The Mindful Heart

By Arati Suryawanshi

We've heard a lot about "mindfulness," but is it enough? What happens if we also bring "heartfulness" to be emotionally present and awake? This mini eBook by Indian psychologist Arati Suryawanshi introduces the power of blending these concepts. It includes an introduction by EQ expert Joshua Freedman, and four lessons for developing a Mindful Heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Six Seconds Press
• Release date: Mar 22, 2013
• ISBN: 9781935667209

Book preview

1. Preface: What is it actually?

I have been a practicing psychologist for over 20 years now. In retrospect, practicing emotional intelligence is very special and dear to my heart, I realize that I took many of my decisions either rationally or emotionally. Two years ago when I did my EQ certification with Six Seconds, I learned about various EQ principles. One principle that deeply impacted me was the Principle of 3Hs: Head + Heart + Hands. This principle states that when we incorporate all the 3Hs in the action or the decision we take, it automatically moves us towards success. Inspired by this principle, I started a blog group on Facebook called Feeling Notes with the intent of learning more and spreading the good word about EQ. Feeling Notes is meant for notes that constitute all the 3Hs together. Soon people started writing beautiful feeling notes on the group. That added complete freshness and originality of thoughts and feelings in the blog posts. www.facebook.com/groups/feeling.notes

Today, I am deeply involved in research in EQ. My area of focus is Impact of EQ on concentration. A large amount of my research is being done at a school in Nasik, Maharashtra, India - www.ksisnasik.com. When I was developing various modules in EQ, to incorporate with present school curriculum, I learned and found this unique dynamic relation of mindfulness and EQ.  Mindfulness is helping us to choose the object for attention, whereas Concentration is helping us to maintain attention on the object. Moore and Malinowski (2009), in their study they found that, the participants who go through mindfulness meditation have increased ability to focus attention and to suppress distracting information. Ortner et.al. Reported that, mindfulness meditation decreases emotional reactivity. I learned that Mindfulness is the way to achieve concentration. Mindfulness has the power to maintain, sustain and regain one’s concentration.

At an Indian wedding, I had a very interesting discussion on mindfulness with a gentleman who then asked me to do a ‘mindfulness’ exercise in the midst of all the pandemonium. That one exercise transformed my perspective towards life. I have included this exercise in the activities, last part of this eBook (Balancing Mindfulness and Heartfulness).

It prompted me to change the way I engage with life. My morning walks also transformed to being mindful. 

Here are some things I observed when I went for my first mindful walk:

I am walking against the wind. The breeze is gently caressing me and I hear the splashing of the waves, I also hear the chirping of the birds. I see a small boy joyfully playing with his ball, I see people stopping at a vendor to drink some herbal juice. I notice that the juice vendor calls me Bhabhiji (sister-in-law) – I had never noticed this earlier! As I sip my juice, I hear the rhythmic footsteps of my walking partner. I see the changing hues in the sky and the