From Mindfulness to Heartfulness
Cultivating Elevated States through 'I-Feel'-Proficiency
Mindfulness begins with the question: What do I feel? It’s a practice of objective sensory awareness (OSA), a way to reconnect with the present moment through the body’s sensations. Heartfulness, in contrast, asks: What elevated states can I cultivate?
Heartfulness doesn’t replace mindfulness—it builds upon it. It invites us to intentionally summon and embody emotions like love, gratitude, and inspiration, which are often associated with profound mental and physical health benefits. But this process is not immediate or effortless. The key lies in a hormetic approach: starting small with accessible, manageable moments of elevated emotions and gradually building capacity over time.
In this article, we’ll explore how to use “I-Feel”-Proficiency to develop heartfulness as a skill and how therapists can guide both themselves and their clients toward this enriching practice.
The Hormetic Approach to Heartfulness
Cultivating elevated states requires intention and practice. It’s not as simple as “just feel grateful” or “summon love.” For many, accessing these emotions can feel distant or even impossible at first.
This is where the hormetic principle comes in: by starting small, with accessible moments of elevated emotion, we create a pathway for gradual growth. Much like mindfulness begins with noticing the body’s sensations, heartfulness begins with identifying small, genuine experiences of positive emotion that feel natural and unforced.
Accessible Practices to Begin Heartfulness
Here’s how to introduce heartfulness in a manageable and effective way:
Start Small:
Recall a simple, tangible experience that brought you joy, love, or gratitude. For example:
The warmth of sunlight on your face.
A kind word from a friend.
A small moment of connection with a pet.
Ask yourself: What does that feeling feel like in my body?
Observe the Sensation:
Notice specific physical sensations: warmth in the chest, expansion in the shoulders, tingling in the hands.
Stay with these sensations for a moment, observing without judgment.
Repeat and Expand:
Gradually practice with more complex or layered emotions. For instance, shift from the warmth of sunlight to the gratitude you feel for a loved one.
Allow the sensations to grow or evolve naturally.
Track Your Growth:
Journaling or reflecting on your experiences can help you notice progress, even in subtle ways.
This iterative process ensures that heartfulness remains accessible, allowing you to build your capacity for elevated states over time.
The Role of the Trainer or Practitioner
As trainers or practitioners, your role is to create an environment where individuals feel supported in their exploration of heartfulness. This involves:
Providing Guidance: Offering clear, simple practices that meet people where they are.
Encouraging Progress: Highlighting small wins and helping individuals notice even subtle shifts in their capacity for elevated states.
Fostering Patience: Reinforcing that heartfulness is a skill developed over time, not an immediate outcome.
Your presence, whether through proximity or touch, also serves as a model for heartfulness. Elevated states like love and gratitude can have a contagious effect, creating a ripple of healing and connection.
The Science of Elevated Emotions
Heartfulness isn’t just a pleasant practice—it’s deeply rooted in science. Research from institutions like the HeartMath Institute shows that elevated emotions promote coherence in the heart’s rhythms, which is linked to improved physical and mental health.
When we intentionally cultivate emotions like gratitude or love, the body shifts into a state of ease and restoration. This state, often referred to as ventral-vagal activation, supports healing and resilience.
Through a hormetic approach, we can train the body to access these states more readily, just as we train it to process challenging sensations through mindfulness.
Practical Applications for Therapists and Clients
Heartfulness is both a personal and professional tool. Here’s how it can be applied:
For Yourself:
Begin your day by practicing gratitude for a small moment or person in your life.
Before a session, connect with a feeling of love or appreciation and notice how it feels in your body.
For Your Clients:
Use your presence and touch to transmit elevated states.
Introduce simple heartfulness exercises:
What’s one thing you feel grateful for? Where do you feel that in your body?
As a Shared Practice:
Model patience and curiosity, encouraging clients to explore their own emotional landscapes at their own pace.
The Bliss-Trauma Spectrum in Heartfulness
The bliss-trauma spectrum reminds us that automatic responses to positive emotions, like joy and inspiration, arise from the same subconscious processes as those tied to trauma.
Heartfulness taps into this spectrum by cultivating automatic, subconscious reactions to uplifting experiences. This means we can train the body to access elevated states as naturally as it reacts to challenging ones, creating balance across the emotional spectrum.
Conclusion: Heartfulness as a Journey
Heartfulness is the next step in the journey that begins with mindfulness. By cultivating elevated states through a hormetic approach, we build resilience, foster healing, and deepen our capacity for connection.
For massage therapists and bodyworkers, heartfulness is a skill that not only enhances personal well-being but also enriches the healing environment you create for clients. It reminds us that the most profound transformations often begin with small, deliberate steps.
Your heart holds a power that is both personal and shared. Are you ready to take the first step?