Tara Brach

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.

So we're armored because we're protecting ourselves.

And

I'd say a huge part of the courage on the bodhisattva path is this willingness to feel the armoring and deepen our presence to the armoring.

I often will say, you know, what are you trying to do for me?

And it's to protect me from being hurt.

and then to be able to keep bringing attention to the fear that's trying to protect.

And that itself is kind of a life training.

And we can only do it at the pace we can do it because some of us have been wounded more deeply, there's trauma, and we have to go really, really slowly.

And because there's what's called the window of tolerance, how much we can be with the fear.