Smile To Your Heart Meditations - Simple Heart Meditation To Achieve True Happiness

The word 'Heart' here refers to our non-physical heart, which is the centre of our feelings. It is located around the centre of your chest, between your underarms. It is different from your Heart (Anahata) chakra, although in the physical body layer it is located around the same spot.

At first I didn't even know that I have this "Heart". Of course I've heard people saying "Listen to your heart", "Follow your heart" etc. but I just took it for granted, those are just sayings. Of course your heart can't speak! I was wrong.

After doing some advances heart practices I was able to start to recognize the "voice" of my heart. It is not like a whisper or a thought (trust me, that's not from your heart - you won't be hearing or seeing things - well, you shouldn't anyway), it is more like a feeling. You'll know it when you come to it.

First, you must learn to recognize and open your heart.

Heart Meditation emphasizes on the use of the heart in meditations instead of visualisations, mantras, chants, concentrations, observations or other products of the mind.

Heart Meditation is very simple and enjoyable to do. It normally doesn't take long before one feels the benefits of doing Heart Meditation.

The benefits of doing Heart Meditation are many. The ones that I personally have experienced are:
- feeling of peace and calmness from within (I could feel it even when I'm in a crowd or in a very noisy place)
- feeling of love and feeling loved
- reduced negativities (thoughts, emotions, etc.) - I just don't get angry so often anymore.
- feel a connection with the Divine Source, praying and meditating becomes enjoyable.
- feel lighter and freer, like anything is possible (well, almost anything anyway - you know what I mean)

Image used by courtesy of Budi Sukmana

All our lives, we've always been taught and told to use our brains. While of course it is important to use our brains, this has made our brains much stronger than our hearts. This, sometimes, or most of the times for some people, means the hearts are taking the back-seat.

Because some of us might not be familiar with our own hearts, it is important to first recognize the times when you are using your heart vs the times when you are using your brain. (note: I don't suggest that if we do Heart meditation and the heart is stronger than the brain then we will be incapable to think properly. It's normally the opposite that's happening. When we use our hearts properly, we should be able to use our brains better too. )

Try this simple exercise to recognise your heart (it is best to do it when you know you won't be interrupted while doing it):

1. 345.6 x 265.8 = ? (No cheating please.....you're not allowed to use your calculator)
The important point here is to recognize which part of you is working. Can you feel your brain thinking/heavier on the head/forehead area?

2. Remember the times when you are happy (you don't have to remember exactly what happens, the details etc, it's the 'happy' feeling that matters). Where do you feel it? Many people can feel something warm around the chest area.

Don't worry if you can't recognize the difference at one go. You can repeat the steps as many times as you want until you can feel the difference. Just stay relax and you should be able to feel. Even if you don't, you can continue and try this Heart Meditation yourself. I've provided you with some simple steps to guide (below).

Enough with the hustle-bustle, now let's get down to business. So, you've decided you want to try this Heart Meditation and see it for yourself.
Allow me to guide you with the following simple steps:

1. Find yourself a nice quiet place, or just make sure you won't get interrupted in the next few minutes or so.

2. Now sit and relax, with your back as straight as possible without tensing yourself.

3. Put one palm facing upward on your lap, and the other touching your heart (on the centre of your chest between your underarms - note: you can touch your heart with your palm or just a few fingers)

4. Close your eyes and just intend to smile to your heart. Do not think how to do it. Just intend to do so.

Some people can feel something on the first go, some people need a few tries before they feel anything. That's normal. When they do feel something, the feeling varies. That's normal too. The key here is to just relax :) ..... and try again!

Once you feel something (normally people would say the feeling is like warm or something expanding from the heart area), it is important not to focus on it, or try to feel more. Just keep relaxing and enjoy the feeling.

Of course it is a good idea to pick a quiet place and time where you can relax more. When you can feel more, you would want to have more time to enjoy it longer.

You see that Heart Meditations doesn't take long at all. That means you can do it even if you only have a minute or two. You can even do it while you're stuck in traffic, or waiting in line for something, or even in a boring meeting or seminar (just don't tell your boss). Technically speaking you can do this Heart Meditation almost any time anywhere.

That is of course just a little taste of what the Heart Meditation has to offer.

Image used by courtesy of Iman Samsudin

OK, so now you know the difference between the heart and the brain, you can feel the nice feeling from the heart. You want to know more, feel more. What's next?

You might want to try Open Heart Prayer/Meditation. You might want to do some strengthening of the heart, and other more advanced heart practices.

You can find all these, plus more detailed explanation about the heart and feelings in Smile to your heart meditations book.

Try clicking the Amazon link in this page. You can read a few pages of the book then decide whether to buy it.

If you think reading a book is so boring and you just want to get into action, then there are Open Heart workshops available all over the world.

By joining the workshops you get to meet your heart instructor in person. You can ask questions, be guided, and get the support you need to go even further.

I've provided some links (below) so you can contact the coordinator in your area for Open Heart workshops schedule, some even offers free Introduction to Heart Meditation sessions.

There are also online meditation sessions that you can join so you can meditate with hearts from all over the world!

Hundreds of thousands of people around the globe have joined and have been feeling the benefits of this Heart Meditations. You can, too. Start now.....you are meant to be happy :)

Image used by courtesy of Lutfi Reed

Irmansyah ("Irman") Effendi, M.Sc., has been teaching about the heart for more than a decade, helping hundreds of thousands of people through his workshops, healing clinics, nonprofits, and business training programs. Beginning his career in computer science - earning a master's degree in artificial intelligence at age 21 - Irman began to realize about the beauty and meaning of the heart through intensive spiritual practice and study. Since 1998, he has devoted his life to helping people all around the world open and enjoy using their hearts, and has written more than twelve books on the subjects. (This is his first major English-language release).