Flip the Switch, Or Turn the Dimmer Control…

I’ve got this song rolling through my head right now:

“It’s a new day, think new thoughts,

There’s a new way, change your hearts.

There a new law in the land.”

I can’t say that those are the real words for that song from my childhood, but that is the message I am getting this morning.

We are experiencing a series of disappointments. The weather has disappointed us, as winter decides to stick around 3-4 weeks longer than we all expected or wished for. On the news, there are disappointments, as our Congress fails to pass stricter gun law enforcement after we continue to witness more and more violent shootings of innocent vicitms. And then there are the disappointments of ourselves, as we feel stuck or stymed or, as my son said last week, just not at all motivated.

But the way to change all that is not through our pocketbook or a scehduled vacation to somewhere warmer and sunnier (guilty!). It is to bring more heart work into our lives. We need to change our hearts.

So how do we flip that switch? Can it be done with a flip of a switch? Well, it can, but for some of us, we need more of a dimmer control switch.

Whenever we are feeling worried, frustrated, angry, unsettled, and any other negative emotion, it is time to bring love into our hearts. We need to breathe it into us, like we take in our three-part yoga breath. We need to feel like we are filling our lungs with love, and the lungs are taking this love out to the heart and then to every cell of our being. We need to keep breathing in love, until we feel full of love. Maybe it will take 5 breaths, or maybe it will take 25 breaths. Only when we can feel the love, do we stop.

This is important for ourselves and also for others. When we fill out hearts with love, we start to radiate that out to others. We become compassionate and empathetic. We send out a signal to others that says, “Yes, I care.”

Think of the person who has committed the atrocious bombing during the Boston Marathon. What if he had received a feeling of love from those around him? Would he have been capable of such a devastating act? Probably not.

And so we must do our part. There is a new law. “Love one another instead.”

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