Reflections of the Heart

By Suzanne Mulcahy

The heart unlocks our humanity.
The heart is the central driving force in defining our character.
You will discover the gifts of your heart that you can share with others.
You will understand who we really are.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Aug 12, 2016
• ISBN: 9781504350044

Suzanne Mulcahy

I have been a school psychologist for the past thirty years, a director of special education, and an author of several children’s books and an anti-bullying curriculum entitled, “Catch Bullying Behavior Before It Begins”. I am also a presenter on antibullying behavior among children for teachers and parents. The principal theme of my work is based on the values of the heart and its use as the foundation for all relationships. This written work is based on my experience in using the heart as the key to unleashing our humanity. It is what is missing in the world to truly find a peaceful coexistence. I presented this concept before the United Nations after assisting in the creation of the “Youth Forum for Racial Harmony” for the Interracial Sisterhood Project.

Book preview

YIN SPIRIT – START YOUR NEW YEAR WITH THE JOY OF LIVING

January 5th, 2009

One of the goals in writing my children’s books was to teach children and their parents to unleash their Yin Spirit. As the young panda Yin takes his journey through the story, he finds the most important part of who he is. He discovers his heart and all the gifts he can share with others that are found in his heart.

Yin Spirit is defined as Sharing the heart of our humanity with the world. The most significant attribute of the human species is our humanity. It is the warm feeling of compassion that we find within ourselves, especially during the holidays and the hope for the New Year.

It is easy to get caught up in the hectic pace and seemingly important priorities that can take over our lives and forget about what really matters, which is the love and companionship we share with our friends and family and the ability to reach out to others in their time of need. The capacity of the human heart to love is unlimited.

What is the true wealth of the human experience? Ask any person at the end of their lives. If you had more time, what would you do? Their answers are never to spend more time at the office or make more money, but rather, it is to spend more time with the people they love and form more lasting relationships.

The true meaning and fulfillment in life is discovering the treasures that we have in our hearts. Take your family or your friends on a treasure hunt. Explore inside and discover the gifts in your own hearts. Make a list of all the wonderful and magical attributes you find within your hearts. Then use these gifts freely because the more you use them, the fuller your hearts become. It is truly the gifts that always give back more in return.

The true pot of gold that exists at the end of the rainbow is the unlimited wealth we each hold in our own hearts and our never ending capacity to love.

LEADING WITH OUR HEARTS

January 12th, 2009

Dr. Laura featured my book, Who Am I?, on her radio show last month and talked about the attributes of the heart, which included: being tenacious, hard working in spite of having challenges, having grit, commitment, loyalty, and striving, and being brave.

The heart is almost forgotten in our society until we become aware of health issues surrounding the heart. We exercise our bodies and our minds, but do we exercise our hearts? What if we as a society began to lead more from our hearts? Would our priorities or what we need or want change in any way? As an illustration, I offer the following story:

I work in a school district and once was asked to work with a group of children after an incident had occurred. Eight third grade, honor roll students, (seven of which had never before been in trouble), surrounded a kindergarten student with special needs, who could not communicate. They took his glasses, broke them, and began taunting him as their classmates stood by and cheered.

A teacher quickly came over to stop these actions and the eight students were brought to the principal for discipline, which included suspension. Their classroom teacher was shocked and dismayed as were all of their parents.

Upon their return to school, I was asked to find out why they chose to behave in that manner. I gave them a brief lesson on the different aspects of the human being; that is their physical, their emotional, their mental and their hearts (spiritual) aspects and asked each student to describe the incident. They were then asked to explain why they had participated in the behavior. As they each took a turn to respond, these were some of their answers:

They made me do it! I don’t know but my parents said that I now have a record. I just stood there! My body was out of control! Until, finally one young girl answered, I didn’t listen to my heart!

There are too many incidences of bullying behavior in our schools today with many programs trying to prevent these actions. If each one of us could take a moment to listen to our hearts and teach this skill to the children in our lives, then maybe they would have the courage to stand up in the face of these behaviors and demonstrate the actions of their hearts. One by one each of us could lead the way to become more of a society with heart.

SPIRITUAL DEPRIVATION

January 19th, 2009

Hunger in the United States. it is said, is as great as that of India and is harder to resolve. It is the hunger of the spirit.

Spiritual deprivation is the greatest plague of our time.

- Mother Teresa

We are about to launch into a new era of change. The real change we seek, however, may not be an outside political one but rather a personal change from within each one of us. It is the return to our spiritual nature, our hearts, that is now required to transform the harsh landscape in which we find ourselves living. I once heard an Indian story that remains close to my heart and it brings this concept to life.

A grandfather and his young grandson were walking down a road after the 9/11 attack. The boy asked his grandfather how he felt about what happened. The grandfather answered that there were two wolves fighting for his heart. One wolf feels love and wants to be kind and forgiving. The other wolf feels hatred and wants revenge.

The boy asked his grandfather, which wolf will win the fight in his heart. The grandfather said, The one that I feed.

Love, kindness, and forgiveness are found within our hearts but there are always other emotions fighting for our attention. Living within our own spiritual nature requires us to nurture and feed our hearts and appropriate action will follow. This is the true change that is now needed in the world, which is to fight spiritual deprivation, the greatest plague of our time.

Which wolf are you feeding?

THE ILLUSION OF SEPARATENESS

January 26th, 2009

Throughout history we have spent most of our lives defining our differences. We have different cultures, ethnic backgrounds, religions, etc. Even when we find ourselves within the same culture, we define ourselves by sub-cultures, different groups. If you look at a group that appears the same, under closer examination, you will find a variety of ways they have defined themselves differently.

Take a high school, for example, that is located in an area that appears to have the same cultural background. When we go into the high school, we soon discover there are many different groups that have formed. They might have divided themselves by labels such as rich/poor, popular/nerd, bright/slow, athletic or by physical characteristics. The list could be endless. In reality, these teens are far more alike than different; that is, insecure, scared, wanting to belong, trying to find their identities as they all fight their way to maturity, etc.

What would the world look like if we focused on how we are the same? As a species, we are 99.9 percent genetically identical and only .1 percent different. We also long for the same things in life, which is to love and be loved and to have positive relationships with those in our lives. If this is who are as a species, then why, we ask, do we spend so much time and energy defining the .1 percent of our differences?

We can choose to transcend these historical patterns of behavior and begin to acknowledge who we really are as human beings. The heart is the natural vehicle to bring us together as one human family. When we use our hearts to guide our actions, we can experience each other as the