Your Challenges Will Burst Your Heart Open

A while back I took quite a fall coming down my front stairs. My feet just sailed right out from under me, and I fell hard on my wrist and hip, as well as deeply wrenching my knee. Even my ribs hurt. Where did my mind go when this happened? Immediately it was feeling sorry for itself. Then it went into fear mode as it asked, “Who is going to water my garden every day and take care of my house?” In a few minutes, I was able to relate to what the mind was saying and bring its struggles into my heart. I was also able to go toward the pain in my body, giving it the spacious attention it needed to begin to heal. Slowly and surely, I started to feel better because I was responding to what I was experiencing rather than reacting to it. 

Later in the day while reflecting on my fall, I recalled how tight my body became immediately afterward, and I remembered how spacious I was when I was very young. You too were once wide open and truly alive, but as you grew up, you got tighter and tighter, holding onto your breath and resisting life. The fall amplified this tightness we all carry around and it gave me an opportunity to invite it to relax and open to exactly what life was offering me.  

A friend sent me a wonderful quote by Andrew Harvey about the heart, which was absolutely perfect and was what I needed to hear that day.  

“If you’re really listening, if you’re awake to the poignant beauty of the world, your heart breaks regularly. In fact, your heart is made to break; its purpose is to burst open again and again so that it can hold evermore wonders.”  

Isn’t that exquisite? Andrew is saying that you can trust the challenges in your life because all of them, including relationships, finances, compulsions, difficult people, and even a fall down the stairs, will burst your heart open over and over again so that you can be fully here for life.   

Meeting your challenges with an open heart is not about sitting and doing nothing. As a result of the fall, I decided to put non-skid strips on my stairs. One fall is enough, and I certainly don’t want this to happen to someone else. So, yes, look at what life is asking to be done differently when a challenge shows up. But also turn your attention toward yourself. Meet whatever you are experiencing and know that you can trust your challenges as they are bringing you back home to your heart.