Interview about How to Open your Heart

Next: How to feel your Heart » - try this practical exercise to discover your heart

Interview Transcript about Opening the Spiritual Heart

Esmée: So I'm here with Irmansyah Effendi, founder of Open Your Heart and Open Heart Meditation and also author of numerous books on opening your heart and I'd like to ask some questions...

Irman: Sure

Esmée: So Irman why is the heart so important?

Irman: Because we humans are meant to be happy and heart is the centre of the real happiness, ...when we are happy it is not the thoughts that actually makes us happy although sometimes it is originated from our mind (the thoughts) but it is actually our hearts that makes us feel happy, again it is happy feeling ..yes.

Esmée: I've heard a lot about heart and some people talk about the heart but what really do you mean about the heart or spiritual heart?

Irman: In addition to our physical heart we actually have the spiritual heart it is non physical, although it is within the chest cavity. Now this spiritual heart is important and special because within the spiritual heart we have what spiritually speaking we call as our True Self. What people refer to the spark of the Creator and from my point of view I normally prefer to call True Source. #1 True Source because we are referring to the Source of our True Self.

Esmée: So how can I learn how to feel my heart or open my heart?

Irman: Well actually very simple because in reality you have, everybody have felt their heart but normally people felt their heart when they are not intentionally want to, normally they feel their heart by co-incidence.

So when we want to feel our heart normally that wants will actually trigger our brain more because what we learn at school what we do in our daily life normally rely to our brain more but when we are just happy that's the time we feel our heart, so it will be very nice if we can find a way to actually be able to feel our heart and experience the happiness from our heart most of the time in our life.

Esmée: So can anybody feel their heart, ...open their heart?

Irman: Yes sure because everybody has a heart, it is there, so you don't need a special talent to be able to feel your heart but it is just maybe you need to know the method, it is not really a technique because it is actually something very natural to aware how to let your heart become stronger and you can feel the feeling from your heart which is the happiness all the time.

Esmée: Mmmm that sounds wonderful...

Irman: It is.

Esmée: Ha ha ha ha....So can you tell us a little bit about what benefits there are to opening our hearts?

Irman: Yah as we open our heart we can feel the feeling from our heart often, so heart is the centre of happiness, joy, love for others, all positive feelings and as our heart is strong that nice feelings will radiate from our heart so we can experience those nice feelings most of the time and automatically those nice feelings will actually cleanse the emotions or the negative thoughts from ourselves so we will have a tendency to stay in that nice feelings and although we are in the situations where normally our negative emotions or our negative thoughts will react, by having stronger heart where the nice feelings already radiate, normally we will not be reacting negatively.

Esmée: So are there any disadvantages to opening the heart or doing open heart meditation?

Irman: Well, actually not, well when I had discussions with those who already did the opening heart for some times they made jokes that what they lost was the ability to be angry.

Esmée: So once my heart is more open will it be permanent?

Irman: Opening the heart, strengthening the heart is like the condition of our house, you know, so by mean, we cleanse our house, it is nice and clean but then you know as we do different things of course our house may get dirty again. So similar to our heart, as we go through different situations etcetera it may get dirty again, so, it will be so good if we can actually strengthen our heart regularly and our heart will be stronger and stronger because as we are able to do or we understand how to strengthen our heart, it will be easier and we get better benefit every time we repeat it.

Esmée: Great...and can other people influence our hearts?

Irman: It is true in normal life we are normally influenced by other people around us but actually it is our emotions or our thoughts that normally trigger our negative emotions, Now it is true some people thinks that negative emotions are from the heart but actually heart is the centre of feelings, ...nice feelings ... so love, .. joy, happiness. Now the centre of emotion is the solar plexus, so again, there are parts of us that can be triggered negatively or influenced negatively by our surrounding, but not our heart. Our heart actually can help us to prevent or neutralise something like that.

Esmée: So that would be very helpful for well anybody but particularly for people with emotional difficulties?

Irman: Yes, definitely. it's actually the best medicine for negative emotions, stress or something like that.

Esmée: So how about people who are very busy and work long hours how can this help them and how can they do it when they don't have much time?

Irman: The most basic exercise is very simple, it takes only 2 or 3 minutes, basically they can do it everywhere. Actually for those kind of people, heart will be something very useful, because again, you know, as the heart grow stronger, the nice feeling, the happiness, joy, etcetera it comes with peace and calmness right, so as our heart is stronger we will experience the peace and the calmness from the heart which is much deeper and more thorough than the peace and calmness from the brain. Now we know by now those management people do recognise that a calmer brain is important because when your brain is calmer then you can focus at work. Now there are retreats given for the top management, middle management, so that they can have some break so that they can have better focus, and actually heart will be very useful for that.

Irman: Because without the better understanding about S.Q somebody when they think about work they will be thinking about burdens, responsibilities, and something like that so before they reach their office those burdens will actually occupy them already, but when their heart is strong, they feel the nice feelings and they can really enjoy the work, their interactions with others, they will look at everything including their job so differently, they will be so happy and eager in working, so everything will be so different in a good way.

Next: Frequently Asked Questions