The Journey from Mind to Heart

In this podcast episode, Ashley and Nate explore the concept of heart-centered living, discussing the transition from a mind-driven existence to one that is more connected to the heart. They share personal experiences and anecdotes that illustrate the richness of living from the heart, emphasizing the importance of slowing down, being present, and cultivating gratitude. The conversation delves into practical practices for accessing heart-mind coherence and the profound impact this shift can have on well-being and emotional intelligence.

Transcript

Ashley (00:03.975)
So welcome everyone. Hi, Nate. You too. Today we're doing our podcast about heart centered living. We're talking about this idea of moving from living from the mind to living from the heart.

Ashley Henderson (00:07.086)
Hi there, hi Ash, nice to see you.

Ashley (00:32.603)
And I picked this topic because it's really up for me right now in my life. And when I brought it up to you, Nate, you shared, you had a lot of experience with this and it was exciting to you too. So I guess I'll start because it was really my...

my idea, you know, this year I've been really unpacking and unraveling a lot of my conditioning ways that I was operating sort of unconsciously. And, and, and it's been uncomfortable. It's been hard. It's hard to sort of wrestle your ego.

to free you really. mean, I'm really interested in freedom. I'm really interested in truth. And that's my main motivation. And so as I've been seeing more and more of the ways that I've been some of the ways that I've been operating in the world, they seem like they're kind of getting quieter, know, loosening up. And what occurred to me recently is, well, if not that, then what? And I just sort of

let this question hang in my practice, in my consciousness. If I'm not operating from this conditioning, how am I moving through the world? And what's just really come in very organically is heart -centered living. then as it happens, it's sort of every podcast I'm listening to, they're talking about heart -centered living. It's like when you're buying a car, you see that car everywhere, you know?

Ashley Henderson (02:23.585)
Mm

Ashley (02:24.065)
it's just really been up in my, in my, podcasting and my, just consuming of information is a, is a lot about this, but I wanted to start with just what's been happening for me organically in this felt sense, which is, when I'm no longer at the mercy of my mind, whatever my mind.

is doing in any given moment. There's just this like moving down into the heart space. It does feel very spacious and there's so much energy there that feels a lot like gratitude, a lot like appreciation. I might then

instead of worrying about how my day is going to go and how I can make it work or something like that, I might be noticing how the light is hitting the leaves on the trees or the birds that are singing. then just this like upswelling of love comes in. And it really could be anywhere. It doesn't have to be that even that I'm in nature. It could be I'm in the grocery store or anywhere that there's there's just this energy of

of what feels like love or gratitude or appreciation. And it's like, almost like it's happening and I'm like, that is so cool. Yeah. I'll click into that. It's not something that I feel like I'm making happen necessarily, but I can remember and go into that space and cultivate it. I can cultivate it. but I don't know that I even would have known exactly what that was unless there was a willingness.

to leave the mind. And that has been really cool. The discovery of that sort of new operating system, that new way of being.

Ashley Henderson (04:33.744)
Yeah, it's a very different space than just sitting in the mind, which does a lot of ruminating and repeating and feels kind of stale in some way. But when you drop down into the heart and you're allowing things to just unfold and I guess part of that is also just releasing expectation, which feel like is a big part of what the mind tries to do to keep you safe. Then you're

much more in the moment and allowing things to just kind of happen. Yeah, I had a funny experience this morning at the grocery store, you said grocery store, and of course I'm thinking about our topic and so I was doing some meditations around focusing in on my heart and then life happens and I to go to the store, get stuff for taco night tonight and...

course, I get into the store and I start doing the thing that I always do as like a really practical person. just like, let's go here and form a line, go around, get all my stuff, really efficient. And then I got into this line with this young man who is like a second day checking and shout out to Leo at Hannaford, really nice kid. And there was no one in the store, but I was still kind of like in that place. I was like, all right, let's go, let's do this. And then like,

He turned on the scan, the conveyor belt, and we just like both looked at it and it was going so slow. It was like just barely moving and he was like, whoa, sir, that's really slow. And I was like, it is, it is indeed very slow. And then we started chatting. He's scanning every single item. Then looking up at me, did I do that right? I'm like, you're doing great, man. You're doing great. So we have this whole moment where

It took like 10 minutes to check my normal three minute thing out. But it was like his freshness and my willingness to just step into that place completely changed it. was like immediately like the slow conveyor belt was like, it did go into the brain and the brain and I told the brain, was like, you need to back off because this is a moment. And then it just.

Ashley Henderson (06:55.373)
It changed it, you know? And everything got richer. So I like what you said too about like the light changes. It's like, yeah, I started looking at him in the eye and I was like, and we were like, it's like, I play soccer. We were talking about, I'm gonna coach my son's soccer team. I play soccer and I do karate. I used to do karate. So then we have this little moment. It was just this space that got opened up because everything slowed down.

And I took that as an invitation to not just slow down physically, but also get out of the fast paced brain and get into the slower paced space of the heart and just let the moment unfold. And nothing profound happened, but it was enjoyable. And we both like said bye to each other. He's like, I hope it stays this nice the rest of the day. And I was like, I hope so too. It was just, I don't know. It was just an anecdote about how.

you know, what is it like when you start bringing this stuff out into the real world?

Ashley (07:58.553)
Yeah, I think there's so much in that story actually. I think the slowing down is key. You know, there's a different pace in the heart space. There's like an openness to whatever's here rather than this is how I think it's supposed to go. And if it doesn't go that way, then I'm going to have a feeling or I need, I'm going to feel out of control. It's more like, what's here? Just that kind of openness. So the slowing down.

Ashley Henderson (08:19.949)
Yes.

Ashley (08:28.527)
And the openness, but then the last thing you said, something like nothing really happened. think that's part of why this wasn't that interesting to me before. Not interesting, but well, I would say not interesting, but also maybe not available is because maybe it would seem like life would be boring if you were just kind of open hearted or loving or whatever it. You wouldn't be making something happen or.

Yeah, you know, the slow kind of present moment experience. mean, people feel this way sometime in meditation. They feel bored. Maybe they're used to being stimulated in a certain way. we, our minds need something to grapple with, need a problem to solve, need...

some stimulation that feels like a drama. So in this heart centered space, there might be drama. Maybe, maybe not. It's sort of you're not looking for it. And there's this kind of slow opening to what is and then that really feels interesting in a different kind of way. Because the piece, sorry, the piece, the sensation, that piece of

Ashley Henderson (09:48.746)
Yeah. Yeah, I think.

No.

Ashley (09:57.96)
of

Ashley (10:03.995)
I don't know, even that little connection of making each other's day of just a nice moment. goes so deep. I think more than we know.

Ashley Henderson (10:13.642)
Yeah, I think it's counter. What I was thinking was that most of what we see, like the big broad strokes of the culture and of modern life is very mental. It's very like, even just like, you think of like algorithms of social media, you think about all like advertising, just so much of it is like attracting the brain.

in the eyes and kind of getting you to just stay all up here. And I think a lot of the kind of like social architecture is coming largely from the brain space and not so much the heart space. So then when you intentionally drop down into the heart space in this kind of brain driven world, it can feel very different. You're accessing like a different level and

You said another thing to you said when you're when you're in your brain or in your head you you you have a thought and then the thought moves into a feeling and it's so different to just allow a feeling to arise and try to as much as you can not necessarily have a thought about it first like what what's actually coming up because I think when you allow

things to kind of naturally occur like that, you're getting a much more honest representation of what's happening inside of you. When it comes down from the top, it's like so many of those thoughts are filtered through all the different stuff that other people have put in you. Good, bad, whatever. And when it comes from the heart, it's always yours. No one's getting into your heart and putting culture and all this other stuff in your heart. I mean, your heart space really...

Ashley (12:07.953)
Mm

Ashley Henderson (12:11.345)
has a different, much more authentic truth. And if you're gonna access a different level, if you can just, even portions of the day, and that's the thing, I won't be like that all day with that guy. Like we had a moment, it was like everything kind of lined up and what you were kind of talking about at the beginning was how do we cultivate this as a practice so that we get more and more access to those feelings and it's not just.

one moment maybe you string two or three together or you have two or three throughout the day and then you just call that a win you know

Ashley (12:47.857)
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I don't even know right now if I'm even interested in evaluating how much time I'm there. It's interesting because the sense that I have right now and where I am with it is that it's our natural state. I think that's where babies come into the world or kids who...

Ashley Henderson (12:56.87)
Mm -hmm.

Ashley Henderson (13:10.512)
Yes.

Ashley (13:12.421)
you know, younger kids operate from the heart. We're just heart centered. We see videos of that all the time. We see that in our kids. It's natural. And so I think for me, what I'm noticing is what are the conditions for that to just naturally be here? And I wanted to just say, highlight one aspect of this, because I started out by talking about this year of unraveling and really it's

30 years of unraveling, this year just really having the time to consciously make space for that. What's underneath this unraveling, what makes it not just like, yeah, I can see that operating system. I'm let that one go or I'm just going to move into the heart. And that's it. There's a tug. There's a conflict.

Ashley Henderson (13:43.618)
Okay.

Ashley (14:11.559)
about, think, the mind's, releasing the ego or the mind's attachment to itself, to its operating to protect you. So I think a lot of the difficulty I know I've had in moving into the heart is that I think I've had these core beliefs that the mind is

important and that it needs to be in charge. It needs to be running the show to keep me safe. And so having this time to really get down to the root of some of these ideas in myself and realize that it's not true, you know, it's really actually not true. I don't need those operating systems of being liked or being successful or being busy or being codependent or on any of these things to

keep me safe, actually, it's a self -imposed prison that I couldn't see. And so I just want to say there's some releasing, I do think, that happens, permission or getting down to the root of letting go of the mind. It's really hard. That's been really challenging for me. And then when I see that it's connected to safety, then I can really understand why that's hard.

So and then I do think this heart centered living is our natural state. And that that's part of why it's just kind of arising on its own. As I as I get to the core of some of those things, I'm like, this is just why isn't out? Why aren't we always living this way? This is so silly. Like, why are we in a hurry at the grocery? Like, why wouldn't we want to have those types of interactions all the time? Isn't that the most important thing? So

Ashley Henderson (15:49.356)
Mm -hmm.

Ashley (16:08.9)
It's kind of turned on itself a little bit in my life and it's kind of exciting to see.

Ashley Henderson (16:12.257)
Yeah. Yeah. It's making me think of a couple of different things. One of the things that keeps popping up is that I listen to, I really like this woman who channels, her name is Wendy Kennedy. She's been doing it a long time. She's fantastic. I love her. I just love her energy. Most of the people that I like listening to like that, it's not so much what they say. It's like the energy that comes through the transmissions. And one of the things that her people

entities whatever that she channels say is that If you can stay in your heart space and you can live from your heart space You're gonna access ease and joy in in just like a fluid life so much in such an easier way and they in one of the things they say to kind of help people because I think It's easy to say that it's not necessarily easy to do that. But one of the things that they

like to remind you is that if something is sticking with you for like longer than 30 or 45 seconds, they're like, you have moved into the head. They're like, can officially just say, okay, I'm in thinking now, I am no longer in feeling. And I think about that, like, I think about the way that the brain wants to kind of grab hold of things, feelings.

scenarios, whatever, and really just mull it over. And most of my anxiety, most of my discomfort with mental stuff comes from those moments where you're just like, it's just grinding and you're just like, God, just let it go. And I think about what the invitation is with opening into the heart space is just kind of.

trying to prompt yourself to let things not get stuck, to let things flow in and flow out. And anytime you have something that feels like you're in it for longer than, you know, like a minute, not that you need to beat yourself up over it or anything, but just acknowledge, okay. And then one of the things that you can do then without having to do anything really hard is just thinking about your heart. And if you...

Ashley Henderson (18:38.142)
take the brain and put it to work and put it back into the heart, then all of a sudden the heart is a little more involved. And that helps quite a bit. I mean, that's kind of the whole premise of heart math stuff is the heart -brain coherence is just pulling your attention from the head down into the heart space. And it's not super complicated. It just takes focus. And then you just have access. You have access to different stuff, you know.

Ashley (19:03.408)
Yeah, I was.

Ashley (19:07.929)
Yeah, I think I love that. I was hoping that you would talk more about the heart math stuff because I do think we're at a time where that type of practice is really essential and important. And, you know, I'm talking about this organic experience that I'm having, but that doesn't mean that I'm not spending time moving into the heart on purpose every, you know, as much as I can remember.

in the day and it's really motivated by, feel so much better. I feel more at peace. I was sharing with you earlier that I had the privilege of doing a horse workshop this weekend. It wasn't riding, but it was working with energy and horses are basically biofeedback animals. so

you know, whatever you're feeling, they're going to reflect back to you. And I just got into such a peaceful place and realized that I don't know. We can't know what the hearts. I mean, with the horses feeling because the horse isn't telling us. But but there was such a resonance in resting in this heart centered space. And it feels like presence and it feels so peaceful. And so that to me is the motivation. The motivation is like it feels good.

Ashley Henderson (20:36.111)
Yeah. Yeah, had you had said that to me and I had shared with you that I've been to a couple of those workshops. I helped facilitate two of them at my farm that I used to work at. And what's what's powerful about the horse is exactly what you're saying. It's this very palpable resonance with the horses energetic field. And you don't have to

Ashley (20:36.251)
It feels great.

Ashley Henderson (21:04.196)
be woo -woo about this, because it's all been documented with science. The electromagnetic field, the biofield of all living beings has a different space and size and whatever. And the horse happens to have a much bigger bio magnetic field than a human. And when the two of you come into each other's field, and ours is like about three or four feet out,

when you get into that space and then you drop into the heart, then you have entrainment between the horse's heart -mind coherence and your heart -mind coherence and your biofields start to co -regulate. And most animals, because they don't spend all the time up here in their brain, they spend it in their body and they're very present in the moment.

especially flight animals who can kick it into high gear really fast, but then the rest of the time they have to be, they're just mellow. It's like immediately you just feel it. And then if you put your hand on the horse and you start breathing and you're just breathing, it's like, it's a great lesson for people because you really get that immediate physical response, which is just like, it's just calm and ease and just peace.

Yeah, it's really, it's amazing to watch. So because I got to facilitate some of my, I would get to see like as an observer and it is fascinating. You can see the horse and the human sometimes like drop their head, breathing gets different and it's just like, whoa, it's juicy.

Ashley (22:48.199)
That's super cool. Yeah. I think that in my experience, connecting to the heart can be instantaneous. It's not a 45 minute endeavor. I mean, you could make it a 45 minute endeavor and probably get a lot out of that. But it is something you could just do in the grocery store. I mean, you just drop into the heart. You drop out of the mind. And I wonder if you can talk at all about that.

heart -brain coherence a little bit more in terms of a practice that's worked for you.

Ashley Henderson (23:22.828)
Yeah, I can. will really quick, because I knew we were talking about this. I have this thing, which plugs into a phone and then has a pulse oximeter reading and it goes on your ear. And that is really good for people who, and that's a HeartMath product. It's a little pricey. I got it because I was part of a training. Very good for people who

have a hard time understanding how this stuff actually works and just staying too much in the brain because it is literal in the moment biofeedback. You focus on your breathing and you get a little app with a chart and then you'll get a little color coding about how you're breathing and then it starts tracking your heart rate as it's catching the data. And this is all the stuff that like Joe Dispenza is.

He uses these monitors in his workshops as well. And then when you just do a simple activity of focusing down on the heart space and the heart math people, there's a specific script so I don't wanna mess it up. I will include a link in our thing. But the gist of it is to focus on your heart space and imagine breathing in and out through your heart. And then once you have that for a couple of breaths.

The other thing that they really like to do, which I have seen tracked on my app, is to then grab a moment in your mind, a feeling, not a memory in the sense of like an actual event, but the feeling you had of something you enjoyed, and then hold the feeling in you. It could be peace, joy, love, happiness, whatever. And you'll just see, you can see the heart -brain coherence. It just, it locks in.

and you totally change and then you have this sensation of having real -time feedback but also it then is cueing you to look inside your body and you're like, well, and how do I feel? I feel relaxed. I feel at ease. feel calm. I don't have racing thoughts. I'm just focusing.

Ashley Henderson (25:42.324)
you wander and you come back. So it's very similar to a meditation practice, but it has that element where you get to pull in the feedback, which is helpful for people. When I first started doing this stuff, I just was geeking out on it. It helped me understand when do I go into my brain and when am I in my heart? Because you go into your brain very easily. It's not hard at all to do, so that app is kind of nice because you can track that.

Yeah, and then in the heart math stuff is just a codified version of what you have been talking about. So you don't need this stuff. just buttresses it up. helps. Heart math is very into collecting a lot of data on this in there. They are trying to bring it into the mainstream. So it's in Kaiser. It's in a couple of different hospitals and healthcare systems.

And it's fantastic, I think it's really great. it's also, I'm just saying this, you don't need it to just do it, which is just focusing on the heart and then bring up a feeling. I often, we were just talking about horses, I often think about animals because there's like almost no, you're not like thinking about a situation necessarily, you're just thinking about how much you love your animal or pet or an animal that you know or whatever. You can use anything.

That's a go -to.

Ashley (27:18.471)
I think what comes up for me is gratitude. Like that's what's been coming up for me. And I know for me, if I'm trying to get into gratitude, but it's not authentic, it doesn't really work. But if I'm already there and I, mean, gratitude is just kind of arising on its own and that's really cool because it's like a powerful, it's a powerful energy gratitude.

Ashley Henderson (27:22.259)
Mm

Ashley (27:47.355)
I mean, really, nothing can go wrong in gratitude. like everything is OK. It's a high -level feeling.

But I also just wanted to share this because you mentioned Joe Dispenza and the research that he's doing right now is actually suggesting that this coherence has a healing resonance, has a creator resonance, a manifestation resonance, that people are really changing their lives, drastically changing their lives, their healing from things like cancer.

and manifesting.

millions of dollars. mean, just all sorts of things that, you know, people are sharing from his work. And what I love about him is that he's doing the research for me. I don't know where that would go for me. I think the feeling that of that sense of peace and presence and gratitude is like totally enough of a a motivation for me to keep moving in that direction.

But I also think that the research that he's doing is so important and may help people get on that path.

Ashley Henderson (29:12.839)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, he pulls a lot of people in with his, keeping it very scientific pulls a lot of skeptical people in and I think that's fantastic. I also think, like you said, I'm not, like I've read a number of his books, I really like his stuff and I do his meditations. Also just think the bigger takeaway from that is,

just this fundamental conversation we're having right now, is, you know, it's not just that it feels good. It's not just that it brings in presence, but then people like Joe Dispenza are showing that it's like, you're gonna live a better life. You're like probably healing physical wound or emotional things and physical things because you're moving into this space of kind of infinite possibility in the heart, which is.

so different than like ruminating on sickness, right? Which is kind of what the culture does. You get a diagnosis, it's like doom and gloom, you go onto Google, you do the research, then you're really off and going. And what a different place than going into the heart and going into this place of, know, where do I find acceptance and love for all of it, including the parts of me.

that got out of alignment enough that something is showing up as feedback in my life. And I think that there's a real, I don't know, there's just a real invitation and power there to, and you know, I mean, here we are, we're doing the sales job, it's also just like, it doesn't hurt, it's it's only good. And it's not easy, but I mean, it's just all it takes is the kind of.

the awareness to just a couple moments. So that's why earlier I was saying, you know, if you string a couple together, if you think you did it twice or three times a day, I say that because I have a very evaluative brain and I have a judgy brain. So I can be in my heart some of the day and then be kicked out of my heart. And then at the end of the day, what I'm doing is like, I'll do like a post -mortem and be like, well, Jesus Christ, only two heart moment centered parts of the day.

Ashley Henderson (31:35.724)
You gotta work on that, Nate. And it's just, you know, that part. Exactly, exactly. And it's just like, it's not helpful, it's not whatever, it's just, it's all.

Ashley (31:40.443)
which is not a heart -centered moment.

Ashley Henderson (31:50.057)
that moment can then become the invitation to say, well, maybe I should just get my hair now.

Ashley (31:57.063)
Yeah, just remember it totally. It reminds me of, you know, I mean, it's I, I'm not hearing this as much. But I'm also not engaging with as many people in these kinds of conversations. The people I'm talking to are into it. But for so many years, people say I don't have really I don't have time.

Ashley Henderson (31:58.318)
Quiet that thing down.

Ashley (32:23.295)
I don't have time to meditate. I don't know that anybody's ever said to me don't have time to drop into the heart, but.

Yeah, there's a resistance there. And I feel it too. I feel like maybe even there was a part of me that was judgmental about it. Like that sounds like somebody who's not very smart or that sounds like somebody who wouldn't get a lot of things done. Somebody's floating through life, living from their heart. You might think they're a little weird or crazy. You know, that the norm is to be stressed. The norm is to be

driven, the norm is to be busy and to be producing. Whether that's coming from the heart or not, that's irrelevant. The heart is not even a part of the story. Then busyness or productivity is happening on its own, being driven by something else. I'm not saying that if you're living from the heart, you're not going to be productive, but if it's centered in the heart.

that productivity is gonna feel a lot different. It's probably not gonna feel stressful. I don't think that's how we're meant to live. I don't think that's our natural state. So I think there's even a part of me that's, mean, it's humbling. It's humbling for me to see my own reaction to, wow, just having a heart centered moment with someone is having

a huge impact on my well -being that I'm, you know, what could seem so minor or somebody else might miss. I'm now finding like that was the most important moment of my day. Those are the moments that I'm wanting to share with other people. Those are the moments at the end of the day that I'm going back to visit in my mind because I want to recreate the feeling. So it's like, I just feel like the whole landscape of my life is changing.

Ashley (34:32.963)
And it's like not something that I don't think I was ever directed to. It's not that my upbringing or the culture was trying to hurt people on purpose. I didn't grow up in that kind of environment. But what I was directed to was not this. And almost maybe would have had a little judgment for

you know, somebody talking about a heart centered life or these small moments of you and that man in the grocery store, you actually have no idea how that's sitting with him the rest of the day, tomorrow, throughout his life, whether he's conscious of it or not. And it does feel like where we are right now, heart, love, presence,

spaciousness, slowing down is the medicine we all need. Whether that's going to cure my chronic foot pain, I have no idea. I'm really hopeful. But I know that for me, it's feeling like so inviting and enlivening to switch gears.

Ashley Henderson (35:51.236)
Yeah, you said a lot there. This is sort of an aside, but also related to what you're saying. When you were saying that, it was making me think about our culture now and thinking about the fact that we've created this thing called AI that is basically supercharging mentalism. It's...

It's data collection. It's just crunching insane amounts of data and making it usable for all sorts of people. And I know that there's a lot of fear around that, but there's also this invitation to just say, you know, that part could be done by somebody else, by something else. And you now have more bandwidth and you probably have a deeper desire to tap into this other part of yourself.

which is the heart space. And AI won't ever figure that out, you know, or not for a long time. And I think about that when I think about kind of like the kind of really driven Western rugged individualism that we were brought up with, the art generation that came out of the boomers kind of pushing, and that was all pushed out of love, right? They want you to be able to take care of yourself. And every parent kind of thinks like,

You know, got, when I'm gone, I hope my little ones will be okay in the world. That's kind of where that all comes from. It's fear -based, it's okay, it's not the worst model, right? It works, our world is working. But as we come into this place where now you can see a lot of the mental stuff is being offloaded and what is gonna rise to the top as a premium, in my opinion, is...

emotional intelligence, is EQ, is how do people relate to one another as we become more and more disconnected from life and have, it's all thinky, thinky, thinky. When you can get people that actually are willing to come down in the heart space, you're gonna be sending a frequency out there that is like, people are gonna be like, whoa, I like what you got, I don't get it.

Ashley Henderson (38:10.079)
And or maybe they bounce off and that's okay too. But I just, think that there's, yeah, it's not reflected back to us. There's not a premium on it and that's okay. I do think that it will, just like the horse's biofield and the human's biofield, the biofield of love and appreciation out in the world.

It touches people, it's invisible, but it touches people, it's there. And I think as maybe people experience less of that or there's not an invitation for that, when it does come around, think, you know, their heart is gonna be like, I like that, let's do more of that, I don't know.

Ashley (38:57.777)
Yeah. Yeah. mean, there is, you know, this idea about, you know, I'm talking about my experience of this heart and I'm talking about what I'm getting from it and how it's serving me in a different kind of way and how I'm coming into more peace. But ultimately, our natural state is connected. We are connected. We are all made from the same thing. And so to come back into this place of connection,

Ashley Henderson (39:09.965)
Mm

Ashley (39:26.799)
and open -heartedness with each other and with the planet, with all beings is, yeah, it might even save us if we start moving in that direction because the separate me focus, me, me, me, me, me, individualistic thing is making people sick. It's making people really unhappy and...

But it's innocent because that's really, we were brainwashed to believe that was the most important, that is the most important thing. And I think that's what I'm pointing out is like the unwinding of that is hard. And also really in my opinion, the best way you could spend your time on this earth in this lifetime to get to a place where you can

Be yourself, live from the heart, offer your gifts, be in alignment with what interests you, what makes you feel alive, be in joy, and spread that and connect with people in that. And invite other people into their own hearts to express themselves and their true authenticity. mean, that is why we're doing this podcast. That's the focus of my life. I think it's also the focus of your life.

Ashley Henderson (40:47.84)
Absolutely.

Ashley (40:50.203)
So yeah, the benefit isn't just for me, you know.

Ashley Henderson (40:53.81)
Right. it's good. We always have to start with us and then take it out, right? And maybe some people reverse it, who knows? Whatever works for you. I want the world to be a better place, so it'll make me a better person. However you orchestrate it. But yeah, I totally agree. There is no downside to it. And when you're talking about

Ashley (41:07.719)
Yeah.

Ashley Henderson (41:23.441)
mental illness and stress and all of that stuff. That's all just a, that's that's a byproduct of stuck energy in the brain, going over things too much. And just think about it this way. I mean, it's this invitation to come into your heart space and let things move through you a little easier. Just like let things flow. And it's pretty amazing when you do that, that, I mean, your body is an amazing system. It knows how to, it knows how to organize itself.

You know, all of the data that is coming out of the Joe Dispensas stuff is that. The people aren't being healed, the people are coming back into enlightenment. And then the healing is happening. you know, so what's the invitation is just a little more time in the heart, see what it feels like. He's very surprised.

Ashley (42:03.644)
Yeah.

Ashley (42:13.051)
Yeah, yeah.

You know, I do highly recommend people to access Joe Dispenza's Heart -Brain Coherence Meditations or any of his meditations. They're very deep. They're a little strange at first. He sort of, yeah. yeah, no, mean, he changes his voice, but he really pops you, I mean, there's something,

Ashley Henderson (42:23.997)
Yeah. Yeah.

Ashley Henderson (42:32.893)
The space in your hands, the space between your head. I love it though, sorry.

Ashley (42:45.763)
about what he's cultivated in those meditations that really does get you out of your own ego, your own mind, and moving into possibility, moving into other parts of yourself that maybe you're not accessing. So I highly recommend him. But I thought I wanted to just share, as I had been hearing all these different people,

on these podcasts talking about heart -mind coherence, thought, this a thing now that's happening? Like, it's not just me, it's like coming in more and more. And I thought I would just share a really simple practice that I heard in a podcast. if I can go back and get this specific podcast out, we'll put it in the notes. But it's so simple that I don't think it even needs to be credited to anybody, but it's...

It's just closing your eyes and bringing your attention down into the heart space.

And for me, that's sort of the center of my chest. It's not necessarily my physical heart, but it could be your physical heart.

And then starting to take your intentional breath into the heart and slowing the breath down. So maybe it's four counts on an inhale, holding a little at the top and then an extended exhale, maybe six counts on an exhale.

Ashley (44:23.121)
And so as your attention is in the heart space, you're just slowing your breath down. You're being intentional with that.

Ashley (44:37.479)
could do that for 30 seconds or five minutes or 10 minutes or an hour.

Ashley (44:47.703)
And as you're doing that, you're bringing into your mind something that makes you feel good, an image, or something that you feel grateful for. And I like the feeling grateful for if you can get there because it is such a high frequency feeling.

Just be your dog's face or something in nature.

Ashley (45:21.051)
Maybe it's someone that you really love. Someone who's really helped you and been there for you.

Ashley (45:31.077)
And you just see how you feel. You you stay there for a while and see how you feel, how different your body's pacing is, how your, what feeling state you're in, what your mind is doing. It's really powerful. It's really powerful and it's not complicated. We all know where our hearts are.

We all know how to count our breaths, right? So this is something, you don't have to be an experienced meditator. You don't have to be enlightened. You don't have to be anything in particular. You don't have to believe in God, you know? You don't have to, or a higher power. It's here for all of us. And I think in some ways it really brings you back to a childlike state, a more innocent state, a more natural state.

And then see how you feel, see what the mind, how the mind reacts to it. Maybe if judgment comes in or if there's some reason why that was a waste of time or, you know, just really kind of play with the mind's response to leaving it for a minute or two or five, letting it be. Because I know for me, that is something I've had to work is the mind did not.

necessarily like that. So yeah, I thought I just wanted to share how simple this practice could be.

Ashley Henderson (47:02.667)
Yeah.

Ashley Henderson (47:09.207)
Yeah, yeah, that's fantastic. You basically just did the heart math quick coherence. That's exactly what it is. it's, we will put a link in, does not take a lot of time, can completely, in two minutes, you can disrupt in the best way possible a day that's going a certain way. Or you can enhance it, you know, if you have one of those hard mornings.

Yeah, it's a beautiful thing. Yeah, and I love how simple it is, don't you? I mean, it's just...

interesting. I am one of my deep passions is how do we un -frickin complicate all of this spiritual work. It's just like I know in my core, at least for me, a truth that my soul knows is that you don't have to work hard at this stuff. You might take focus and it might take intention but it doesn't have to be a big hard crazy thing. Some us like to do that.

And that's great too, but I just love these little tidbits, these little invitations and just reminders like, know, your default mode, like any beautiful little child's is joy, expansion, curiosity, and just, yeah, living from the heart space. That's awesome.

Ashley (48:41.723)
I think that's a great place to stop. And I have a feeling we're going to be coming back to that simplicity theme probably in every podcast because it is wild how simple this stuff can be and how much we've overcomplicated it. So I love it's a good place to stop. All right. Well, we will see you guys next time and hope you've enjoyed it and let us know.

Ashley Henderson (49:00.019)
Alright, cool.

Ashley (49:09.723)
how you felt about it. We'd love to hear from you.