Many of us who are Wholebody Focusers have learned concepts and practices from many other modalities. In a workshop many years ago, I learned about the concept of “heart’s desire.” The practice I was taught in this workshop was to silently wish yourself your heart’s desire and then silently wish those around you their heart’s desire. We also learned that a true heart’s desire can only be for our highest and greatest good.
What Happens When You Wish People their Hearts Desire
I live in New York City and take public transportation so I have ample opportunities to live this practice. It has helped me learn so many things. First, I struggled to remember to wish myself my heart’s desire. It would be ten minutes of concentrating on others before I remembered myself. Then mentioning me felt quite “selfish.” Eventually, it took less and less time to remember me and wishing myself my heart’s desire gave me a surge of energy.
Then I noticed how judgmental I was. I vowed to wish everyone in my subway car or bus their heart’s desire but I felt negative feelings coming about some people. I had to recognize that harsh part of myself that is so critical. Often the criticism would be about someone’s hairstyle or clothing but it also showed up when people seemed different from me too. My practice became noticing what came for me when I thought about wishing a particular person their heart’s desire. I would acknowledge what was there and let it go. When I added the wish for that person, my heart and the criticism would soften. It also helped me be with how all that criticism that emerged was really about me. This practice helped me be with both the wish to generate love for others along with a fierce need to separate myself through criticism of others. I needed hold those parts with equal regard. This eventually has led to much less criticism for myself and for unsuspected random citizens of NYC.
I loved doing this practice especially at the beginning of the day because unexpected joy would sometimes surprise me later on. One day on a long subway ride to work, I was particularly upset because I felt a senior co-worker was making my life difficult. I spent most of the 30 minute ride wishing myself and everyone else their heart’s desire. When I walked into the building where I worked, my co-worker met me at the door with a big smile on his face and told me how happy he was to see me. He asked me to come to his office later so we could work out or differences.
How to Know the Difference Between a “Heart’s Desire” and a Wish
If you type “heart’s desire” into a search engine, you’ll get a variety of things. Wikipedia will list places and things that relate to the words “heart’s desire.” A dictionary might say that its is “something someone wants very much.” If you type in “how to find my heart’s desire?” you will get lot’s of “how to’’ sites that talk about losing weight and going on fantasy vacations. Then there are “how to” steps to achieve it. There are also sites that talk about the energy of a heart’s desire and how it is linked to your highest and greatest good.
What I learned from Wholebody Focusing was a body sense between wanting something and it being a heart’s desire. I grew up in a home in which my mother and grandmother spoke Italian to each other. They didn’t speak to the children in Italian because there was a harsh penalty to pay for children who spoke a language other than English in American schools. As a child, I would pretend I spoke some other language when I played by myself. I studied French and Spanish in high school and college and eventually became a high school Spanish teacher. There always was a thought in the back of my head that I “should” learn Italian. I would occasionally sign up for courses and study on my own. I would even watch TV in Italian. In my work with supporting Focusing around the world I am now using some of my language skills. A “should” learn more Italian would come sometimes.
What I found in a Wholebody focusing session was that learning Italian was not a wish. It was a profound heart’s desire rooted in my loss of my mother language. When I first sensed this in my body, I began speaking in Italian to myself. Then I went into some “shoulds.” I should sign up for online courses. I should get more grammar books, etc. I felt the energy of the heart’s desire get drained by these thoughts. I took a step back and let myself return to the energy of the heart’s desire. I acknowledged the belief that I had to do something to fulfill this desire but let myself observe it rather feed it. I stayed with the joy of knowing that this was a true heart’s desire not just a wish and that I didn’t have to take any action to make it happen.
I Do Not Need to “Do” Anything
In the next few days, everything Italian started showing up in my life. There were focusing resources in Italian, there were new TV shows to watch and finally, I began working with two Italian focusers via the internet to create a short video in Italian about Wholebody Focusing. I found that I actually could understand them without much translation. I wasn’t able to answer them in Italian but I could utter a few phrases. Our time together was very exciting because we were in heartfelt conversation in Italian. My love of learning Italian supported their task of explaining Wholebody Focusing to others. As they were talking, I was off camera, and my body was moving with excitement and joy. What came for me during that session was that I was living my heart’s desire. I was focusing with people in Italian and it was bringing me great joy. I didn’t have to plan and agonize about how much effort was enough, Italian has been inside me from my earliest years. All I needed was to be present to it and more would come.
Wholebody Focusing helps us clarify how essential our wants and needs are. Some would be nice to have. Some will change our lives. The best part is when you connect and recognize a heart’s desire, the forward movement happens effortlessly. You begin living it instead of planning for it.
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How beautiful Diana to have found your heart’s desire and with such joy!!
Dear Diana
I am just taking the time to enjoy your sense of “Heart’s Desire” and what it is for you. You are so transparent with your stories played out that I can play with a number of them, what this can be for you and then how this can be for me. What was new for me is an opportunity of being in a public place and playing with how it might be for that person, her heart’s desire, and what comes form me and I invite that kind of attention as a felt sense in me!
And then the in-depth experience of amercing yourself in ‘being Italian’ and how that Heart’s Felt Desire played out by offering you situations in your life right there, in ways that were perfect for you as needed! I can feel the joy of the truth in the experiencing of that, how heart desire works when it comes from a real and true place and a fit for us when we are ready. Kevin
Thank you Kevin. What I love is that so much information and clarity can come when we are with our own need to connect with our heart’s desire and when we share our intentions with others. When we offer our intention to bring energy to the heart’s desire of others, it creates a shift somewhere else in the world outside us. My co-worker moved from blame to willingness to work with me to find a solution without me having to ask.
A comment about the painting. Isabel Bennett Hennman is my godchild who lives in the UK. She has Downs Syndrome. As a young girl she attended Steiner schools and learned how to paint. This is one of her paintings as a young girl. Her paintings have been featured in newspapers and on greeting cards. This one is my favorites and I keep it near me always. The two colors make me think about blood and spirit and how our hearts regulate both. These colors have varying intensities, that for me, relate to how we fluctuate in our ability to be in contact with our blood/bodies and spirit. There is movement and brilliance in the interaction of the two colors in all their shades. Nothing is ever static.
Beautifully expressed and so meaningful.
The timing is perfect: Heartfelt Connection and Conversation, the first year anniversary of coming together to explore what this way of being might look like in a community gathering on a Zoom Meeting being offered today. Thank you, Kevin
Thank you Larry.
Yes Kevin. So many things have come together-the idea that the Wholebody Focusing Community can meet to be with each other every few years, that we have an on-line monthly meeting in which we see and interact with each other, and that we have a public place to share our writings, videos etc about our practice and move it forward. Wishing that the forward progress continues. Thanks to all who have helped.