About Heartspoken

“Connection is why we’re here…”

“…and it’s what gives purpose and meaning to our lives.” That was the compelling statement from social scientist Dr. Brené Brown in her powerful TED talk called “The Power of Vulnerability” that has been watched over 65 million times. This got me thinking about the essential connections in my own life.

Why does this matter? 

It matters because we all want our lives to count. We want to live our most Heartspoken Life.

Let’s face it: in spite of the lyrics from Porgy and Bess, livin’ ain’t always easy.

Occasionally—and it can happen in the blink of an eye—fate or circumstances conspire to knock us right off the road, forcing us to take a good, hard look at our lives and reassess our priorities. When we’re completely mired, we may need help to get out of the ditch. Or we may just have to shift gears or change direction.

Here are a few life experiences that can knock us off-course:

• Hitting a new decade of your life
• Divorce
• Empty nest
• Illness—your own or a loved one’s
• Death
• Disability
• Retirement
• A national or worldwide crisis (pandemic, perhaps?)

The symptoms will vary with each of us, but you might recognize some of them:

• You feel stuck, paralyzed, or floundering.
• You feel an urgency to escape, change, or just DO something.
• You feel unhappy, unfulfilled, or just restless.

These are typical of life’s crossroads, when you feel desperate to find some missing pieces of your life’s puzzle.

I’ve been there, more than once…

And while I was finding my way, I came to a critical insight: everything important to me—everything that has contributed to my happiness or success in life—has been the result of one or more of just  four essential connections: 1) Connection with God (Faith); 2) Connection with Others (Fellowship/community); 3) Connection with Self (self-knowledge, self awareness); and 4) Connection with Nature, and for over two decades, my writing, speaking, and work have been to learn how to strengthen these connections and to teach others to do the same:

#1: Connection with God—Faith

“Faith is letting down our nets into the transparent deeps at the Divine command, not knowing what we shall draw.”

~Francois Fenelon

The belief in a higher power is a theme that runs through all cultures, even though its interpretation and manifestation vary widely. I have found spiritual richness in traditions other than my own (Christian/Episcopalian) because when the truth is Truth with a capital T, it transcends labels, don’t you think? Do you remember the ancient parable of the blind men who are trying to describe an elephant? One has grabbed the trunk, another the tail, and another the leg, etc., and each comes up with a wildly different idea of what the elephant is. I hope that by sharing our individual and unique perspectives, we’ll come closer to reality than if we go only by our own experience.

Faith is nothing, though, if it doesn’t inform our choices and our actions.  

#2: Connection with Others—Fellowship/Community

“When we seek for connection, we restore the world to wholeness. Our seemingly separate lives become meaningful as we discover how truly necessary we are to each other.”

~ Margaret J. Wheatley

The bonds we forge with others will shape the quality and character of our life, so it pays to invest in the relationships that matter most to us whether they are personal or professional. It also matters how we treat everyone we encounter, from the store clerk to the person next to us in the doctor’s office.  

#3: Connection with Self—Self-knowledge/Self-awareness

“To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment.”

~ Eckhart Tolle

How can we live our most Heartspoken life if we don’t know and understand ourselves—what makes us happy, sad, or angry? This connection helps us live in alignment with our highest values so we fulfill our highest purpose.

#4: Connection with Nature—the Natural World around us

“Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.”

~ Frank Lloyd Wright

When we realize we are an integral part of all life around us, we can not only put our own lives in perspective but also see and appreciate the intricacies and incredible beauty of the natural world. Only then, will we care enough to protect it. 

---

There you have it…

These are the four essential connections of the Heartspoken Life. In my writing, blog posts, and newsletters, I explore what they mean, how to strengthen them, and—of course—how they’re connected!

Who is Elizabeth Cottrell? 

CLICK HERE 

---

---