The true feeling of a heartbeat

First I would like to start off with a big Thank You to my new friend *Jen.* I have gotten some great feedback from Jen, which I appreciate greatly. One thing really sticks out in my mind is the quote/relation to life that Jen wrote. It truly inspired me..

"One way I like to think about the passage of time is in ‘heartbeats of life’ rather than in seconds. For me, this puts a whole new perspective on the value of my time. One way that I use to get my friends to think about this kind of special time is to ask them to hold their breath for 10 seconds. For sure, it has an interesting way of letting people know what 6 to 20 heartbeats feels like, and how precious the time is for each one."

I think this is amazing. I have always wanted to be able to explain the feeling & value of a heartbeat to others, but really all you can do is lead them to learn how to listen so they can understand it for themselves.

Time is the first thing that comes to mind. How often do you really sit down, breath, touch your chest, and listen to your heart beat? Probably rarely, if ever. I would like to encourage you to do it once in a while. Seriously. I know, I know.. you are thinking, oh this is just a silly "trying to soothe my thoughts kind of BS" and really I am too busy to try to get into "that kind of mood." But you honestly don't know how relaxing it is until you give it a try. You will see after this little "exercise" how important it is for you to take a moment and acknowledge this precious thing we have inside us. It gives you peace of mind, serenity, a calm sense of power, and encourages you to consider a new perspective on the value of time.

So now- Sit down, breathe in and out a few times to relax. Try to free your mind of anything negative *just for a minute... longer if you can* close your eyes, and place your hand on your heart *that is your right hand to the middle-to-left part of your upper chest, just in case you haven't said the pledge of allegiance in a while.. smile*

Next, try to breath slowly and softly so you can feel the tiny pulses on your hand that are coming from inside you. They may be going fast, they may be going slow, but just take time to actually feel. This is life. This is you. This is a feeling that no one else can describe to you. You can only feel it for yourself....

To me, I feel the beats and I start to think about the passing of time, the value of it, ..and it makes me realize how important this time passing me by is. Day in and day out of our hectic & exciting lives, we sometimes forget to realize how fast time really is passing us by. Although we can't stop the clock, or give ourselves more time for things we need to get done, we can give ourselves the lesson of how precious every second is. Feel your heartbeat and I promise you will slow down once in a while to appreciate the time you do have.

The other KEY lesson to all of this is *learning to interpret things on our own.* The older I get, the more I realize that this heartbeat description/analogy is how all of life works. When I look back I am starting to see the times when my mom wanted soo badly to just tell me how to do something, or how explain how she knew I would feel about something before it happened.. but she couldn't. You can't make someone feel something without actually letting them experience it for themselves. You can explain a feeling in the most detailed way, but it is always just your way, coming from inside of you. Until that person has come to personally feel an emotion, or be put in a situation themselves, they will never be able to fully grasp what you are trying to "make" them feel.

Perfect example in the above heartbeat instance.

You can describe how a heartbeat feels to YOU & the value of time that it teaches YOU, but no other person will be able to define it for themselves until they stop to feel & truly listen... *breathe* *heartbeat* *smile*