Welcome to the infinitely precious podcast produced by infinitely precious LLC. Your host is James Henry. Remember, you are infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift you already are.

Hello, beloved. It's me, James, here to share some thoughts with you. Today, as I was listening to some music, I heard a song I haven't heard in a long time by a rock set, Listen to Your Heart. And it occurred to me that that's good advice. It's good advice.

And that I might take a moment to talk a little bit about what I think that means. Now, I'm not talking about listening to your heart for every frivolous and transient little thing that comes along, the things that are impulse responses, reactions to the everyday. I'm talking about listening to your heart at the deepest levels to discover perhaps the patterns and sense of purpose that your life is meant to have. Each of us, I believe, is a gift for who we are. My watchword, my watch phrase, if you will, is that each person is infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift they already are.

Not just each person, but everything in the entire universe. But if each of us is a gift, what is it about us? What is it that we are meant to bring into being? Now, I can't give you the answer. I can't give you a simple, straightforward answer.

But what I can do is tell you that you have one and perhaps suggest to you some ways to discover for yourself what it is that your heart is calling you to do. What is it that your heart is speaking to you? Because I believe, you know, the ancients believed that the heart was the receptor through which it's the organ whose purpose was to receive subtle and perhaps not so subtle messages from the divine. And if it is the divining tool which we carry in our bodies, wouldn't it be good to listen for that divine echo of what our lives are meant to be about? So what can we do to look for what it is that our heart might be calling us to be about in this life?

How can we listen? One way, slow down. I know we live in a very hectic world. There are lots of things going on, and even if it's not hectic where you have a series of things that you've got to do, We seem to fill our time with lots of different kinds of things. Some of them are very important and require doing, but some of them might be less so.

And for those less so things, what would it be like if you tuned those out, turned those off, took a step back just to be quiet, just to sort of meditate and learn to slow yourself down? Certainly that is a way that you can be in touch with what's going on in your heart. I'm not just talking about one sit. I'm talking about through a series of time, you begin to notice some things that are going on. You might be less reactive, less likely to just do something on impulse, look for something deeper, more meaningful.

A second way to look for what's going on in your heart is to look for the patterns in your life. And by that, I mean when you see certain things that keep arising in your life, certain things that if, for instance, you keep a journal that you keep coming back to that seem to be calling out to you, that seem to speak to you, or that other people in life may come by notice as a part of their conversation with you or interactions with you in whatever way that you bear certain gifts, certain abilities, certain skills. And as they affirm that and as you see the pattern in your life of those places where you have had the greatest impact and discover that you're using some of the same things, doing some of the same things, you're bringing some of the same gifts to those moments, that's when you begin to say, ah, there is a pattern here of the things that bring meaning to others through my life, through the gift of who I am. Perhaps yet another way is to be in tune with what you feel in your body. Are there things you have done or are doing that just feel right to you, that you are certain inside, somewhere deep within you, that this is the thing you are meant to be doing?

And so when you do it, it just it has that kind of gut level response where you feel like, this is right. This is right. I am at ease when I am engaged in this way, when I am acting in this way, when I am behaving in this way. I feel a deep sense of ease, of passion, of strength, of encouragement. Those kinds of feelings can help you identify what it is that you might be called to be about in this life.

So part of listening to what your heart is calling you to do is tied up with courage. It's uncomfortable to listen to what your heart may be calling you to do. It may be a risky kind of endeavor for you. You've always done the you've taken the path of least resistance, you've found others who affirm you for doing that something another way or a different way, you've kind of gotten used to the life that you have and the way that it's happening, and so you're not interested in the discomfort of stretching beyond that which you have already formed as a way of being in the world. It's uncomfortable.

And, you know, perhaps that discomfort comes from, you know, a long sort of repetitious reality that makes you feel comfortable. Perhaps it comes from the affirmations you receive for being a good girl or boy or person, non binary person who goes with the flow. It may be that doing the thing that you feel called to do would expose you. At least if somebody makes a fun of you when you're pretending to be somebody else, it's pretense anyway, but if they if you're not received well for doing that, which is your gift to do, then it feels more personal and it feels like a deeper hit, so it takes a kind of courage, and sometimes we're tied up in our own self doubts. The messages we've received about ourselves lead us to believe that we are not, that we don't bring enough, that we aren't enough, and that's just not true.

That's just not true, but it's easier to believe that we're not enough than it is to believe that we are, and so we continue in that. So it might take some courage to face those voices inside ourselves that have become echoes of other people's voices and maybe of our own that tell us we don't have it, we can't make it, we're not enough because truth be told, we are. We are. You are enough. So I want to encourage you to begin to listen at least to your heart in the small ways to trust, to trust yourself.

In fact, you know, maybe to find that way to be more deeply aligned with who you really are. That would make you more at home in this world. I know we live in a world right now where being who you are is not always received well, and for some people it means it takes a lot of courage to be who they are because we have a loud set of voices that are telling us anything but mainstream so called normal approaches to life are wrong. And so those loud voices even push down the truest deepest self that's within us a little further. I want to suggest to you it's going to take courage and it may take allies as well, people to stand with you as you are who you are.

And I certainly hope that for you and me we can find those people. So I want you to, I want to offer you an opportunity to reflect, to take a moment to look, try this simple practice with me that will help you know more clearly perhaps what your heart's calling you to do. Take a moment first of all to reflect. When was a time that you followed your heart and it led to something that was especially meaningful or that mattered to you in some unique way? Think about that for a moment.

When was that time when you followed your heart and it made and it mattered? Take a pause. Recently? What do you keep feeling like you need to be about or doing in the world? Is there something that's nudging at your soul, that's calling you out to be something more?

And if you feel those, what as a last thing, how will you act on that? What is one small step you can take to go in the direction that you're feeling called to, that your heart is inviting you to. So remember as you engage in this practice of listening to your heart that listening to your heart isn't about chasing every feeling. It's about discovering for yourself within yourself the things that are truly lasting and meaningful to you. Keep that kind of thing in mind.

May your heart be true to you, but also may you be true to your heart. You know, listen to your heart when it's calling to you. What are the echoes throughout you and eternity of what you're called to be about? What gift do you bring? Remember in the midst of it all you are infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift you already are.

Until the next time all the best to you.