Power of an open heart

ZORBA the Greek spoke about spitting into the wind.

ZORBA the Greek spoke about spitting into the wind.

Have you ever respectfully confronted someone, even asked to be heard by them or requested some assistance, and they repackage your words and throw them back at you in a destructive way?

Almost always the person reacting to you misrepresents and betrays your original intention.

What you are encountering is the impenetrable surface of a closed heart. Closed-heartedness can also manifest in someone who is switched off, deaf, numb and blind to the needs and feelings of others. It manifests in people who only tune into their own personal agenda and use relationships purely to further their own ends.

No one is born with a closed heart or starts life being unyielding. The reality is the exact opposite. Babies are free to give and receive love and are open to influence.

Closed hearts and unyielding natures are acquired in one of two ways. If the important people in a child's early life are closed hearted and unyielding, the child learns to be the same to protect themselves from being wounded by their caretakers' sharp, rough, inflexible edges. Alternatively, the child is encouraged by parents to selfishly indulge only their own whims and desires.

This problem is prevented when a person realises that we exist between two paradoxical existential positions. The first is that a person is a self-contained universe with unlimited potential and power to influence the world in profound ways. The second is that an individual is as insignificant in the world as a small insect.

The key to reconciling this riddle is to understand both propositions and to know what response a situation requires. When it calls for sacrificing, honouring and respecting others, you need to remember how small you are in the universe.

When it comes to planning to reach your potential and to fulfilling your responsibilities in the world, you have to know that your power is limited only by the limits of your own imagination.