What’s your heart got to do with your business? Plenty.  First of all, your heart is far more than a muscle that pumps blood through your body. It has a powerful energy field all its own. Your heart is a formidable transmitter, radiating your emotions far beyond your immediate parameter. And when your thoughts and feelings are in alignment with your Inner Being, the sky is the limit in terms of what you can be, do and have. “What’s an Inner Being?” you may ask. Your Inner Being is another way of saying your Higher Self, or your soul. Your Inner Being is connected to the Universal Energy and has access to all its wisdom and resources. So when we are acting in harmony with our Inner Being, we are open to all the resources of the Universe.

Think what this can mean when you have an important decision to make in your life!  Or when you want to increase your business or you are looking for your soul mate. Sound too good to be true? Well, it’s not and I can tell you from experience, but more about that later.

In the yogic traditions, the chakras are considered energetic centers, but they are now recognized to correspond to the body’s endocrine system, with each chakra focusing on a major organ in that system.  And not surprisingly, each chakra deals with different emotional and psychological areas of an individual.

The heart chakra is considered the emotional center of the body and is related to our ability to give and receive love and compassion. When the energy around the heart chakra is clear, we are more open, loving and compassionate. When this heart energy is blocked or if there are trapped emotions, then we are less open to receiving love and may find it hard to express.

So what does this have to do with our work? Well, if you think about how important appreciation and gratitude are in allowing all the good things in life into our experience, and if you understand that these emotions really are heart-based, then you can see where having an open heart is integral to being in the flow with our clients, co-workers and all the people we come in contact with. In a world where competition seems to define being in business, this may be hard to accept – let alone aspire to.

In the classic book The Science of Getting Rich, by Wallace Wattles, he states that we are “…to get rid of the thought of competition. You are to create, not to compete for what is already created.” And just in case you’re wondering about all those folks out there who may have gotten achieved success and wealthy through less than heart-felt means, Wattles states that this occurs because they “…do so sometimes purely by their extraordinary ability on the plane of competition; and sometimes they unconsciously relate themselves to Substance [Wattle’s term for God, the Divine, Source Energy] in its great purposes and movements for the general racial upbuilding…” In other words, these folks are part of the Big Picture for humanity, laying a foundation of good for everyone – however unaware or even opposed to this idea they may be. Wattles goes on to say, “And it is well to bear in mind that they have never been really rich; a record of the private lives of most of this class will show that they have really been the most abject and wretched of the poor…Riches secured on the competitive plain are never satisfactory and permanent; they are yours today and another’s tomorrow.”

So if “beating the competition” isn’t going to get us the kind of success and happiness we want in business and in our personal lives, what will? Living and acting from the heart. This starts by clearing any stuck energy around our hearts and dealing with any trapped emotions that may be impacting us. There are many healing techniques out there that can help you do this, but by far the simplest is just to do a simple toning exercise, which I have for you here. You can also use the fr.ee Heartsound Meditation I offered in the last newsletter. Both are very effective ways for opening your heart energy up and putting you in the flow of success, abundance, and love.

One other very important element in opening up our heart energy is gratitude. I am an early riser and although I have tried to keep a gratitude journal – writing down at least 10 things I am grateful for every night – most nights, I find I can hardly string two sentences together by bedtime! So what I have started doing instead is setting a simple alarm on my watch and on my computer that has me stop for a few moments every hour and tap into that feeling of gratitude and appreciation. The experience has been wonderful! I find that most days I am now more relaxed, more open and expectant of good things in my life. And I like the idea of gratitude being part of my day throughout the day and not just at the end, too! Whatever form your gratitude practice takes, just know that gratitude and appreciation are very high vibrational states, and the more we live and work in them, the more in the flow of all the good things we desire we will be.

The idea of tithing my time and giving back to my community is very important to me. What I have experienced is that I get back far more than I give in terms of the sense of connection and the joy that comes from seeing that I, even as one person, can make a difference in another person’s life.

It may sound strange to say, but I did have some challenges finding the right venues to offer my talents at first. For whatever reason, I found that many organizations that I thought would fall all over themselves to have me work for them were somewhat cautious or even non-responsive. (smile) But around the time my mother became ill with cancer, a friend talked to me about playing music at a local hospice. I had looked into different programs that offered music in hospital settings before and they hadn’t worked out for me for different reasons, but since my friend was already volunteering at this hospice, it was much easier for me to schedule an appointment to talk to the person in charge and find out what was possible. As I was getting ready to go through the orientation process, my mother went into hospice care down in Florida. (I live in New York.) I was greatly impressed with the quality of care she received and it made spending the final days of her life with her so much easier than it might have been. I knew then that I wanted to offer music at my local hospice as a way of honoring my mother and sharing my talents in service.

I did decide to wait six months before going to my first orientation, as this was recommended by the volunteer coordinator. It is important to realize that seeing others near the end of life is bound to kick up our own issues, and so I was willing to go through my own healing process before I jumped in and volunteering. But once the six months were over, I went with a friend of mine who plays guitar to the hospice unit for the very first time. We were hooked! It may seem odd to some, but assisting patients near the end of life, their families and the staff who are caring for them can be very life affirming. We sang in the hallway of the small L-shaped unit, singing for about a half-hour on each end of the L. If people didn’t want to listen, they could close their doors and sometimes they did. We learned not to take this personally. For one thing, people can be very sensitive to sounds when they’re not feeling well. And we did play different kinds of music that probably didn’t appeal to everyone. Over time, we became very sensitive to the mood on the unit. If we could tell people on the unit were in pain or upset, we picked songs from our repertoire that were more subdued. If people seemed in need of a lift, we might do a bouncy song like “That’s Amore,” or “Brand New Key.” Patients and family members would sometimes stand in the doorways just to listen and smile appreciatively. For me and for my musical partner, these moments were worth more than thunderous applause or even a paycheck. We knew that we were touching people. And that made all the rehearsals and long train rides worth it.

One time a man was on the unit with his young son, visiting a family member. They stood in the hallway and watched us a few minutes, and in between songs they approached us and asked if they could take our picture! All we could figure was they thought we were famous. Our brief moment of fame…

On another occasion, we were asked to come into someone’s room and sing for them personally. As it happens, the gentleman had been a softball player in one of the teams that plays in Central Park. He had been on the team for a number of years and friends and team members were around him, sharing stories and laughing over old times. He loved music and so one of his friends asked us to play for him. I think one of the songs we sang was “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” That brought a smile to him and a tear to his friends. Sometimes a tear or two can be a very good thing…

The fellowship of sound is for all sentient beings. We are all vibrational beings and all of us make sounds that are audible to our fellow creatures, as well as those sounds that are heard not with the ears but on more subtle levels.

We are moving toward a higher vibration as we approach 2012. We are at choice as to whether we consciously want to create in the sound field or not. When we consciously create in the sound field, we affect not only our own vibration but that of everything in the field. The more powerful our intentions are, the greater the effect we will see on our environment. We have tremendous power to facilitate change in our world. There are three keys to consciously using sound to affect change in our world.

1. The first key is Consciousness. We must be actively seeking to raise our consciousness. This is done through spiritual practice and seeking to activate that practice by how we are pursuing our daily life. Not sure what I mean by spiritual practice or how to start one? There’s help available! Contact me for a F R E E “Get Your Mojo Back Session” by going here.
2. The second key is Intention. We must seek to create intentions that are increasingly Universal in nature. By being more inclusive and looking out for the Highest Good of all, we will provide a foundation that is broader and more powerful.
3. The third and final key is Specificity. We must create intentions that address as many specifics as we can hold in awareness, while also continuously seeking the greater good of all.

By working with these three keys on a regular basis, we will not only be improving our individual lives, but we will be tapping into Source energy and adding our powerful life force to those of others who share our values. In this way, we are helping Mother Earth and all sentient beings, which is especially important at this time of global transition.