A clean heart
keep purifying your heart - an intro to the theme for this fall.
After the transformative month that August was, a refrain kept rising in my spirit:
Keep purifying your heart
Keep purifying your heart
Keep purifying your heart
It was in a moment at a retreat I led this month, resting in child’s pose during facilitating our yoga flow for the morning, when Fred Hammond’s “Give me a Clean Heart” came on the yoga playlist and it became clearer: This is the theme for September into October. Not just, God give me a clean heart, but the active form of “keep purifying your heart.”
I looked out at the women resting in savasana and felt the deep desire for freedom that we all have. Freedom from the pain that lingers in our hearts. As I wrote last month, I took the time to heal the heartbreak I was carrying and those subtle jabs I experienced to my spirit. Everyone wants freedom from the hurts stuffed in pockets that they never returned to, but left a heavy imprint. To breathe in deeply and exhale, I have a clean heart and to feel it.
I jotted a quick note:
September is about heart purification.
Give me a clean heart.
From here springs the rest of my life.
Ask God to clean your heart.
Do a yoga flow that takes you through opening the chest and heart space.
Speak what needs to be said and released from the heart.
Address the decayed feelings that are trapped at the bottom of the heart.
I began to devote myself to this wisdom and apply its medicine to myself with a variety of holistic rituals. I found myself telling others, tweeting, bringing up in conversation, “purify your heart.”
For many of us familiar with the Bible, there are two verses that may come to mind:
“Give me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me” - Psalm 51:10
“Above all else, guard your heart. For everything you do flows from it” -Proverbs 4:23
When it comes to healing, there is often challenge around a more passive form of recovering, praying and asking, without the complimentary active movement from self. What does it mean to ask God to clean your heart when you are not engaging heart purification in other forms every single day? When you are not devoted to exploring the deepest parts of your heart in order to clear out what is packed deep within. This is where space is created for the abundance I soaked in last month.
Heart purification is not a spiritual bypass. It is an active practice that includes acknowledging, processing, grieving, writing, speaking, engaging professional assistance with a therapist, having the challenging conversations with others, utilizing breath work, touch, and so much more. Heart purification allows you to see where you may be holding on to pain because it is serving you in an unconscious way, so that you can develop new ways of being, feeling, dreaming, relating, loving, and more.
Have you considered that you do not have to carry the pain of the past with you any longer? That it actually is possible to purify the heart? When you read this, were there any resistances that rose in your body? Did situations come to mind? Did limits reveal themselves through statements that start with “But…” What does it mean to pray for miracles but not believe that your heart could actually be pure? Would you move from intellectualizing what healing is and actively engage the process in a deeper way with a clean heart?
Start here:
When the jealousy arises, investigate it.
When the defensiveness arises, investigate it.
When the frustration sets in, investigate it.
When you want to shut down, investigate it.
Go deep into the heart. Sit with yourself. Explore the feelings before projecting. Ask, why is this coming up? What is beneath it? Where did it come from? Grieve the loss and disappointment. Play the Fred Hammond song and envision your heart soaking in compassion that is available to you.
Start there.
You deserve to be free.
I’ll be back next time with more on purifying the heart, as this theme will continue until November.
You are loved.