Tara Brach

Maybe thoughts about what's wrong with the other or what needs to be different, what should be different.

And some should is usually a great flag that we're caught in the head.

And just notice how the thoughts and stories tend to reinforce separation, no matter how right they seem.

They in some way reinforce separation, they're a kind of protective armory.

And then you might gently shift your attention from your head to your heart.

It helps to bring a slight smile to the lips and to allow that sense of a smile to kind of spread through your heart.

And you feel the breath at the heart.

Invite the goodness and love in this world just to bathe and fill and open your heart.

You can do that.

Imagine and feel into the heart space as warm and tender and spacious, filled with light.

And then bring the person into your heart space.

And just notice what happens.

Some might find that where the thoughts create separation, in the heart you can feel a different quality, more of a felt sense of aliveness, of openness, co-mingling, communion.

So you're resting in a more expanded field of being, more embodied, awake, tender.

So just sensing what unfolds for you in your own being when you experience this person, not from your thoughts, but from your heart.

Okay, thank you.

Your eyes are closed, open them, and here we are again together.

Well, first of all, thank you for the question, because it's not always so simple.

There's a reason we armor our heart, and it's because of fear.

I mean, our deepest longing is to feel connected and belonging, and our deepest fear is to feel rejected, humiliated, pushed away.