What does “Here, your Heart” mean?
After 7 years, a little voice at the back of my mind started nagging that the name of my business, “Fairy Caravan”, no longer felt right. The name no longer adequately described what it was that I wanted to do and share with the world. I tried for a long time to ignore it. Then I tried reasoning these thoughts away. Finally, by October 2019, I could no longer ignore it, I needed a new business name.
I gave myself plenty of time to think of a new name and logo. After giving it a lot of thought, I’m finally really, really happy with Here, your Heart. And now I get to share with you why I chose this name and what the name means to me.
A key element of Mindfulness
The Institute for Mindfulness in South Africa (IMISA), defines Mindfulness in the following way:
Mindfulness is moment-to-moment awareness, cultivated by purposefully paying attention in the present moment with an attitude of non-judgment, kindness, and curiosity.
IMISA is guided and informed by the work of Professor Jon Kabat-Zinn. I love that he has also explained that the term mindfulness could have been translated as “heartfulness”. In many Asian languages, “heart” and “mind” mean the same thing.
Whether we prefer to talk about mindfulness or heartfulness, a key element to this concept, is becoming present. The word “here” in Here, your Heart points to the importance of becoming present, in this place and at this time.
A deeper way of listening
The wordplay between “here” and “hear” hints at the fact that listening to our hearts are important. And I chose the word “here” (instead of “hear”) specifically because of the connection to mindfulness and becoming present.
I believe that we cannot hear our hearts without being here, being present.
Listening to our hearts is important for becoming more in tune with our emotions, and what really matters to us. It is also important as a way of tuning in to our intuition and our connection with others.
By learning how to listen to our hearts, we can become more connected with ourselves, and also with others.
How we can live more heart-centered
Our hearts are traditionally connected with our feelings, and specifically with the ability to feel love. Our hearts is seen as the place in our body where we feel love (and other feelings). In terms of the work that I am doing with play therapist Lenka, creating helpful stories and activities that provide emotional support for children, this emotional association with the heart is very important.
In my exploration of yoga, I have discovered that the heart chakra connects the “lower” or more physical chakras associated with the body and the mind, with the “higher” chakras associated with spirituality. One could even say that the heart chakra is the most important chakra because it is the chakra of love. Love is what gives meaning to our human experience. “Higher”-level spirituality is meaningless if you practice it without love.
New things that the shift to Here, your Heart will bring
I will focus even more on creating awareness about the value of mindfulness and meditation, both for children and their parents. Yes, I am now also creating meditations for adults – here is an example for you to listen to!