Speak from a Happy Heart in Troubled Times
Stop giving ’til it hurts & find the exquisite balance of giving & receiving
This quote from Eleanor Roosevelt embodies the spirit of Transformational Speaking.
“The giving of love is an education in itself.”
Yet while we want to express that high vibration of Love, receiving it is just as important for our own balance. So . . . what if we could also experience speaking as an act of receiving Love?
For a simple practice of how good that feels, watch this 4-minute video from Master Mingtong Gu on “How to Give and Receive Energy.”
Here’s how I discovered Mingtong. Last winter I hit the wall. I’m what’s called an HSP (highly sensitive person), or an intuitive empath. That means I take in a lot from other people, newscasts, and noisy environments that compromise my energy. Add to that a computer crash and the critical health challenges of people I love, and I have been running on empty. As a speaker and teacher, I need to be filled up to be able to be fully present for my amazing groups. Yet here I was, drained and dry. Thinking a winter in San Miguel de Allende in central Mexico would restore me, I arrived to an inhospitable rental where privacy was only a fleeting thought and I was getting more stressed by the day.
My return after five weeks from what was to be a three-month sabbatical was pure providence. I heard there was a new teacher in Santa Fe, Master Mington Gu from China, who had purchased a beautiful property (a former spa) to bring Wisdom Healing Qigong to the world. My sister had met Mingtong at Omega Institute last year and assured me he was the real deal so I went for a day’s program. It cost under $100 and I told myself I could leave at any time, because when I’m stressed I don’t want to sit through one more damn thing that feels like work. The next day I knew I would be going for a residential week. And here’s why.
First, of all I was in the presence of a teacher who held the highest vibration of joy I’ve ever experienced. That’s Love. That’s healing. And what he explained was that each time we experience stress or a hit of bad news, our bodies constrict. Over time that constriction causes disease. Through a very precise practice of movement, sound, and meditation, that constriction loosens its grip and we are able to heal. Mingtong had healed from asthma, which I’ve had since a big loss 25 years ago, and I was compelled to see what was possible.
So, I spent a week at The Chi Center with 45 other brave souls, meeting the hidden, resistant places in my body that had something to say and ultimately releasing, releasing, releasing . . . tears without a story attached, followed by anger so profound I had to go outside into the wild gail-force winds and let ‘er rip. Damn that felt good! So good I went back for a second week and left with a lighter heart and feeling of possibility that had lain dormant for a very long time. My asthma symptoms have lessened by at least half.
“You don’t need a new teacher. It’s time to embody what you already know.”
That’s the message I received last year when I asked for inner guidance about finding a new teacher.
Might that be wise counsel for all of us who are seekers? It’s such a paradox. As speakers we give out, as seekers we take in . . . and in . . . and in. But to walk our talk takes integration and embodiment of wisdom, not more information.
I now have a practice that supports embodiment. I begin most days with Wisdom Healing Qigong. Other days life intervenes and I feel the difference. Master Mingtong radiates the loving heart he teaches and that in itself changes the world. He exemplifies the 540 vibration of joy I talk about as true power in my book Transformational Speaking (see pages 144-146). I want what he’s having!
Is it possible that happiness is in pursuit of us when we turn within to find it? I hope so. Serving from a Happy Heart and Inner Smile allow us to not only express love but also to let it in.
Haola! That means: All is well and getting better!
“Ever since Happiness heard your name,
It has been running through the streets
Trying to find you.” – Hafiz