The heart and deep rest...
On a month-long work retreat in 1989 or so, I remember being so bored with the teachings that I would drift off every evening. Each evening, week after week, I would bow over in my half-lotus, and lay my head on my arms, and rest. Until once, about three weeks in, something in me jumped up with joy as I somehow heard the teacher say the word heart...specifically this dear monk started talking about a large molecule or group of molecules near--or in or on?--the heart.
That was all. He just mentioned the heart, and I started up with joy and realized there maybe was some connection deeper in the practice. Maybe even through a method that was too dry for me, people arrived in the same juicy, deeply restful and living place. The same empowerment of and by the heart. Empowerment to live a life of freshness and freedom.
Today I share two wonderful audios with three wonderful women. Brene Brown interviews her friend Tarana Burke, founder of the "me too" movement before it was a hashtag. Burke reminds us all that, even before choosing the name "me too" back in 2006, she and her colleagues working with young women and girls had Tshirts with the words "Empowerment through Empathy." https://brenebrown.com/podcast/brene-tarana-burke-on-empathy/ And my teacher Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen shares her ongoing discovery of the healing power of a slow wave of heart and brain. Bonnie heard about someone's research on a slow wave in the brain, and when she investigated it in herself, she found a connection with her heart..specifically with the pericardium. (Funny, just recently I have been so aware of the utter sensitivity of these membranes around the physical heart.) She says tuning into this heart-brain wave has helped her during these peculiar times, including to sleep deeply, and she kindly guides us into feeling for ourselves.
"Pericardial and Brain Slow Wave Somatization with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen"
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