Six Heart Virtues

The reason we have a physical existence, it seems to me, is to bring intention into form: to act.  Beautiful thoughts are only a start, a spark in the dark, until we create something from them.

In 2011 I am going to be thinking about the six heart virtues, reflecting on their meanings for me personally, and aiming to bring them into form through my everyday actions. 

This, I believe, is the purpose we all share, over and above any specific and unique life purpose.

The six heart virtues as described by James of the Wingmakers are:

• compassion
• forgiveness
• humility
• valour
• understanding
• appreciation

Here's to a splendid, sparkling 2011.  I see you, you shining light, and you are magnificent.

Shine on.

I am a Woman Healing Myself

This is an excerpt from "I am a Woman Finding My Voice", my new favourite beautiful book, by Janet F Quinn. Each short section tackles an area of life like "Believing in Myself" or "Allowing Others to Be Right" or "Having a Daring Adventure". The language is gorgeous, urging self-acceptance while motivating gentle self-improvement.


Janet writes:

The word heal comes from the Anglo-Saxon haelan, which means to be or to become whole. To be a woman healing myself is to be a woman becoming whole; giving myself the time and the space I need for the journey. No one grows up without wounds - emotional wounds; spiritual wounds; psychological wounds. I may want to forget how I have been hurt, bury it and just move on, but sometimes my wounds keep me from becoming all that I want to be, and so I need to pay attention to them. 
[…] 
Healing is discovering all the secret places inside of me, especially the ones I feel ashamed of or frightened by, and befriending them. Healing is the process I am engaged in and not a specific outcome. I fill my life with people and things that nourish and feed me and I try to avoid anything that is not healing for me and anyone who does violence to my unfolding. I do not know what the outcome of this process will be, what my healing will look like, or feel like, even to myself, because healing is always creative. Yet I have come to trust that, no matter what it looks like, feels like, or sounds like, no matter how long it is taking, or how foreign the territory, I am a woman healing myself. 

Janet F Quinn

I came across Janet Quinn on the Shift In Action website, a treasure house of interviews with fascinating individuals. You can listen online or download the recording, or read the transcript. "The Way of the Healer: You are the medicine and you are enough" is a great introduction to Janet's philosophy and wealth of practical experience.

She also has a website: Haelan Works

and her book is available from Amazon

in the UK: I Am a Woman Finding My Voice: Celebrating the Extraordinary Blessings of Being a Woman

and in the US via Janet's website.

Inspirational women

I have spent a wonderfully cloistered summer in my little flat, listening to some incredibly inspiring women.  I am profoundly grateful to Katherine Woodward Thomas and Claire Zammit for their Women on the Edge of Evolution teleseminar series.

Katherine Woodward Thomas

Claire Zammit

They're based in the US but people can dial in from anywhere in the world, or download the recorded conversations afterwards.  That's what I do, as I live in the UK.  I listen to them when I'm driving, or washing up, or when I just want to make myself relax for a while.

Two favourite new heroines for me are Diane Hamilton, who expresses a delicious feminine strength and loving acceptance, and Barbara Marx Hubbard, a leading light on conscious evolution with a fabulous sense of humour and extraordinary vitality at eighty.

Diane Hamilton

Barbara Marx Hubbard

There are many, many more marvellous women in conversation with Katherine and Claire.  By sharing their stories with us, they're demonstrating that we can all step into a new way of being.  Rather than feeling trapped, frustrated and helpless, by nurturing ourselves first and then operating from a position of inner strength, we can begin a joyful engagement with our modern problems.  They're demonstrating just how much demand there is now for feminine strength, feminine ways of thinking, even nurturing ways of doing business.  They're demonstrating that by stepping into her beautiful individuality, a woman is capable of incredible things. They're saying: "I am you.  Any of us can do this.  Start with a new kind of special care for yourself."  I feel very much more optimistic about the next few years for people and planet since I've been listening to these dialogues.

They're also saying: "We are the ones we've been waiting for."  That's exciting!

Women on the Edge of Evolution is easy to register for and it's totally free.

Win, win, win scenario

I love the notion that we could foil the plans of Big Pharma to keep us all dependent on drugs - by taking control of our health, individually, from the inside.  Let's do it.  It seems to me that many “miracle” recovery stories are beautiful examples of how the power of belief works.



A few weeks ago I went to a talk by a defector from Big Pharma who now writes and talks about a very different route to well-being: Dr David Hamilton.  He became more interested in the placebo effect than the effects of the pharmaceuticals, which is great for us, because from him we get to hear both sides of the story.

Dr David Hamilton

Although he has certainly talked about the role of belief in self-healing, this particular talk was about the power of love and kindness; not as you might expect, about the good this does in the world, but about the amazing health benefits for the giver.



Wo! I'm glad to say, he made it quite clear he wasn't advocating kindness for selfish reasons, but he did want us to appreciate just how well adapted our bodies are for it.  When we are showing love or compassion all kinds of fabulous natural healing processes kick in.  We aren't just happier, we are physically healthier too.



When you hug someone, or even if you just pause to help a stranger pick up some things they dropped, you get a rush of the hormone oxytocin into your system.  This hormone has been shown to improve people's responses to others.  People tend to be more generous, more trusting, find it easier to connect with others and like people more when their system is flooded with oxytocin.  (Apparently, it is not unheard of for business people to spray a room with an oxytocin substitute just before potential clients enter, in the hope of closing that crucial deal.  Shocking behaviour, but that's the profit-driven world for you.  I suppose at least everyone would be happy – until it wore off!)



The splendid point is, the more you practice compassion, the more disposed to showing compassion you become, in a beautiful ever-expanding spiral.  (This news makes a welcome change from downward, ever-tightening spirals.)  This leads to an expansion in the area of the brain disposed to compassion.  And more oxytocin, a powerful anti-oxidant, which means that it's good for our bodies in myriad ways.  It expands the arteries, reducing blood pressure.  It reduces inflammation, decreasing the risk of heart disease and colon cancer, and the effects of ageing.



David also talked about stimulation of the vagus nerve and its role in reducing inflammation in the body.  Inflammation is the number one cause of ageing, which is linked to deteriorating health, so anything we can do to hold it at bay is a good thing. He taught us a simple version of the Buddhist 'loving-kindness” meditation.  He reckons meditation impacts on 1,500 genes, turning off inflammation triggers.  And counting your blessings also improves your health – keeping a gratitude diary for just 3 weeks improved the health of participants in a study.  People would pay a lot of money for any drug (or dietary supplement, for that matter) which brought health improvements that rapidly – this is free!



Just before the halfway break, he got us all to stand up and hug the person next to us.  I had come alone, and so had a woman just in front of me, so we hugged each other.  It was lovely, it definitely felt good, there was a momentary connection.



David, who trained as an organic chemist, made his explanations clear and simple without talking down to the audience.  I particularly enjoyed the way he dotted his talk with illustrative stories about real people and real situations, often with a smile and a joke.  He wasn't afraid to repeat important points.  I should add, he has the most gorgeous Scottish accent.  His voice carried well to the back of the room, but still, somehow, he maintained a conversational style.  He was great to listen to, great to watch.  And very inspirational.



So let's take control of our health from the inside.  Starting with kindness to ourselves.  Then our loved ones.  Acquaintances.  Strangers.  Let's set great waves of kindness and compassion rippling out into the world.  Why hold back?  It's a win, win, win scenario.