Welcome to our Heart-Centered Living issue. Some scientists call the heart our "little brain" because it contains thousands of sensory neurites which allow it to send and receive messages. Growing evidence suggests that our heart contains memories of our experiences and carries its own intelligence. By harmonizing our heart with our brain, a practice called heart-brain coherence, we can tap into deep intuition, heart-based intelligence and wisdom.

Heart-centered living is all about pulling our awareness away from our head (the ego) and into our heart (the higher self). If you need help developing this practice, you'll find inspiration in “Becoming Heart-Minded" on page 40, where Sarah Blondin invites us to place a hand on our heart, breathing in and noticing how doing this sends us a message to soften and disarm. She also suggests that we take time throughout the day to bow our head and take three conscious breaths into our heart, allowing its current to feed us.

When we focus on our heart center, Blondin says, fear falls away, space opens up within us and solutions to challenges start to reveal themselves. I have discovered this to be true for myself. By simply placing my hand over my heart center for a few moments, breathing in feelings of care, gratitude or love for someone or something, I automatically notice a natural shift in my thoughts, feelings and energy.

You would think listening to our heart would be the most natural and logical thing in the world, but sadly, this is not the case for many of us, due to childhood wounds, conditioning and adult experiences that reinforce those early injuries. Truth be told, many of us are not ready to live a heart-centered life. Our conversation with Shefali Tsabary on conscious relationships explains how we typically attract partners that mirror our unmet needs as a child, so that we're forced to relive childhood patterns and thus can heal them.

By undertaking our own inner work, a relationship can help us evolve into our most authentic, whole, free self, allowing conscious intimacy to spontaneously arise. Connecting with our heart-center is pivotal to this work (see page 45). You'll find plenty of other resources for maintaining a healthy heart in this issue. May your love light shine big and wide everywhere it goes.

Happy Loving, Sharon Bruckman

PS If you are looking for a valentine, check out our dating site NaturalAwakeningsSingles.com, which is offering a 50% discount on new memberships this month. Learn more on pages 10 and 45.