On Heartbreak

How would life be different if you weren’t afraid of heartbreak?

Most of us shy away from sharing what’s truly on our hearts, opening ourselves to deeper connections with others, taking risks in our personal and professional life with the hopes of circumventing that pain. But what if that heartbreak is part of being human? And in working to avoid pain, it left you with a life that wasn’t lived as fully as if you were to embrace the inevitable loss? Would you finally take that art or dance class? Start a business? Reach out the friend that you’d parted ways with and miss dearly? What leap would you take if you embraced heartbreak as part of being human?

David Whyte writes something truly beautiful about heartbreak and here’s just an excerpt of it:

“Realizing its inescapable nature, we can see heartbreak not as the end of the road or the cessation of hope but as the close embrace of the essence of what we have wanted or are about to lose. It is the hidden DNA of our relationship with life, outlining outer forms even when we do not feel it by the intimate physical experience generated by its absence; it can also ground us truly in whatever grief we are experiencing, set us to planting a seed with what we have left or appreciate what we have built even as we stand in its ruins.”

I too have been asking myself that question as of late. It’s been in my meditations and looking for ways to embrace a less than comfortable feeling in order to love more fully and experience a sweeter life.