The Beauty of the Broken Heart

Recently I read a quote that made me stop in my tracks.

God breaks the heart again and again and again until it stays open.  – Hazmat Inayat Khan

It really reverberated with some musings I had recently. Often, when we feel our heart is broken, we react by stitching it up, and, thinking we are doing the right thing to preserve and protect it, let it heal with a thick layer of scar tissue about it to keep it safe. We say to ourselves, “I won’t make THAT mistake again!” Or “I won’t allow myself to get hurt like that again.” Our heart becomes closed, safe, and stagnant.

The heart chakra is a bridge between our lower chakras and our higher chakras. The lower relate to safety and security, the upper to truth, vision, and spirit. We need balance. Our lives cannot be all about safety and survival; nor can they be all about musings, contemplation and deep thoughts. We need thought and action. If energy cannot move through an open heart chakra, we may find ourselves overly concerned with protecting ourselves, or constantly “in our head”, analyzing and ruminating.

In class this week, we are focusing on poses to open the chest, strengthen the upper back, and expand fully into our space, getting big, open and fearless. Throughout our practice, I’ve offered quotes to focus the mind on this work. I’m offering the quotes below. When you feel your heart is closed, take some time to contemplate those that feel meaningful to you.

“You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens.” ― Rumi 

“The wailing of broken hearts is the doorway to God” —Rumi

The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” —Rumi

“You can only heal a broken heart through allowing it to open again; a closed heart remains a wounded heart. Many battles may be lost but you are not broken and you are not your wounds.” ― Christine Evangelou, Stardust and Star Jumps: A Motivational Guide to Help You Reach Toward Your Dreams, Goals, and Life Purpose

“God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume. It is Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns to greater power than ever.” —Vance Havner

“It is our wounds that create in us a desire to reach for miracles. The fulfillment of such miracles depends on whether we let our wounds pull us down or lift us up towards our dreams.” ― Jocelyn Soriano, Mend My Broken Heart

“Throughout my lifetime I’ve left pieces of my heart here and there. And now, there’s almost barely enough to stay alive. But I force a smile, knowing that my ambition far exceeded my talent.” ― Blow; Johnny Depp

“Every time your heart is broken, a doorway cracks open to a world full of new beginnings, new opportunities.”  ― Patti Roberts, The Angels Are Here

“Being heartbroken doesn’t mean you stop feeling. Just the opposite — it means you feel it all more. 
With your heart in fragments, every sensation is sharper, every emotion more acute. Your feelings are enhanced, like a blind man with an impeccable sense of smell, or a deaf woman whose eyes can perceive things a normal person would never recognize. 
The brokenhearted are the best empaths of all.”  ― Julie Johnson, Erasing Faith