Guest Post by Cyndi Briggs: Living the Heart’s Desire

by atmara | Aug 2, 2010 | Inspiration, Spiritual Awakening

Today we have a guest post from Cyndi Briggs, http://drcyndibriggs.com/.  Cyndi writes  The Sophia Project, a blog for inspired and inspiring women. I highly recommend it. Here is her take on Living the Heart’s Desire:

The summer I was nine years old, I became obsessed with performing gymnastics on the red, white, and blue metal jungle gym my parents erected in our small suburban backyard. I would spend hours hanging upside down by my knees from the rusty trapeze bar or trying to balance with arms outstretched between the white plastic rings.

When I was done with my workout, I’d rest, sweaty and fatigued on the top of the monkey bars and watch the setting sun disappear behind the hulking black shadow of the Blue Ridge mountains.

My heart swelled in my chest like a great balloon as the blaze orange faded to red then indigo then black. Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes, and I felt singularly confused by the intensity of my own emotions.

Those late summer sunsets continue to define for me the meaning of “living the heart’s desire”. What I couldn’t put my finger on then I understand now – my deep yearning to follow that setting sun westward, to have great adventures, to always feel the magic of a setting sun even on the cloudiest of days.

As children, we exist as open conduits for intense emotion: joy and pain, anger and heartbreak, glee and exhaustion. The spectrum of emotions is as accessible to children as air, the eternity of a summer day a continual progression from one sensation to the next.

Somewhere in young adulthood most of us learned the heartbreaking and tragically misguided lesson that logic subjugates feelings, that we must do what is reasonable and right, rather than what feels good. As children, we observed the hallmark of adulthood as this kind of linear thinking. I remember weeping at age 13, tragically grieving the loss of my childhood freedom.

It remains a mystery to me why we as free adults continue to believe the lie that our lives are meant to be a slow progression of obligations and tedium until the grave. Nowhere is this demonstrated more clearly than on social media outlets on Monday morning: the status updates lamenting the return to drudgery for another week of soulless living is enough to make the angels weep for us.

Life does not have to resemble a to do list. I say this not as a hopeful romantic, but as one who lives it. I also say this as a counselor with 14 years of experience working with people who perceive themselves as sick and broken.

At no time in history have we needed more desperately to return to our heart’s desire, to reunite with our emotional and intuitive selves. What your heart most desires for you is what you’re meant to do with your life.

Here’s what I know above all other things: you were brought to this earth at this point in time with the singular purpose of living your higher truth. Your story, your experiences, and your perspectives are entirely unique and entirely your own.

So what you yearn for, what fills your eyes with tears with tragic and enormous love, what fills your imagination with delight, what haunts your dreams – THAT is what you are here to do with your life.

Be forewarned, however. Emotions are not logical. Your heart is wise beyond your knowing, and if you choose to follow its guidance (and I hope you do), you’ll find yourself in places you never expected, meeting people you never imagined and becoming the very best version of yourself in unanticipated ways.

In 2003, after years of subtle guidance and meditation, I finally succumbed my heart’s mysterious desire to move to Oregon to obtain my doctorate. Three years in that magical place surrounded by strong and inspiring women changed my life radically. In Oregon I became a writer and a teacher. Most importantly, I became the person I most wanted to be when I was nine years old, crying at the sunset, sitting on a jungle gym in the mountains of Virginia.

Just before I moved to Oregon, I found an almanac of Oregon facts. I learned that the state motto is “She flies with her own wings.”

Miraculously, after reading that, my head became entirely aligned with my wise heart, which knew all along what I most needed.

So I challenge you today to pause in your busy life and listen to your quiet, persistent beating heart. What is it calling you to do? What is your heart most yearning for? What does it tell you about your needs and desires in the middle of a pretty good life?

And today, trust that you are your heart’s beloved, and it wishes nothing but happiness for you.

And peace to you on your journey.