“If you put your heart into everything you do, you will recreate yourself.”
Lailah Gifty Akita
I believe we came to earth to give it all we have—-to bring the fullness of who we are to our lives, whatever that means for each of us. 
Children do that, full out, but something happens to most people, beginning all too early. I have often wondered why some people nurture their spark over time, and their light becomes stronger and brighter, while others seem to fade out of life, dimming their light.
When several of my women clients suggested I watch “Super Soul Sunday,” Oprah’s show that features the latest authors in the field of spirituality and wisdom, I finally tuned in. The show is truly an inspirational masterpiece, in which Oprah, a woman fully living her dharma as a light worker, has made the focus on the Soul front and center in her work. I happened to tune in while she was interviewing Dr. Eben Alexander, the neurosurgeon whose near-death experience of heaven changed his entire outlook and what he believes about reality.
Dr. Alexander had contracted a rare form of meningitis that totally shut down his brain, and even as an expert on the brain, he has no scientific explanation as to how he not only survived but regained his health and mental capacities. While in the coma, Dr. Alexander experienced, or shall I say, became one with the experience of the Divine. As a man who had been entirely devoted to science prior to his near-death experience (NDE), Dr. Alexander’s awakening was so complete, that he has become a spokesperson for “proof of heaven,” which is the name of his book.
Says Dr. Alexander,
My experience showed me that the death of the body and the brain are not the end of consciousness, that human experience continues beyond the grave. More important, it continues under the gaze of a God who loves and cares about each one of us and about where the universe and all the beings within it are ultimately going. (Proof of Heaven)
Dr. Alexander says that our brain acts as a filter to affect memories from another dimension as we come back into this life. “In fact, newborns are still very freshly from that realm.” We all know that infants come in trailing the breath of the angels.
Oprah went on to say “That’s why toddlers, two- and three-year-olds—they still have it. And then as you get older, you lose the sense of it. You lose the memory of it.”
“That’s right,” said Dr. Alexander. “The brain works with this veiling function to kind of cover that up so we don’t have ready access to seeing that realm. And we kind of forget it.”
“That makes me want to weep,” said Oprah (from interview “Super Soul Sunday)
I believe it is important that we see how these qualities of children, which each of us possessed at one time, can help us remain awake as we co-create a new world. Though often hidden and seemingly long lost, this gift of innocence that is linked to intrinsic aliveness and love, does not abandon us even in death, as Dr. Alexander came to know.
The thymus is the gland that is very strong in young children and seems to atrophy and disappear with age. The thymus is the physical counterpart to the Sacred Hearrt, which is in the center of the chest, toward the back. By breathing consciously into that space, you can activate your own aliveness.
Most of you have heard Jesus’s message: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). I see this message as both as an admonition and an invitation. In fact, at this time in human history, in the face of meanness, corruption, natural disasters, terrorism, and utter disconnection, I believe it is imperative to access our innocence, and to practice giving our lives all we have.
An innocent child does not judge her experience, nor does she have the impulse to control it. Life is simply happening, and the veiling function of the brain is not fully in place. She is in touch with the part of herself that gives everything she has, every moment. When she tires, she stops the activity, softens, and even then, she gives resting all she has.
To give something all we have, we can either exert great effort, or soften and surrender into the moment. One is Yang, or masculine, and the other is Yin or feminine. Either way you can return to that innocence, which is a presence of profound depth, when you hold nothing back, and give it all you have.
It’s really very helpful when we purposely put ourselves in situations where we can practice giving it all we have, as in intense sports similar to that which focuses on a compound bow, or even a yoga class, or challenges like climbing a mountain or running a marathon, or public speaking, a relationship. or anything that provides us with the opportunity to go beyond our fears. We get to face the part of us that holds back, and must not judge that part. That is where compassion comes in. You learn to walk the razor’s edge between effort and grace, which is were you grow new wisdom.
Giving something all you have is a kind of spiritual practice, and must always be coupled with compassion and mercy, rather than judgment or comparison. You know when you have not held back, when you have brought all of you forth to any endeavor. You feel alive and good about yourself, even if you are not the fastest, strongest, smartest at what you are doing, even if you don't win the case or the race or whatever you put your heart into, You feel good about yourself, even if the relationship fails, because you became a better you in the process.
Sometimes people hold back from giving something all they have out of fear of failure. They imagine if they don't put all they have into something, and it fails, then they have not lost much—that they only failed because they didn't give it their all. But that is self-deception, for the real loss is the aliveness that comes from living full out, at any age.
So try it, even for a day—giving your life all you have. The return on investment is priceless!!!!
