Table of Contents
Introduction xi
Some Notes and Suggestions Before Moving Ahead xix
Part 1 Loving Ownership
1 An Introduction to the Heart 3
2 Mind, Meet Heart 6
Practice: Mind, Meet Heart 11
3 Waking to Grace 14
Practice: Leaning into Grace 21
4 Retrieval of Our Sensitivity 25
Practice: Seed of Sensitive Softness 32
5 Retrieval of Our Feeling Body 36
6 How to Retrieve Feeling 39
Practice: You Are Allowed 41
7 Give Name 43
Practice: Free the Feeling 49
8 Retrieval of Personal Permission 51
Practice: I Give Myself Permission 55
9 Retrieval of Our Body of Light 58
Practice: From Shadow to Light 66
10 Retrieval of Shameless Vulnerability 68
Practice: The Heart Without a Wall 70
11 Soul-itude 73
Practice: Sitting and Staying 83
12 Cultivate Love of the Self 87
Practice: The Breath of Love 91
Part 2 Deep Tissue Massage of the Spirit
13 The Sleepy Undertow 95
14 Comfort When Numb 98
Practice: Finding Your Heart at Your Edge 102
15 Comfort for Deep Suffering 104
Practice: Calling on Fierce 108
18 Your Pain Is Valid 111
Practice: Calling on Grace and Kindness 112
17 Tenderizing Pain 114
Practice: Pain as a Portal to the Divine 115
18 Commitment to What Is Good 117
Practice: Voting for the Heart 118
Part 5 Heart-Minded Intimacy
19 Letting Go of Conditional Love 123
20 There Are No Wrong Choices 131
Practice: Seed of Wholeness 135
21 When We Harm Instead of Love 138
Practice: A Prayer for Growth 140
Part 4 The Heart Outside Its Cage
22 The Awakening: A Poem about Heart-Minded Seeing 145
23 Sit Awake Before the World 148
Practice: Vow of the Heart 151
Acknowledgments 155
About the Author 157