Heartspace insists that we be strong enough to know when to rely on ourselves, and humble enough to know when to ask others for help. There are people who do not know the difference and do not rely on themselves. This is a deceitful way to utilize the connections in our lives, and ultimately it is not sustainable.
One of the cues that you’re living from Heartspace is whether the connections you have throughout your life, both within you and outside of you, are lasting. They are lasting because they’re strong, secure, purposeful, and effective. Connections in our life are not sustainable if they are temporary, meaningless, situational, sensational, or weak. These include the connections you have to the topics, ideas, memories, actions, and feelings inside of you, as well as the issues, people, places, and movements going on outside of you.
If you constantly, consciously rely on connections outside of you to support you, then you are not living in Heartspace. In this life we must learn to rely on ourselves and the connections we have within ourselves. Our engagements in the world around us are mirrors of our interior, reflecting what is going on inside of us.
Identify the things that matter most to you that are inside of you. Build on them. Strengthen them. Love them. Use creativity, reflection, childhood, and community to support the insides of you. From that place, make strong decisions, support your self-esteem, be gracious with the people around you, and build community. Do not sacrifice the lasting connections you have within yourself for other people. That is what some people called “losing yourself”, and while I don’t think you can actually do that, I do believe you can sacrifice your lasting connections within yourself for other people.
When we rely on others, we balance our self-reliance. That is the intricate nature of Heartspace, the balancing act between personal engagement, community engagement, and universal engagement. However, if we rely on others too much, we can tip that balance.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” You have yourself first and always. Be who you are, fully and wholly in everything you do. Live knowing that you are infinitely, perfectly connected to the universe. From there your Heartspace will strengthen, and universal engagement will become yours to consciously benefit from.
Adam F.C. Fletcher 