Heart wide open

It's hard not to notice all the big red hearts, flowers and chocolates this time of year. For the spiritual seeker, Valentine’s Day is a beautiful reminder that we are here to live with an open heart.

My shaman mentors from the high Andes in Peru have a word for this Open Heart… they call it Munay, and it is one of their core foundation principles.

Munay means living your life in unconditional love, with your heart wide open – for yourself and for ALL your relationships.

One of my current teachers says, “All of life is relationships.” It’s one of his primary teachings. He goes on to say that if your original relationships (mother and father) are “not set right” – meaning you get caught in old story or emotions – then your life will be full of blocks or obstacles. If you don’t set right those original relationships, then ALL of your relationships will be affected.

Back when I was seeing my therapist to work through a past trauma, she would listen to my story… and then say, “Thanks for all the sharing. Now let's go back into your family." Yup, original relationships in therapy too.

For the shaman, we know that you can also absorb past events and traumas that happened in your family line years ago, and these too can stop you from keeping your heart open.

You can think about it this way: When you very young, your brain wave was set at alpha, the dream state. You were like a sponge… absorbing all of life’s experiences. Those original relationships are where you learned, as the Buddhist say, to either cling to something you wanted, or to push away something that you didn’t.

But energetically, what you push away and what you cling too can both become a blocks or obstacles to keeping an open heart.

Such gratitude to Valentines Day and its beautiful heart-felt reminder to come into even deeper and deeper Munay.

A quick shaman’s way…. As you notice what you’ve pushed away (events, emotions), allow yourself to experience them in your body. Then blow them into something special. (This may be a good healthy use of the box of chocolate:)

The key is to let them surface…without going to blame of self or other. No judgement or head chatter. Just allow it to come up and blow it into a sacred object.

Put everything into an altar – a special honoring place. You can even add a candle or flowers or hearts. Then call on spirit and surrender, allowing them to flow through.

Be willing to go back to that childlike dream state and open your heart.

You can also plant the seeds of the kind of love you want with the new moon today… seeds of laughter, joy, gratitude, and awe.

Let the altar work, surrendering to spirit.