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Christian

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Jackie Roberts

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Marina Del Rey

Explore your heart's qualities and thank the protective parts that work to keep your vulnerability safe.

Science

Recovery & Healing

Healing

Psychology

Guided Imagery

Visualization

English

In this meditation, Dr. Richard Schwartz discusses the expansiveness of the heart and the parts that protect it. He encourages the listener to pay attention to, and show appreciation for, the many parts and the roles they play.

Heart: Internal Family Systems (IFS)

 So once again we're taking some deep breaths. With this one we're going to start by just having you focus on your heart. However you experience it in your chest. Doesn't have to be your exact physical heart on the left side, it can just be however you experience your heart. So as you focus on it I'm just going to invite you to get to know it in a physical way. We're going to explore different qualities of your heart. See what kind of condition it's in. The first thing you're invited to notice is how open it is versus closed. You could also check to see how tender it is versus encrusted or calloused. How congested it is versus fluid and flowing. It's also interesting to notice how much space it has in there. Is it really contracted and tightly packed or spacious? You might find in your exploration that different places in your heart are different in those qualities. Maybe the front is closed and the back is open. Or the top is tender and the bottom is tough. Maybe energy can flow through part of it but not other parts of it. Maybe in some places it feels pinched and contracted and other places are more spacious. So where it feels closed or contracted or congested, calloused, just means that there are some protective parts of you manifesting. If you'd like, you can take a second just to get to know those protectors a little bit. Just getting a little bit curious about what they're afraid would happen if they allowed you to open your heart fully, to allow it to be tender. They didn't try to contract it, compact it. In answering that question, it's likely that they'll teach you about vulnerable parts that they protect that live in your heart or around your heart. Right now you don't have to go to those parts. We can just kind of get to know a little bit about them from the protectors. And if also it's possible, as you get to know about how vigilantly they've been trying to guard your vulnerability, to whatever degree it feels sincere, just extend a kind of loving appreciation to these protective parts for how hard they've worked and needed to work to protect your heart. And just see how they react to that appreciation. And right now we're not asking them to change anything about that, nor do we expect them to. We're just getting to know their fears and showing them appreciation. And maybe also proposing at some point, some day, that they let you go to those vulnerable parts so you can heal them, so that the protectors can relax and allow you to open your heart. It's often they don't believe that that healing is possible. They feel condemned to do this with your heart the rest of your life. So just be sure that they know that it is possible, but there's no pressure to do it. When this visit with your protectors of your heart feels complete, then you can begin to shift your focus back outside. But be sure before you leave to thank them for letting you know all this, and again for how hard they've worked to keep your heart safe. Thank you.