HeatherAsh Amara - The Warrior Heart Practice: A Simple Process to Transform Confusion into Clarity and Pain into Peace

This book emerged from the seeds of need, frustration, and love.

One day, as I was having lunch with one of my best friends, he began sharing his story of pain, self-doubt, and fear, which he repeatedly shared with anyone who was willing to listen. The repetitive voices inside his head were harsh, and he couldnt get away from them. The cycle was deeply entrenched, and I found myself moving toward that edge where I would no longer be able to hold space for him.

As he told me about the experience he couldnt let go of, I reflected his perspective of it back to him in an effort to show him how skewed his version of the story was. I would listen and say, Fred, thats actually not a true story, because I was there. This is what actually happened. And hed say, Youre right! That is what happened! Okay! And then hed get totally solid again. Hed have an aha moment that allowed him to see more clearly, feel better, and leave his story behind, which then enabled him to go about his day.

A few days later, he would come to me with the exact same story, spoken with the same amount of angst and self-punishment, as if he had never shared it with anyone before.

Weve all had stories like this that snag the fabric of our being, where an experience gets caught, but rather than reflect and challenge the story, we keep going back again and again to pick at the loose stitch. Whether the experience happened in childhood or yesterday, our stories can unravel our self-esteem, drain our energy, and keep us struggling in emotional quicksand.

As I looked at my friend, I could see the pain in his face, his closure, and his self-hatred. Despite repeated attempts to pull him out from under the drowning heaviness of his story, nothing was working. So I offered up a prayer: Please let me help my friend see and hold the truth.

As I opened my heart to his suffering, I felt an entire process of getting to the truth drop into my being, and right then and there, a practice that I call the Warrior Heart was born.

Since that day, Ive been teaching, practicing, and sharpening the tools of the Warrior Heart practice. It is a straightforward and well-tested system that will help you untangle your emotions from your stories and your stories from the truth, then connect the truth with your intent. This systematic exploration toward truth is an inquiry practice using Toltec wisdom as the framework and your emotional body as a starting point.

In The Warrior Heart Practice, you will learn how to move through a simple process that transforms confusion into clarity and pain into peace.

Feeling, Story, Truth, Intent: These are the four chambers of the Warrior Heart practice, which change the way you operate in the world by helping you to rearrange the pieces of your personal puzzles into an integrated new wholementally, emotionally, and physically.

I wrote this book because I am passionate about helping humans get free from the inside out. Ive watched myself and so many of my friends, peers, and students struggle with self-worth, fear of rejection, self-doubt, shame, and blame. For way too many of us, our precious attention and energy are consumed every day just by trying to manage our judgmental mind and our emotional reactions.

We are amazing, creative, powerful creatures, and instead of waking up each day saying, What beauty and connection will I craft today? we wake up basically saying, How can I feel good enough about myself today? or How can I avoid my own self-judgment and fears? The vitality that could be going toward solving world problems, bringing people together in wondrous ways, and celebrating the unbelievably great gift of life is instead drained by drama, conflict, and using the power of our words against ourselves.

The Warrior Heart practice will teach you numerous ways to ascertain the ofttimes subtle or hard-to-see differences between the truth and a story. In plain terms: Through this process, you will learn how to stop the drain and misery of suffering and self-limitation and start creatively living your best life. Youll also learn the importance and skill of how to harness your individual intent and allow the power of Intent, or Life, to move through you.

The first two chapters are the map section of the book: a big-picture overview of where we are and where we are going. Remember in the olden days, before GPS and cell phones, when we had these huge things called paper maps? If you were lost, the first thing you would do was unfold your map and figure out where you were. Then you would look to find where you were going. Just as if we are on a journey together, in The Warrior Heart Practice we will start by mapping out where we are as humans and where we are going.

The remaining chapters are the method, the nuts and bolts of how we travel the road from where we are to where we are going. With deep compassion for the often-bumpy road of human experience, Ill guide you through a specific practice for releasing denial, shame, and resistance while also helping you align with your innate kick-ass authenticity. Youll learn how to follow or deepen your relationship with the wise guidance within; shed fear, anxiety, and self-loathing; and come back in touch with your potent mental, emotional, and physical wisdom.

As you move through the four chambers in The Warrior Heart Practice, you will rekindle the power of deep intimacy with self; release self-judgment, guilt, and shame; and claim the path of being an aware, transformative Warrior of the Heart. Chapters range from serious to playful, with a fearless approach toward difficult subjects you may be facing, such as loss, difficult relationships, or addiction.

No matter how much you have suffered or how much you suffer now, whether you feel slightly dissatisfied or completely lost and confused, there is a light illuminating your way if you only look for it with new eyes. The purpose of this book is to remind you that a beacon of light constantly shines within you like a lighthouse on the coast, guiding you away from the familiar but rocky shores of struggle, stress, and suffering, and showing you the way toward the true harbor of your innate integrity and peace.

The current waters in which we live are turbulent, unpredictable, and filled with fears of not being or doing enough. If you suffer from a troubling lack of confidence and a bounty of self-judgment despite your successes, if you feel unfulfilled in your relationships or work, or if you have a nagging sense that there is something vital missing within, then you are living within the shallow waters of who you think you are supposed to be rather than from the nourishing depth of who you truly are.

While the pure light of your being is always shining, it can and does get buried beneath years of trying to please other people, an accumulation of hurts, and lifes daily demands. Silence underlies all sound, whether it is a whisper or a pounding wave. In the middle of a raging storm, the underlying stillness is overwhelmed, but it is still there, ready to be accessed at any time. Beneath the choppy waves of your mind and the crashing loudness of fearful emotions lie the silent depths of your authentic expression.