Thursday, August 21, 2014

Heartbreak - the great illusion

I've come to understand that heartbreak truly is a gift.

Without this feeling of pain, there's nothing to rise above.  Without this type of suffering, you can't experience the depths of your heart.

Blessed are the ones who dare to love enough to feel that kind of pain.

Heartbreak can be the best teacher we have.  If we open to it's gifts, it can show us how to become our own best friend, to heal the parts of ourselves that are still wounded and living in fear.

It truly is an opportunity to let more light and love in then before. It is a catalyst for great growth and transformation.  If you allow it, it can bring you a freedom you have never felt before.

Heartbreak, therefore, is an illusion.  Our heart is not broken, or we wouldn't be alive. It's just that the walls around our heart are coming up, and those walls are what make us ache.  If we can let those walls shatter and dissolve, that's when our heart softens and thus shines the radiant beauty of an open heart.

If we don't, then the ache remains.

That deep burning sensation in our heart during a "heartbreak" is our fear coming to the surface.  It is the anger, rejection, resentment, grief, jealousy, fear of being alone, fear of death...all of those deep feelings coming up for us to feel and move through.

When we do, resurrection is ours.

It takes bravery and courage to walk through it and feel it all...and eventually, let it go.  It takes constant vigilance not to escape by turning to a drink or food or any other vice that keeps you from feeling it. Those that stay present to the feelings are the ones who are set free.

And we all experience heartbreak.  It wears many faces; a break-up, loss of a loved one, a major disappointment, a traumatic life event, etc.  It is anything that challenges to break our spirit and block our beautiful hearts from love.

But in the end, heartbreak shows us who we really are and what we are truly capable of, if we let it.

 And if we do, we'll watch in awe as "the flowers begin to rise through the ashes."


 ****afterthought*****

After all of this pondering, I came to see that perhaps the word heartbreak needs to be re-defined.

Instead of it being a word that makes us feel broken, it can be a word that makes us feel like we are on the verge of something amazing. That the actual "break" is in the breaking down of the walls that try to protect our heart, not something external trying to break us down.

I say amen to that!