Your heart is more than your body's most important organ—it's also the essence of your spiritual and emotional being. Listening to your heart is much more valuable than always making decisions with just your head.
Whether you direct your love and devotion to God, a guru, or the Divine in all things, as you cultivate a sense of love, gratitude, and devotion for something seemingly outside yourself, you essentially fill yourself with love. In the act of giving love, you receive it, cultivation of unconditional spiritual love.
If you happen to already have a spiritual practice centered around a particular divine entity or spiritual guide, chant that name to fill your heart with love and ask for help healing your heart. If not, try asking for help from your capital-S higher Self. Either way, call out with intention, focusing on quality over quantity, and on opening your heart to divine love and intervention.
Take a mindful walk outdoors, find comfort in the tides and the stars and the trees. Feel bliss in every cell of your being. Realize that love is all around you, yours to receive and return.
Mean What You Say
Every time you take leave of a friend, loved one, or acquaintance, choose parting words infused with blessing or connection—"take care," "be well," or "vaya con dios" all work—and say them with genuine intention. Even if you simply say "goodbye," take a moment to fill the word with meaning. Namaste, my favorite word, a greeting/saying in hindi which translates to: I honor the place in you where the ENTIRE universe resides, I honor the place in you of light, of love, of truth, of peace, I honor the place in you where if you and I are in that place then there is only one of us?
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Love Globally
Loving globally means seeing everyone and everything as a creation of God. Interpersonal relationships (including the romantic kind) are one aspect of this kind of devotion, but a good way to soothe the pangs of heartbreak is to expand your realm of who and what is loved. When you're feeling bereft, try loving everyone, everywhere. A simple seated practice for sending your love out into the world. Imagine spreading a fine mist of healing energy over the world. You can direct your thoughts to the world in general or focus on areas you know are plagued with unrest or war or famine. Hold them in your thoughts, and send them some of your light.
This is the basis of the Buddhist practice of tonglen ("sending") meditation: taking the suffering of others (and yourself) into your heart and then sending back loving compassion to all who suffer. When you send your love out into the world in this way, the effects can be dramatic for both sender and receiver. Victims of the earthquake in Central America reported that they felt the prayers from people around the globe and that the prayers eased their suffering. It also has a big effect on you in that it gets you out of your head and back into your heart.
Pick Yourself Up
In the deepest throes of despair, it can be hard to lavish yourself with love. Your meditation practice is a great way to show devotion to your Self, and when you feel immobilized by sadness, it can help bring you back into your body.
Use your meditation practice as a bridge to help you reconnect to a state of wellness that was available to you before your experience of loss. Consistent daily practice is your way to reconnect directly with the intimacy that is life. It is a whole-body prayer, a celebration of that which beats the heart and moves the breath.
Be Nurtured By Nature
Nature is a powerful reflection of divinity. When we are suffering from heartbreak, we have all this love we're carrying around and an intense longing to put it somewhere. Give love to nature all around you!
The ancient yogis offered unconditional love to all that was around them, worshiping and emulating the sun, the moon, the plants, the animals. You can do the same, by simply stepping outdoors and opening your senses and your heart to nature—trees, grass, and plants if you're in the countryside; air, sunlight, and wind if you're in the city. Mountains, blades of grass, and the stars at night work equally well as sources of inspiration and, yes, love. Nature is full of guidance and support for us. We only need to ask for it.
Fill Your Heart With Song
Music is medicine. And singing—a mantra, a hymn, or the name of your spiritual guide—is another way to treat an aching heart. You can sing kirtan sweetly, or sing them fiercely with angst, or sing them with yearning or whatever emotions are arising in you. If you get bored, keep on singing. Sing until the singing itself becomes part of your molecules, and your heart flows into the ocean of divine love. Then take it a step further, and sing all by yourself—in the shower, in the car, or in the garden—anytime you want to feel uplifted. And don't worry about what your voice sounds like—kirtan is about filling your heart with love, not about being a great singer. Believe me, when my sister and I are singing the soundtrack of The Sound of Music, we are not thinking about how we sound!!
While the mind is the content of who you are, your heart is your essence. Your true heart is not subject to chaos or limited by pain, fear and neuroses, but is joyful, creative and loving. Some believe the heart can be too uncertain and even misguided, but that is the head talking! It is actually a source of great richness, and this wealth is one that cannot be squandered or lost. It is the core, the essence of your being, a reservoir of joy, powerful love and infinite compassion that lies within you.
~Namaste
