With heart centred practice, we’re working on qualities like compassion, acceptance, forgiveness, gratitude, and love for ourselves and others. In the same way we can improve our concentration and awareness, we can intentionally cultivate these aspects of the heart and mind.

How we see ourselves and other people, or how we interpret situations is directly related to how we’re feeling inside. By continually working with our heart and cultivating states like acceptance and gratitude, they begin to seep into our daily life. Gradually the things that used to bother us are no longer a problem because they’re seen from a more open place, one that’s grounded in the heart rather than in the stories in our mind.

The effects go beyond external circumstances as well. Within most forms of internal work, it’s common for difficult memories or emotions to surface. If we’ve spent time developing these positive mental qualities, we can let these things show up without as much resistance, allowing us to see it from a different vantage point and begin to work with it in a more constructive way. This can be profoundly healing as we slowly learn to let go of these old patterns and tension that we’ve been unconsciously holding on to for years.