Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Love is the vastness. Love is the environment.
And we can love love and we can be happy about being loved and we can have emotions about our state of consciousness. I mean, we can have emotions about lots of feelings, but love is the stuff that we're made of. We are made by love because of love, for love.
It's the original substance.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: Hi, I'm Deborah Rosman and a warm welcome to our listeners. Each month for the Ad Heart podcast, I have the privilege of interviewing individuals who are contributing to the creation of a more heart based world.
And this month I'm talking with Danielle Laporte, author of the bestselling book how to be loving when your heart is breaking open and the world is waking up. I love that subtitle.
And she's also the creator of the Heart Centered leadership program with over 400 leaders in 30 countries.
Danielle's a member of Oprah Supersoul hundred and a former director of Future studies think tank in Washington D.C. where she managed a team of creating global scenario plans.
She now speaks about the intelligence of the heart, which of course is what HeartMath is all about, and is the host of the With Love podcast, which often ranks in iTunes top 10 for wellness. Welcome, Danielle.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: Thank you for having me. I feel like this has been a long time coming, that our path is cross, you know.
[00:01:37] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I agree. Especially when I just met somebody who we work with who knows you a day after you and I spoke. I love those synchronicities.
Well, you know, it's another synchronicity to me is I just received last week a publication from the Harvard School of Epidemiology who just released a scientific paper looking at love as crucial to human flourishing and even policy.
And it's saying we should seek to understand love as a universal need and better promote love with various streams of empirical evidence that suggests that we need to put forward potentially radical proposals of how love might play a central role in social policy to enhance human flourishing. I thought, wow, we've come a long way for Harvard to be doing that.
So love is what we all want. You've said in what I read, love is not a feeling or emotion. It's a state of consciousness. What do you mean by that?
[00:02:44] Speaker A: Well, you know, there's a powerful metaphor that the Buddhists use a lot, which is that to see your heart as vast as the sky is the true reality, that is your true identity.
You're that infinite, that possible.
[00:03:05] Speaker A: And emotions are correlated to the clouds. So I think happiness is an emotion.
I think love is the Vastness. Love is the environment.
And we can love love and we can be happy about being love. And we can have emotions about our state of consciousness. I mean, we can have emotions about lots of feelings, but love is the.
Love is beyond primal. Love is the stuff that we're made of. Love is what makes us. We are made by love because of love, for love. It's the original substance.
Yeah.
So that doesn't go away, that doesn't pass. That's not a cloud.
Happiness comes and goes.
[00:03:56] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
So you talk about, which we do too. Living from the heart, space.
So love is an antidote to the polarization that we see in ourselves or in society.
But the world is so ensconced in reactivity, judgment, separation.
It can affect all of us through the stress waves, just in the energetic field. So how do you personally stay anchored in love when you encounter overwhelm or injustice the world?
[00:04:31] Speaker A: Well, I have a bucket full of daily practices, and those practices help me remember that I have a bucket full of practices. I think, like, lots of us have the tools, and then we forget that we have the tools when it's time to use the tools, when we're dysregulated, when we're angry, when we're feeling on the outside.
[00:04:54] Speaker A: So my. I have a practice called the Blessed Practice.
And it's super simple. So, you know, my.
My mission is to get as many people in the world as possible just breathing into their heart. We start there, I die happy, and we make a lot of progress.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: Right? I mean, that's the same mission.
[00:05:13] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. The, the premise, the paradigm around blessing, is that how I define blessing is it's a focused, positive intention.
Focused positive intention.
And that the, the physics idea that energy cannot be trans.
[00:05:37] Speaker A: Sorry, energy cannot be destroyed, it can only be transformed, is really sort of where I come from. So instead of pushing away negative, challenging experiences, the practices to bring them in, to really do the opposite of what we've been trained, inculcated, you know, culturalized to do.
And so I think whether it's something I want to manifest or, you know, I'm working on some grief right now. Like in. At the time of this recording, I'm in Paris. I'm just out of a relationship. It's a new moon. I have some grief come up.
I do my blessed practice.
So I trigger a positive memory. I get my mind to relax.
I think about something positive or I think about a higher state of consciousness. So I often think about the day my son was born or how much I love to swim in the ocean, open waters.
Then I see my heart lit up. There's lots of science and research around the. The benefits of both being exposed to actual light and just visualizing the light, very similar effects.
And then I welcome whatever it is that I want to manifest or whatever it is that I want to heal into my heart. And I saturate it with light, the full spectrum of light, because each color of light has its own, you could say, personality of healing. It has its own codes.
So I just let it, whatever it is that I'm working on, positive, negative, manifesting, healing, I let it sit in the center of my heart. I let it rest in that light. I breathe. I can do this in two minutes, or I can do this as a more formal practice. I'll sit for 11 minutes, 20 plus minutes.
And then the key to this, especially for myself, is to just leave it after the practice, just leave it. This is energy work.
Don't go back and think about, he said, they said I should have, I could have. We don't go back and apply the mind to analyze it. We don't go into the ego. We just let it rest in the heart space. The work's been done.
Move, move on with the day.
I do that every day. I do that multiple times a day. And I have a whole, you know, I have my mantras and my yoga and all those other tools.
[00:08:06] Speaker B: That's beautifully said. Because that brings us back to alignment, embracing the uncomfortable. You know, that's what I call it. Because eventually, especially in the energies these days where so many people are waking up to the heart, there's added facilitation to be able to do what you're talking about if people just give it a try, and that it helps empower compassion for yourself and others and forgiveness to have it be real, not just conceptual.
[00:08:40] Speaker A: Yes, not just conceptual. I mean, that is, you know, there's a reason why it's called spiritual practice, where this is not about being perfect every time, but this is the work. Like, you know, when I'm working with people in my community so often I'll see them get in the strategy mode with whatever is painful, whether it's, you know, they got uninvited to Thanksgiving dinner because of their political views or they're not getting along with their daughter, whatever it is.
And I'll say, how have you worked with this on an energetic level?
Instead of like, all the things, should I invite them to dinner, Should I text, should I write the letter, Should I drive over? Should I, should I, should I should I all up in the head.
But have you worked on an energetic level, which we all know on some level? I mean, anybody who's listening to this right now, a heart math podcast, I'm sure is identifying as on the path to, you know, self realization. And yet so often in these communities, we forget that we're the healer, we're not the wound.
We have the tools and we just need to do the energy work. And the energy work just looks like the breath looks like sitting in your garden and thinking, contemplating what love would do right now before we get all spun out with strategy and stuck in the past. Yeah.
[00:10:02] Speaker B: You know, if you open your heart with love or care, compassion or any of those heart qualities that create heart rhythm, coherence and then activates the higher brain centers, you get intuition, intuitive guidance of your next steps, and then your strategy becomes more intuitively heart based, inspired.
[00:10:22] Speaker A: Well, how do you define intuition?
[00:10:26] Speaker B: Well, at this point, yes, it's a good question because we talk about practical intuition, not intuition. That was finding out how to win the lottery. But where your heart brain are in sync and align and you get downloads of inspiration or guidance and thoughts or feelings or clarity.
That's how I experience intuition.
Define it.
How do you define it?
[00:10:54] Speaker A: That I think that the, the processes that coherence, how I would describe that is you are building a stronger bridge. You're clearing the pathway to your soul, to your higher self.
And intuition is really you clearly hearing what your higher self is trying to tell you for the good of you and everybody around you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sometimes you win the lottery.
[00:11:18] Speaker B: Yeah, same thing like we, I call or we call it heart month, our higher self, our large.
That way it doesn't can be whatever your spiritual definition is, a soul or leader, but it is accessing that alignment with spirit, you know, so that you can get that guidance that is so wonderful when you just live your life directed by that to me.
[00:11:43] Speaker A: Yes. It's so efficient. It ends up being very efficient.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: Yeah, efficient, effective. I love that. You know, you've cultivated a community of over 400 heart center leaders around the world.
[00:11:57] Speaker B: How is they responding to this, to love? What do you believe defines a truly heart centered leader? So they don't just look at it as like some kind of soft attitude, but something powerful.
[00:12:12] Speaker A: Well, the belief is that.
[00:12:16] Speaker A: We'Re here to heal, that we do that through relationships and we do that through the heart. That transformation only happens through the heart.
[00:12:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:27] Speaker A: Our strategy is love first and then you use your exceptional mind capacity to execute on the inner Guidance but without the inner guidance coming first.
Essentially what you have is ego centered goals.
And my, my experience of my goals that were ego centered is that whenever I achieved something I felt like I, I didn't stop to celebrate. I wanted to get on to the next thing that usually behind the ego centered goal vision aspiration was I was trying to prove something to somebody. It was I, you know, it's someone in my past. It's my Catholic hangover. I'm trying to prove something to God. I'm trying to earn the divine favor to get my prayers answered. There's some proving, there's some, some shadowy striving and there's no rest. There's no rest in that kind of achievement.
Heart centered goals are inclusive.
I ask, first of all, they're good for me, basic.
And it doesn't mean there's not going to be hard work and challenge and sacrifice involved.
But the pursuit of manifesting, of making good on that goal is much more of a healthy experience.
And that essentially when I create heart centered visions, I'm asking a really inclusive question, also very Buddhist, how might my success help or harm others?
[00:14:01] Speaker A: And you still get to want, like I'm very clear with my people, you can want all the things you still get to want and have and multiply all the earthly pleasures like get the money, get the boat, get the new title, get the cashmere, whatever it is, clean up the beach, whatever your aspiration is.
But there is a through line that I'm going to use my success, my fulfillment.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: To benefit all sentient beings.
And my belief this is in the realm of beliefs is that.
[00:14:40] Speaker A: When you have heart centered aspirations, you get the, you get the blessing, you get the empowerment, you get the activation of.
[00:14:52] Speaker A: The higher realms of your soul, that the soul actually does not recognize selfish desires. You can still pull off ego centered goals because manifestation is just a technology. Just see it, keep seeing it, keep doing it.
But I think if you really want to experience synchronicity and what a lot of us would call miracles, then the goals need to be.
[00:15:22] Speaker A: Truly inspired and inclusive.
[00:15:27] Speaker B: Beautifully said. I'm just so appreciative that you have found heart centered leaders who influence others. That's what a leader is who want to embrace this and use tools to manifest that. You know, many people are striving to make a positive impact. We work with a lot of nurses and hospitals and health professionals. They're burned out, disheartened, even though their hearts are in the right place.
When you talk to leaders who want to be able to Renew and sustain their service without losing.
[00:16:05] Speaker B: Heart, losing the heart connection. What do you suggest they do? Because I've been. Many of our listeners practice spiritual practices, self help practices, but they're still overwhelmed and burning out. And it's, we need to bond together and really do the best advice we can all find. What would you suggest?
[00:16:30] Speaker A: You have to love your burnout, for starters.
So you've got to find some degree.
[00:16:36] Speaker B: Of.
[00:16:38] Speaker A: Compassion and acceptance for where you're at. Because what I see with helpers and burnout is that there is, there's a criticism and there's a pushing away of the fatigue because we want to be of service.
And when we start flagging and burning out, there's some guilt.
[00:17:02] Speaker A: So you got to embrace the burnout and hear what it's trying to say to you.
And then you also need to embrace possibly what could be some shadow motivations for wanting to be of service.
I mean, this is really part of being whole, to really look with curiosity, compassion, with love about why you're in it.
Are you doing what you're doing out of some unhealthy striving to get the divine favor, to have your father, mother, your family finally say you're a winner, you're loved, to try and fill some wound?
I mean, really, this is like, this is shadow work. Right.
And when you can meet that wounded part of yourself, you'll do what needs to be done. You'll take a sabbatical, you'll retire, you'll double down. Because for a lot of us to serve from that place of healedness, of open heartedness, is, gives us a lot of energy.
But you know, the short version of what I'm saying is we need to question our motives.
[00:18:12] Speaker A: With love.
A loving inquiry about why we're doing what we're doing and what's best for us.
And then the path will become clear. You'll. You'll know what to do.
Yeah.
[00:18:24] Speaker B: Beautifully said. Thank you. You know.
[00:18:28] Speaker B: With so many global shifts happening in the world, it's getting more stressed and more people waking up. Because when people have nowhere else to go and don't see any hope, they go to their heart and they hopefully find hope.
What gives you.
[00:18:46] Speaker B: Hope and faith in humanity and where the world is? Where do you see things going?
[00:18:53] Speaker A: Well, I do extract some hope from some prophecies that's helpful, that this really is our awakening.
This is the darkest before the dawn. The dawn is inevitable.
I get hope from my own experience. I've had my own dark night of the soul. Anxiety, suicidal ideation, the life experience. And not only do I get through it, I am more radiant and loving and joyful on the other side every time. Every time. And I see it again and again and again. Dozens, thousands of people in my community, like we. We rise. We come back to love all of the time.
And.
[00:19:40] Speaker A: You know, for a while, when I did a speaking tour, this is like a few books ago, and, you know, I'm speaking in churches and I'm speaking in, you know, in businesses, and I asked this question, where are people resourcing their hope?
And in one way or another, the answer was always from each other.
[00:20:03] Speaker A: And it was just the lived experience of someone who made it to AA or someone who got out of bankruptcy or someone who was, you know, not that good of a person.
And they saw it and they got through it, and they became more loving and forgiving and all the things extracting hope from people who forgive. What we would have said was unforgivable. We find it in each other. It's not.
[00:20:32] Speaker A: For me. It's not, you know, for me, it's like this. It's. It's from the heavens. It's prophetic.
It's in so many belief systems that everything works out.
And it's also just from my girlfriends.
Yeah.
[00:20:49] Speaker B: Beautiful. Yeah. You know, we have a saying here at HeartMath about the waking up that's happening and the collaborations and the synchronicities like you and us just finally connecting after being on the same frequency for so long.
[00:21:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:07] Speaker B: It's time.
With social media and all the tools of interconnectivity to help love go viral, as we say, how do you see, you may not have thought about this, but how can we collectively with each other not only just get along, but help love go viral?
[00:21:27] Speaker A: I think about it every day.
[00:21:31] Speaker A: We have to have practices.
There's no. There's no way around it.
And that practice is up to each person to define. And. But you've got to have something every day that taps you into your heart and the greater consciousness.
It could be your walk around the lake. It could be morning scripture. It could be the blessed practice. It could be heart, math, coherence. And I put the thing on my ear and I watch the app, but you got to do something there needs. You know, hygiene is not my favorite word, but it's like there is something around spiritual hygiene. You need devotion. What you water grows. We know this.
So there's that.
[00:22:16] Speaker A: And the result of that is that I think we become more loving in our thoughts, our speech and our actions. And when I talk about thought, speech and actions in one sentence, what I'm really talking about is integrity.
That when you have a practice, you will think higher vibration thoughts.
And that will affect not just what you say, but the tone and the words you choose. And your choice to be silent, I mean, that right there would save the world.
That's right. And it'll affect how you show up, what you actually do with your, your body, your time, your days.
[00:22:58] Speaker A: And then just super practically. Well, I mean, having a daily practice is practical, but I think we all are really aware of how dysregulating our phones are.
[00:23:11] Speaker A: And I think we're coming to the awareness that our phones are the new smoking.
And that combined with what's happening with artificial intelligence, I think we're going to see, I think our interest, our fascination.
[00:23:28] Speaker A: Our infatuation. That's the word I want. Our infatuation with artificial intelligence is going to quiet down.
And I can already see the pendulum starting to swing. I mean, the craving is there for people to be in person, for there to be more touch, whether that's writing in a journal or just hugging somebody.
And that craving gives me a lot of hope for love going viral, as you say, at heart.
[00:23:59] Speaker B: Math and then.
[00:24:03] Speaker B: The energetic field. Our choices can really ripple into the whole planetary field and it's waiting for us, I think, to collectively choose that in higher vibration, individually, as you're saying and collecting.
Yeah. Daniel, thank you for sharing your wisdom and presence with us today. Your perspective on love as a living practice is grounded and uplifting.
And for our listeners, I hope this conversation inspires you to your daily practice of commitment to compassion and kindness, appreciation and gentleness in your own life.
Let's all do a heart meditation together on love and put that out into the energetic field and help lift each other's hearts and the energetics of humanity.
So let's focus our attention in the heart area.
[00:25:02] Speaker B: And with each breath, just breathe love through your heart area.
[00:25:14] Speaker B: Imagine breathing in the feeling of love.
[00:25:18] Speaker B: Going into your heart.
[00:25:22] Speaker B: And on the out breath, radiate love and gratitude through all your cells and out to.
[00:25:55] Speaker B: As you continue to do this, just envision yourself and more and more people throughout the world.
[00:26:03] Speaker B: Taking steps to be more compassionate, caring, kind and cooperative with each other.
[00:26:17] Speaker B: And as we do this, see it rippling out into the energetic field, making it easier for others to connect with their hearts.
[00:26:40] Speaker B: See this also increasing the connection with our heart's guidance and directions.
[00:27:15] Speaker B: Now let's radiate love to all of humanity, seeing people harmonizing their relationships which creates the best possible outcomes for the wholeness.
[00:27:58] Speaker B: Now let's radiate love and compassion to all people who are suffering hardships from wars, famine, displacement, natural disasters.
[00:28:09] Speaker B: Trauma and other major stressors.
[00:28:20] Speaker B: See this helping uplift the planetary field energy for all.
[00:28:26] Speaker B: Especially help lift the hearts of those suffering hardships.
[00:28:38] Speaker A: It.
[00:29:05] Speaker B: Thank you so much for sharing that heart meditation.
[00:29:09] Speaker B: Danielle. If you could leave our listeners with one invitation to bring more heart into their lives, their work or the relationships, what would that be?
[00:29:24] Speaker B: You're on mute.
[00:29:28] Speaker A: Just remember that you're the healer.
[00:29:32] Speaker A: You're not the wound, you're not your. You're actually not even your feelings.
You're not the emotions. You're not your past, you're not anything that's happened.
You are the healer.
[00:29:44] Speaker A: The creator.
And that has you take a very different approach to if anything is a problem, if it is a problem, and your capacity to turn situations around. Yeah, you're it.
[00:30:01] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:30:03] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:30:03] Speaker B: Well all our listeners, as a free gift, we want to let you know you can watch the HeartMath Experience, an online video learning course available on the HeartMath websites and in the new HeartMath app, which you can download from the App Store Google Play Store and learn some simple techniques you can do in the day day to day to shift out of the head and you go into the heart and connect with your heart's guidance.
And I also want to remind you that the third Tuesday of every month we publish a new At Heart Podcast episode. So be sure to subscribe so you don't miss our next guest and topic. Thank you.
[00:30:46] Speaker A: Thank you for listening to the Ad Heart Podcast. Be sure to subscribe so you can catch the latest episodes. If you're wanting even more heart inspired content, find us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. Look for HeartMath and also the HeartMath Institute. Both organizations are committed to helping activate the heart of humanity.
