good. And with the
bitter, there is the sweet. As the weather gets warmer, I am reminded of the
energy of the heart. It gets broken once open, leaving it vulnerable and
exposed. So why do we go there time and time again?
In terms of dreamers, we are a bunch of them. ‘To sleep,
perchance to dream’ says Will Shakespeare. We all need a heart, even though it
can be broken – because it’s a two edged sword. The flipside of love is fear;
we can’t have one without the other. Are we vulnerable enough to live within
this dichotomy? Essentially vulnerability is all there is – it takes great risk
in order for great reward to happen. One of my favourite yoga teachers started one
of her courses with the following suggestion: ‘allow your heart to break every
day’. And there is a beauty in that, in allowing yourself to fall in love with
the smallest things; such as the magic and fragility of a butterfly taking
flight. It cares not for who it may run into along the way; it just does its
thing.
And the more we do our thing, the more we grow and experience
life. ‘Feeling the love’ is about facing fear on all levels. I was super scared
of an ‘it’s a knockout’ (apologies if you didn’t grow up in the eighties) type
pool party ride. I’d almost made it back to my car, but then in a heartbeat I
pulled out my bikini and a makeshift towel and made for the pool. Thinking of
that butterfly I mentioned earlier, I ran for it and yes – stacked it magnificently
along the way. And what did I fall into? A beautiful refreshing swimming pool –
cue me smiling stupidly as I drove to see a friend for dessert. The fear
picture in our heads is always a gazillion times worse than the experience in
reality.
And the truth is that we are never alone and the truest
truth is that we must love ourselves and grant ourselves the gift of wholeness,
in order to have space for others. I had to take this pool party challenge for
myself, bikini self-consciousness coupled with fear of falling still didn’t
stand in my way. The energetic properties of the heart are communication and
strength. Being strong in your own will to say what you need, to listen to your
gut – even if it may mean risking rejection.
So, in the words of Roxette, ‘listen to your heart when he’s
calling for you’. Many people will cross our path and we all have our crosses
to bear, but allow your load to lighten by taking the risk of allowing your
heart to break. And in the process, you may just have more than one shot at
many ‘best days’ in life.
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