Dr Stephen McKenzie - Heartfulness: Beyond Mindfulness, Finding Your Real Life

Heartfulness

Beyond Mindfulness,
Finding Your Real Life

DR STEPHEN MCKENZIE

The history of your happiness is the history of your feeling connected.

Vironika Tugaleva, The Love Mindset

First published 2016

Exisle Publishing Pty Ltd
Moonrising', Narone Creek Road, Wollombi, NSW 2325, Australia
P.O. Box 60-490, Titirangi, Auckland 0642, New Zealand
www.exislepublishing.com

Copyright 2016 in text: Dr Stephen McKenzie

Dr Stephen McKenzie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. Except for short extracts for the purpose of
review, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, whether electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without prior written permission from the publisher.

A CiP record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia.

Print ISBN 978-1-925335-00-2
ePub ISBN 978-1-77559-281-5

Design and typesetting by Big Cat Design

Disclaimer

While this book is intended as a general information resource and
all care has been taken in compiling the contents, this book does not
take account of individual circumstances and is not a substitute for
professional advice. Neither the author nor the publisher and their
distributors can be held responsible for any loss, claim or action that
may arise from reliance on the information contained in this book.

Dedication

To our fathers, including:

Stephen's Graham

Gareth's David

Benny's Charlie

Anouska's John

Part 1

Discovering
Heartfulness, And
Why It Is Worth
Discovering

CHAPTER 1

Find your heartfulness opening potential

Great problems allow great solutions.

Are you as happy as you can be?

Do you have as much peace of mind as you can have?

Do you have as much peace of heart as you can have?

Do you realize the vital connection between your mind and your heart?

Are you fully alive?

If you answered yes' to the above questions, congratulations. Please keep reading, because this book will help you help other people to be really aware, really connected, really human, really alive and really happy.

If you answered no' to the above questions, congratulations, you have a wonderful opportunity to live more fully, deeply and happily, by realising what is getting in your way. Please keep reading, because this book will help you remember your connection with the source of your happiness, health, awareness, acceptance, love and life.

This book is for you, no matter who you are, or who you think you are.

This book will help you be really aware, really connected, really human, really alive and really happy.

We don't have to learn about light, or understand it or believe in it, to experience it and to benefit from it. We don't have to learn about heartfulness, or understand it or believe in it, to experience it and to benefit from it we only have to allow it. Being heartful simply means being fully connected with ourselves and with other people and therefore fully alive.

Heartfulness isn't just for people who believe in it, or for people who believe in anything. Heartfulness is for all people, no matter what they believe. Heartfulness gives us all a way out of our mind-made disconnections and stresses; and a way in to our natural flow of connectedness, peace and happiness. Reconnecting with who we really are, together, is the greatest journey we can make, so let's begin.

Heartfulness-opening potential Test

Before we start on our journey home to heartfulness, you are invited to take this heartfulness-opening potential test (HOP), because it can help you find out what you need to know about yourself and about other people.

Answer each of the following nine questions on a scale from

1 Not at all, to 10 Totally

The more honest you are, the more valid the test.

1. How kind are you?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

2. How well do you respond to adversity?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

3. How good-humoured are you?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

4. How content are you?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

5. How loving are you?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

6. How courageous are you?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

7. How knowledgeable are you?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

8. How hopeful are you?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

9. How creative are you?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Calculate your Heartfulness-opening potential

HOP Step 1: Add up the points that you scored out of 10 for each question.

HOP Step 2: Subtract your added-up score from 90.

The higher your HOP score, the greater your potential to open your heartfulness. You can take this test again after reading this book to discover whether anything has changed.

CHAPTER 2

Home is where the heartfulness is

In Asian languages, the word for mind' and the word

for heart' are the same word... So when you hear

the word mindfulness', if you're not in some sense

automatically hearing the word heartfulness' you're

misunderstanding it. And mindfulness in any event is

not a concept; it's a way of being. And it's a way of

being awake.

Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn interview with Krista Tippett

What have we progressed to?
What have we gained?
What have we lost?
Why did we lose it?
How can we get it back?

There are many wonderful and inspiring stories about people desperately searching everywhere for something important that they think they have lost, and then finally finding it at home. These include stories of discovery and creativity, and healing and hope, and they can be our stories. Our stories naturally end happily when we remember our way home to our source, our centre, our essence, our heart. Heartfulness is our way home.

A small story

There was a time when I didn't have enough time, or thought I didn't. There was a time when I was a commuter and spent my time saving time; I still don't know why. I was a member of the time herd, charging every morning and evening up stairs and escalators that led from darkness to light, and from light to darkness.

In the mornings we charged up from a subterranean station and mind-set into the light of another working day. We were all going in the same direction except for a short man who looked tall as he stood facing us at the entrance to the light, as we arrived foryet another working day. He was homeless jet not workless, his job was selling us The Big Issue, a fortnightly publication that helps the homeless afford homes and gives us a new way of looking at life.

'Welcome, all you miserable-looking people, to the outside world!'

One time, as I engaged in a Grand Prix passing manoeuvre that saved me yet another sad second, it struck me that we can change perspectives as easily as we can change clothes or moods or gears.

There was a time when we were timeless. How can we re-discover what it'is like to join the human race, and stop trying to win it?

Coming home

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started