CREATING THE HOME OF YOUR HEART

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For all of our hearts –

May we always know home

May we always know we belong

Excerpt from How To Rule Your World From the Inside Out, by Hiro Boga

Copyright © Hiro Boga, 2011. All rights reserved. hiroboga.com

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Creating the Home of Your Heart

When you’re creative, dedicated, and in business for yourself, it’s easy to get painfully busy.

You work in and on your business, harder than you’ve ever worked at any job. And there are a million tasks that need your time and attention.

By the end of the day you’re exhausted. You fall into bed with your mind still churning in high gear. If you keep this up, both you and your business can end up overwhelmed and frazzled.

You’ll spend more time getting less done. Your enthusiasm, creativity and love for your work... you’ll wonder where they went.

You can’t give what you don’t have.

So how do you replenish yourself? You can’t expect your garden or your business to grow without nourishment.

Taking care of yourself doesn’t have to cost a lot of time or money. Simple actions can be deeply nourishing.

Here are some that work for me: Taking a slow walk in warm sunshine. Or closing my eyes for a moment and listening to the birds’ mad chorus. Savoring the cool sweetness of a glass of water. Looking out to the horizon—restoring perspective.

Small moments of presence and attention are nourishing. They connect you with your world, your body, and your heart.

Your heart is your home—your resting place. It’s where you come to restore and renew yourself.

Your heart’s main function is to hold. It holds and contains everything, without judgment—the way the earth holds all forms of life.

Here’s a simple practice that you can do whenever you feel scattered or disconnected from your heart.

Begin by sitting or lying down quietly where you won’t be disturbed. (You can also do this while walking in the woods, or on the beach, or along a mountain trail.)

Download the audio meditation

You can download the accompanying guided audio meditation as an mp3 file at:

bit.ly/creating-the-home-audio

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Close your eyes for a moment. Take a few deep, cleansing breaths, all the way down into your belly and back out again.

Feel the sensations in your body. feel the weight of your body resting on your chair or on the ground. Your breath whooshing in and out of your lungs, cooling your upper lip as you breathe in, warming it as you breathe out.

Tune in to the qualities of spaciousness, ease and flow.

Feel the spaces between your in-breath and your out-breath. The space between your shoulders and your ears. The spaces in the cells of your body. The spaces in and around your heart.

Check in with your feelings. make room for whatever you’re feeling, without hanging on, or pushing the feelings away.

Say a kind and spacious hello to your thoughts.

Then bow your head just a little, towards your heart—this will quiet any mind-chatter.

Drop your awareness into the center of your heart. Like dropping a pebble into a deep pool of water.

If you like, you can spread your hand, palm-down, across the middle of your chest to help you get in touch with your heart. Then bring your awareness beneath your hand, into the center of your chest.

Breathe quietly into and out of your heart. not straining or trying; just being there.

Gently, sink deeper inside your heart.

This is an exploration.

You are going to take a slow walk through the home of your heart.

We’ll begin by standing just outside the gate that is at the perimeter of your home.

On either side of this gate, the grounds that surround your home stretch out to your right and to your left. Outside these grounds is the public road, along which others travel.

Pay attention, first, to the gate. What does it look like? Is it made of metal or wood, or some other material? What color is it? How tall and wide is it?

Is it open or closed? Does it feel welcoming or forbidding or something else? Does it look new or old, well-maintained or neglected?

How do you feel, standing in front of it?

If it’s overgrown with weeds, broken at the hinges, or rusted shut, change it. Repair it, clean it up, paint it. You can expand it, make it sturdier or more ornamental or whatever feels good to you right now.

If you like, you can create a gatekeeper’s booth beside the front gate. Hire a gatekeeper to welcome the people you want to invite into your home, and to turn away intruders.

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Next, turn your attention to the boundary where the grounds of your home meet the public road. What marks this boundary?

Is there a hedge around your property? Or beds of flowers that mark the border? Tall trees? A wall made of bricks or stone? A picket fence, or a castle moat?

What do you know or sense about this place, from looking at its boundary?

Is there some portion of this boundary that’s missing, or feels insecure or incomplete? A fallen tree, perhaps, or a broken fence post? A place where the wall has collapsed?

If so, fix it.

If you feel the need for greater seclusion, you can put a thick border of trees all the way around, or a high, crenellated wall.

If, on the other hand, you’re feeling gregarious and want to be able to talk with people on the road while you’re standing inside the grounds of your home, you can use a flower-bed or a low hedge to mark the boundary of your home.

Once you feel your border is secure, open the front gate, or ask your gatekeeper to open it for you and to let you in.

As the gate opens, and you enter into the grounds of your home, notice how you feel. Does the air feel different in here?

What are the qualities of this place? Does it feel formal or natural? Open and spacious, or lush and forest-like, or something else?

Do you feel at ease in here?

What is around you? Are there gardens; a park with trees, shrubs, fountains, grasses, great rocks; maybe a pond, a creek or a lake; a pavilion or tennis courts or a pool?

Look around you, and see what the grounds of your house look like.

What scents float towards you on the breeze? Do you hear birds singing, or crows cawing, or the drone of a lawnmower, perhaps?

Touch and feel the textures around you—the rough bark of an oak tree, the silky petals of a magnolia blossom, the prickle of a gorse bush.

Savor this landscape.

Are there other people here, in the grounds of your home? If so, who are they?

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What are they doing? Are they walking around the grounds, picnicking by the pond, swimming in the pool?

Do they belong here? Are you happy to have them here, or do you feel uncomfortable with some of them?

Remember, this is the home of your heart. If there’s anything or anyone that doesn’t feel right to you, you can ask them to leave. You can do this with love, kindness and compassion, as well as sovereignty.

Have your gatekeeper escort them to the gate, and see them safely on to the public road outside. Then close the gate behind them.

You don’t have to justify your choices to anyone. This is your kingdom, and you are the queen or king of it.

Take some time to explore the grounds of your home. Walk around the property. See how it feels to be in different areas of it—behind your house, or along the north or South side, as well as out in front of it.

Now follow the path that leads through the grounds to the front door of your house. See if the path is well lighted and if it’s not, ask for light. notice if the path feels solid and trustworthy under your feet, and if it doesn’t, have it repaired or cleaned up.

As you climb the steps to the front door, notice how you feel. Are the steps steep and narrow? Broad and shallow? Something in between?

Remember, you can create this any way you want to, so if the steps feel too steep, or you want an elegant or sturdy hand-railing to support you, go ahead and create it.

What does the front door look like? Is it beautiful, well-lit and inviting? Is it covered in ivy or missing a handle?

Does it give you a feeling of security and safety, or is it dilapidated and a bit scary?

If there are a bunch of loud, noisy friends hanging out on the front steps, and you want peace and quiet, send them home.

Notice if you feel as though you don’t have a right to enter here. If so, put on your crown and ask your allies to remove whatever energy keeps you from feeling at home as you stand here, at the front door of your house.

Make your front door, and your relationship with it, be what you want it to be. You can invite in qualities of safety, beauty, ease, spaciousness—whatever you wish.

Now go ahead and open the door. You have the key, it’s your home. How do you feel as you open the front door and enter into the lobby of your home?

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Look around you. Is the lobby spacious or cozy? Does it have a high ceiling, a rug or a vase of flowers on a table? Are there paintings on the walls, or a staircase leading upstairs? Or is it rustic, with a wooden ceiling, perhaps, or a mudroom entrance to a cottage?

There is no right or wrong to any of this. You’re simply exploring the home of your heart, just as it is right now. And if there’s anything you want to change, you simply change it as you take this journey through it.

You can have all kinds of magical help to change it. make this foyer or lobby a warm, welcoming, beautiful space. fill it with the qualities that you want to experience in your life and in your home.

If it feels unwelcoming or prickly or causes you unease, ask your helpers to find the cause of that energy and escort it out the front door, down the path to the front gate and out onto the public road.

The only energies that belong here are those that love, support and celebrate you. If they don’t honor and respect your sovereignty, your life, your incarnation—they simply don’t belong here.

Now, the Deva of your home appears, and welcomes you into your home. Take a moment to feel the qualities that it creates, here in your home. The love, the sense of comfort and ease, acceptance, safety and belonging, harmony and sanctuary that the Deva of your home holds in its energy field.

Feel yourself surrounded by these qualities. Let them soak in, and fill you. Remember, these qualities are also within you, so they aren’t alien or separate from you.

Off the entrance lobby is your living room. Is it to the right or left of where you’re standing? Let the Deva of your home take you into your living room.

This is the place where the people, things, experiences and places you care about come and hang out with you, and with each other.

Look around. Is it warm, inviting, spacious, and fun? Does it feel noisy, crowded, cluttered or overwhelming?

Does it feel empty and cold?

Remember, you create it according to your own wishes. Change anything you want to change, in here. Open up the windows, or create some skylights or french doors, if you want more light. Add big silk pil- lows and a soft rug, if you want more tenderness. Light a fire in the fireplace, or light candles or a stick of incense, if you want warmth and fragarance. Put on some music and dance!

Think about whom you want to share this space with, right now, and invite them to come and play with you. Once you feel comfortable and at home in here, you’ll want to explore the rest of the house.

The next room you enter is more private, like a family room or a great room or even a playroom. This is where you spend time with your heart’s beloveds—those whom you love and cherish most dearly.

Notice what this space looks like. Does it feel intimate, warm, deeply comfortable and comforting? filled with light and air and ease?

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If not, transform it in any way you wish. Add soft blankets and silky throws. A squishy couch or a chaise- for-two. A teapot and mugs of hot tea or cocoa. Your favorite art on the walls or on the floor. Music that makes your heart happy.

Fill your heart with the love and laughter, the warmth and connection you feel in this room. Invite in the people you love the most: your dearest friend; your soul sister or brother; your beloved; your child.

When you feel ready to explore some more, let’s move across the hall to your study or studio, where you meet with the soul of your business, and with your colleagues and magical allies who help you with your creative work in the world.

Does this room feel magical and filled with the spirit of possibility? Invite the Deva of Play to come hang out with you here. Also the Deva of Creativity, Art, Writing or music.

You can invite colleagues, creative partners, and others who support you and your work in here as well. It’s a room for letting your creative vision fly. It’s a room where you can deepen and expand your gifts and your work.

Maybe you’ll want a hammock in here, or a trampoline. maybe an easel and paints. Or crayons, pastels and playdough. Whatever gets your creative, playful, inspired self in the mood to do your best work. How do you feel, after you’ve been in this room for a while?

Going down a few steps towards the back of the house, you enter your private conference room. This may be an intimate room with a fireplace and comfy couches, cushions and armchairs. Or it might be an outdoor room, with an enclosed courtyard, a fountain, a garden. It might even be a room that’s open to the stars—a beach, or a secluded woodland glade, or a meadow filled with wild thyme, clover and buttercups.

This is where you gather your circle of inner selves... the shy little kid who just wants to play; the adventurer, the artist, the brilliant business visionary. Here you meet with your healer-self, your grouch, your timid ten-year-old, your brave explorer.

This gathering can be as noisy and raucous as a family reunion.

Here’s where you get to talk with your inner family of selves about whatever is going on in your life. Here’s where you can ask them for their help and support. Here’s where you can call on the selves who

Have the knowledge, skills and experience you need to write that book, paint that landscape, develop your marketing plan or prepare for your next big presentation.

Does this room feel like a safe place for all of your selves to gather? To be heard; to talk about what they believe, what they love, what they fear—to find common ground?

If this space doesn’t feel entirely comfortable or safe for all of your selves, change it. Ask your selves to tell you what they need. A quiet space in one corner of the room, for the introverts among them? A stage for the extroverts? What else?

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Create a space in which all of your selves feel loved, welcome, happy and at home.

Once you have your conference room the way you like it, it’s time to travel to more intimate rooms. Your bedroom. Your private bath.

Again, notice what these spaces feel like. Your bedroom is a room for sweet, restorative sleep; passion, pleasure and sex; sanctuary and dreaming. And nothing else.

What does your bedroom look, feel, smell and sound like? Is it soothing and peaceful? Sensual and romantic? Cluttered with books, clothes, electronic equipment and dog hair?

Clear out anything that doesn’t belong here. Remove all reminders of old relationships, old illnesses, past pain and suffering. Remove anything that doesn’t add to the peace and beauty of this room.

Call on the Devas of Sleep, Dreams, Romance, Peace, Beauty and Sensuality to help you anchor these qualities in your bedroom. If there are other qualities you want in here, create a space where they can flourish.

Notice how you feel, as you fill your bedroom with these qualities, and spend time in and among them. now let’s move from your bedroom to your bath.

Your private bath is a place where you nurture and celebrate your body and your senses. A deep tub. Candles. Thick cotton towels. A fireplace, perhaps. Create a space that fills you with feelings of sensual abundance, pleasure, relaxation and delight.

Experience how your body feels, how you feel, as you allow yourself to receive the qualities of your bathroom.

Now, you’re going to move out of the bathroom, and through a hallway that leads to the very center of the home of your heart.

Here, you will enter a room that is the innermost chamber of your heart. This is your most sacred space. Where you meet with your Creator alone.

You enter this room through a simple anteroom in which there is a bath of clear, pure, warm water, a small sink, a towel, a clean robe, a place to leave your clothes and slippers.

First, you step into the bath. As you bathe, you wash away the cares of the world, and let them swirl down the drain with your bathwater.

You brush your teeth, comb your hair, put on your robe.

In bare feet, you open the door to your innermost sanctum.

This space will be completely unique to you. Its qualities are simplicity, silence, surrender, Divine love, seclusion, sanctuary.

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It may be indoors or outdoors.

It’s a space in which you are simply and completely yourself—no masks, no hiding. Just you and the Sacred, together.

When you enter this space, you close the door behind you. Even if it’s an outdoor space, there is a magic door that closes, and leaves the rest of the world behind.

Take some time to be in this space. Experience it as it is. If it needs to be changed, change it.

Here, you can speak about what’s truly going on for you, in a very simple way. Or just say a wordless: Here I am, Beloved.

Ask for what you need. Clarity; guidance; safety; love; sustenance; nourishment; wisdom. And feel those qualities flowing into the open cup of your heart. As they flow in, they cleanse and wash away anything that impedes their flow.

Your heart fills up. It stretches and deepens to hold more, to contain more. You feel deeply rested. Nourished.

When your heart is full, give thanks, and begin your return to the outside world. Walking back through the anteroom. Putting on your regular clothes. Returning to the rest of your home.

You may find, when you return, that everything has changed. Your family of selves may be mysteriously loving and in harmony with each other. Conflicts resolved; power struggles released.

You return from the innermost chamber of your heart with gifts of grace.

This journey into the home of your heart has been necessarily brief. You can explore it further overthe

Next few weeks and months, inhabiting each of the rooms, discovering others—the library, the kitchen, the music room, the den.

As you grow and change, you’ll create new spaces, transform existing rooms, to keep pace with your own growth.

Whether you spend a short while in each room, or spend time in daily communion with the Sacred in the home of your heart, the effects of making this your home will linger, and build on each other.

Your life and your business will become infused with spaciousness, peace, love, and grace. May it be so.

Love, Hiro

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Contact

If you have questions, comments, insights, or anything you’d like to share, here are some ways in which you can get in touch with me.

Web: hiroboga.com Blog: hiroboga.com/blog

Twitter: @HiroBoga Facebook: HiroBoga

Creating the Home of Your Heart is an excerpt from my digital program

How To Rule Your World From the Inside Out

hiroboga.com/how-to-rule-your-world-from-the-inside-out