Getting Started
The ideal way to begin, maintain, and advance your meditation practice is through in-person, one-on-one sessions (called sittings) with a local Cleveland-based Heartfulness trainer. Heartfulness is a unique system with four basic practices, briefly described below: relaxation, meditation, cleaning, and inner-connect heart prayer.
For best results, practice them daily. However, there is no harm in acquainting yourself with each, one at a time—at a pace that is most comfortable for you. Try one or any combination to begin. Heartfulness is a simple and subtle practice of relaxation and meditation that connects each of us with the light and love in our own hearts. It is a practical way to experience the human heart’s unlimited capacity for inner peace, compassion, and creativity.
Relaxation
Duration: 5 or more minutes. | Relaxation is a method to prepare for meditation. Here is a very brief introduction. For a guided relaxation, use the links below.
- Sit comfortably upright in a chair or on the floor with eyes closed.
- Breathe gently and slowly.
- Visualize the soothing energy of the Earth moving slowly through every bone, muscle, and cell in your body—from the soles of your feet up to your knees, thighs, hips, ribs, arms, hands, shoulders, and neck, to the crown of your head.
- Then, allow that gentle earth-energy to descend from the top of your head into your heart region (in your chest and lungs), where your attention will rest during meditation.
Tip: When you breath during the relaxation practice, long and gentle exhales will activate your parasympathetic nervous system of rest and digest.
From the Heartfulness Mission:
From the Heartfulness Research Institute:
Meditation
Duration: 20 to 30 minutes or more. | Meditation is typically conducted in the morning before the busy day begins. But you may do the practice at any time that fits your schedule and needs. Here’s a brief introduction to the practice. For a guided start to meditation, use the links below:
- Sit comfortably upright in a chair or on the floor with eyes closed
- Do the Relaxation practice (described in previous section above).
- Rest your attention in your heart region (in your chest).
- Effortlessly focus your attention upon the light, love, and inner peace within your heart region.
- Gently witness your thoughts without indulging them, judging them, or trying to stop them.
- When your mind drifts to thoughts and worries, gently bring your attention back to your heart region throughout the meditation.
- Allow yourself to focus effortlessly upon your heart—without self-judgment or self-criticism.
Tip: It may help to focus gently on your breathing lungs, which are located in the heart region. When your mind drifts, bring your attention softly back to your heart—and its neighbors, the lungs.
From the Heartfulness Mission:
From the Heartfulness Research Institute:
Cleaning
Duration: 15 to 20 minutes. | The Cleaning helps you quietly and tenderly let go of impressions, impurities, and complexities that have accumulated in your emotions, thoughts, and body during the day. It is typically done at the end of each workday. You can also do it whenever you feel the need to calm down and cleanse your emotions, thoughts, and subtle energy fields. Here’s a brief introduction to the practice. For a guided cleaning, use the links below.
- Sit comfortably upright in a chair or on the floor with eyes closed.
- Breathe gently.
- Visualize all emotional and mental impurities and complexities from the day leaving your body as smoke through your back—from the base of your spine to the top of your head.
- When your attention drifts to thoughts and worries, gently bring your awareness back to your spine and allow the smoke to flow outward.
- When you feel lighter, visualize the Source of light and love from the Center of all creation flowing into the front of your body from above.
- Gently allow this light and love to take the place of everything that has been carried away by the smoke.
From the Heartfulness Mission:
From the Heartfulness Research Institute:
Inner-Connect Heart Prayer
Duration: A few focused moments of contemplation. | The true master of your experience is you—namely, the Source of light and love in the Center of your heart. Recite the inner-connect heart prayer to connect with your heart-master in the morning before meditation and at night before falling asleep.
You may also recite it silently to yourself at any time of day you feel the inspiration or need. It will help create a meditative feeling throughout the day. For a guided inner-connect heart prayer, use the links below.
- Sit comfortably with eyes closed.
- *Slowly state the words of the prayer (silently or aloud) as a way to create a mood of awareness and contemplation.
- Focus upon each word as you recite them. This will create a vacuum within the heart to connect you with the ultimate master within—the heart.
- In the morning before meditation, slowly recite the prayer once.
- In the evening before bed, slowly recite the prayer three times to prepare for deep sleep.
*Inner-Connect Heart Prayer:
“Oh, Master! Thou art the real goal of human life.
We are yet but slaves of wishes, putting bar to our advancement.
Thou art the only God and power to bring us up to that stage.
*Tip: The current living guide of the Heartfulness mission is Kamlesh D. Patel (affectionately called Daaji). In his most recent book, Spiritual Anatomy, he explains that this prayer was conceived in the early 1900s. To honor its lineage, he writes, “the language of the prayer has been kept intact, though we recognize that it may be challenging for some. You are welcome to change the word Master to Source or God [and] change slaves to servants if those resonate more for you. [We] offer it here in its original form with the hope you can connect with the essence of the prayer and benefit from it” (Spiritual Anatomy, p.57, brackets added).