This morning I am grateful for the ability of my spiritual heart to expand without limit. I have often thought, ‘I couldn’t possibly love (insert name) more than I do at this moment. If I did, my heart would surely explode.’
I remember nursing my firstborn child soon after he was born, overwhelmed by the wave of emotion this tiny creature stirred within me. Tears running down my face, a lump in my throat, and that fullness in my chest that says my soul is fulfilled. At that moment for the first time I thought, ‘I couldn’t possibly love this child more than I do at this moment.’ Time has proven me wrong. For over and over I find myself loving this child more than I did in that moment.
And it is not only this child who has invoked this expansion of my spiritual heart. Since that first moment, my heart has grown stronger, more elastic, ever larger, to the point that almost daily I am overcome by the feeling that ‘I couldn’t possibly love (insert name) more than I do at this moment.’
With the birth of each child, I questioned whether my heart could expand yet again. Each child creating another opportunity for growth and fulfillment. Each stage of their lives providing me the gift of uncertainty and change. An opportunity to move forward into an unknown space of ‘I couldn’t possibly love more than I do at this moment.’ Only to find that on the other side of uncertainty my spiritual heart capacity had expanded, another layer of compassion and truth added to my life.
Like any physical muscle, this spiritual muscle has the ability to strengthen and to stretch with proper care and usage.
It occurs to me that just as physical exercise involves discomfort in the process of strengthening, so does spiritual exercise. At the moment that I begin to feel anxious, uncertain, scared, sad, or dissatisfied, this is an opportunity for the spiritual muscle to strengthen and expand. In yoga, we are taught to breathe into the muscle, to relax, to release, to trust our bodies to know what is right for us in the moment.
I’m learning to apply my yoga practice to all areas of my Self, physical and spiritual. Today I realize that each time I feel that ‘I couldn’t possibly love more than I do at this moment’, my heart is expanding and I will for certain love even more.
Being Mindfully Me 