February Meditation

Our monthly meditations are provided by our Journey to Inner Wisdom guide, Daidie Donnelley

Purifying Passion

The second month of the year, coming in the midst of winter storms, is named after the Roman festival Februa. Februa was a festival of purification, honoring the way the rains this time of year wash away residues of the previous year and prepare the ground for new growth in Spring. In an attempt to “Christianize” early pagan holidays, in the fifth century Februa was renamed “Valentine’s Day” after the martyred Saint Valentine – a third century priest who befriended and secretly married young lovers in defiance of an existing ban on marriage. Over the years as a new tradition took hold and the day became focused on courtship and affection, the association with February changed from purification to love.

The chance linking of these two is appropriate, for love has the power to purify a person of anger, hatred, sadness, fear, in a way no other emotion does. Viewed this way, love is an inborn capacity not dependent on another for its fulfillment. It is a state of being, a process as natural to us as breathing. Just as we can increase the capacity of our lungs to take in breath, we can expand our hearts to love.

With this in mind, close your eyes. Focus your attention on your breath. As it flows in, notice the sensation at the very tip of your nose – warm, soft smooth, this breath is always with you. Take a moment to appreciate its constancy. Breathing in easily and effortlessly, feel the smooth warm air flow down and into your lungs. With each breath feel your lungs expand, creating new space on your chest –clearing away residues of tightness, preparing the ground for the next breath. Breathe in and out like this for a few moments.

Now imagine your breath flowing into your heart, moving like a liquid balm through its chambers, opening and expanding its capacity to nourish the rest of your body. Imagine that this breath moving in and out of the heart. As you feel it flowing in, imagine taking in what is beautiful in your surroundings. Feel that beauty expand your heart. As it flows out, send the softness of your heart back into the world. Take a moment to experience this nurturing exchange – breathing the beauty of the world in through your heart, breathing appreciation and gratitude out.

For a moment, move your full awareness to the heart. Feel the softness and containment of its chambers. Have a look around and take a moment to appreciate its beauty. What do you see? What shapes? What colors? What sounds do you hear. Now look out from your heart as if this were the seat of your consciousness. How does the world look from the vantage point of the heart. What do you see? What do you hear? It has recently been discovered that the heart is a second brain. There are 40,000 neurons and neural receptors constantly processing the information it receives. What would your life be like if you experienced yourself from the vantage point of your heart rather than your head?

Now remember an image of something you love. It could be a young child, a small puppy, a favorite place, or something as simple as sunlight filtering through the trees, or as vast as the starry night sky. Hold this image in your heart. Really see it. Feel it. Love it. Allow your heart to be filled with your feelings for it. Breathing the feelings in, let them move through your body filling it with tingling as it does. Then let them radiate out into the environment. Feel them touching the people and creatures you see. Touching the trees, the grasses, the sky. Allow yourself to be bathed in this love – inside you, around you. Express gratitude for all that you love, gratitude for this capacity to love.

As you move through your day, any time you find yourself feeling anger, hurt, sadness, or any unwanted emotion, stop and take a breath. Imagine the breath coming in through your heart, soothing and comforting. As you continue to breathe, breathe in the image of the thing you love. Allow that image to fill you, feel it moving through your heart with each breath, gradually purifying your heart of heaviness and negativity. Just as breath is a movement of air through the lungs, love is a movement through the heart. It is available to all of us, at any time.