Now and then we all take a moment to look at the life we are living and daydream about how our futures will look. So, take one of those moments right now, and rather than "thinking" about what the future might look like based on your life as it is now, do the following:
Look as deeply as you can into your heart and visualize the future you've always truly desired, the one that fills your heart with joy whenever you imagine it.
In that simple exercise, you have glimpsed what HeartMath calls your heart blueprint.
What Is Your Heart Blueprint?
From the earliest days of our lives, when we begin to imagine the future and our place in it, an idealistic vision begins to unfold of what could be, or as some would say, what we came here for..
Think of your heart blueprint as a city map that shows all the one-way and two-way streets, left- and right-hand turns, traffic jams and detours you must negotiate as you travel a city.
In each instance that you do this or that, go one way or another or otherwise delay your arrival at your heart's desired destination, you drain precious energy. Similarly, following ambitions and desires not aligned with what your true heart yearns for, delays the arrival at your heart's desired destination.
Detours away from your heart's destination, especially during these times of rapid change and relentless demands on our time, can lead to harmful levels of stress. Researchers at the HeartMath Institute have found that constant change and time overwhelm are leading contributors to stressful responses to situations and challenges in our daily lives. The result is a depletion of energy reserves and a breakdown in resiliency, both of which are critical for meeting the challenges of our modern world.
Look for Your 'Hinge Points'
Although looking back and pinpointing the precise "big" moments or encounters in life that steered us in one direction or another and helped shape our futures is often difficult, most of us are aware that they did happen. Those big moments actually are a series of smaller moments, or what HeartMath calls "hinge points," that happen most every day.
Each of us makes innumerable choices that navigate us through the day. Hinge points are those choices that arise in which we can elect to remain on the most efficient course, according to the heart's higher blueprint, or take a detour. For example, consider the following:
Among the sincerest desires you hold in your heart is to always be unreservedly kind to everyone you encounter. As you arrive at your workplace one day, a supervisor greets you with the admonition: "There's a lot to do today, so there's no time for slouching." (Now there's a hinge point for you!)
You can choose to take a detour from your heart's true desire by replying, "Why are you telling me that?" (Sounds confrontational.)
Or you can stay on course with a response like, "I'm ready. Let's get to it!" (Pure kindness.)
The "on-course" reply in this example compromises neither your heart's blueprint nor your self-respect. In keeping with your true heart's blueprint, you are listening to your heart, sticking to the highway and staying in the flow toward your heart's desired destination.
Remember that popular definition of insanity? "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Hinge points are like that: If you don't meet them, the same or similar situations may loop around over and over, and despite your heart's blueprint, the outcome will be the same each time: detour, detour, detour.
All of the hinge points/choices we encounter daily comprise a collection of possibilities for our unrealized futures. As we act on these, we crystallize the possibilities – the words we speak, who we meet, the relationships and jobs we choose. This is the process of activating our futures according to our heart blueprints.
Unfolding in the Planetary Shift
You've often heard in recent years about the current shift in global consciousness. In this great shift, millions of people are seeking a deeper heart consciousness and connection – within and with others – and to rewrite the future and create a better world.
A new heart-conscious generation is accelerating the shift and remaking the world "from the inside out." These individuals are learning skills for generating high levels of personal heart coherence and radiating compassion, healing and creative solutions across the planet.
The HeartMath Institute has developed a unique set of tools and technology that help individuals and groups expand their heart field environment – and ultimately activate the heart of humanity. As greater numbers expand their heart environment, they encompass more and more people and enable them to more easily discern their heart's intuition and visualize their own heart blueprints.
Connect to your purpose, create a life mission statement
This is a practical exercise to help you understand your heart blueprint.
- Focus your attention in the area of the heart. Breathe in and out through the heart area.
- Appreciate your own heart intelligence and its encoded blueprint for your fulfillment and optimal potential.
- Ask your heart what your life's mission statement might be. Write down what first comes to you, without judgments or editing. Know that this is something that can grow and evolve, change and refine as you do!
I’d love to hear about your ideas for your mission statement.