Everyone's heart has all of these dimensions, to a greater or lesser
degree:
- Collaboration - Harmony The width of your heart is
shown by your ability to extend your arms to embrace others.
It is the quality of being "big hearted," able to take disappointment in
stride, reach out to many people, and harmonize with situations and groups.
- Courage - Creativity The second dimension of your heart is also horizontal,
but extending forward and backward instead of sideways.
It is shown by the force of your heart: the ability to give, to radiate,
to lead, to innovate and to create.
It produces charisma and magnetism.
- Compassion - Compelling Idealization
The vertical dimension includes both height and depth.
The height of your heart is shown by your idealism and optimism;
the depth of your heart by your ability to empathize with others and be
deeply moved by the world around you.
- Capacity for Constructive Change
The final dimension is inward; it consists of all that your heart
contains. The heart has a capacity, like a bowl.
This dimension shows the size of that capacity.
Your capacity is your potential for growth in the future.
It makes a person rich, complex, multi-faceted and resourceful.
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The four dimensions of the energetic heart and their influence on personality
development is explained thoroughly in this new book by the founders of IAM.
Your heart responds very well to your breath, and your breath can be used to
bring out any of the dimensions of your heart.
The dimensions of your heart can be perceived directly.
IAM has several experiential processes
that measure the heart's capacity in each dimension.
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Recognizing the Dimensions of the Heart
The first step in energizing your own heart is to recognize the aspects of
heart in others. The model of the four dimensions (shown to the right) makes
it easier to see the many qualities that appear in each different heart.
Recognize the hearts of friends, then of strangers.
If you can first recognize the dimensions of the heart
in others, then what you see in others you can find in yourself. If you can't
recognize in a friend the qualities of a broad heart, for example, you'll not be
able to notice it in yourself either. But when you do see a broad heart
operating in a living person, you'll have a clue to finding this same dimension
in yourself.
When you see a deep heart in someone, appreciate it. When you see an elevated
heart, praise it. When you see a broad heart, associate with it. When a forward
heart appears, acknowledge its courage and creativity. When you find a full
heart, stand in awe and wonder before it.
Having recognized the greatness of a person's heart, celebrate it by a
compliment. By complimenting others, you strengthen those same qualities in
yourself. Compliments echo. You'll receive back and store up all the compliments
you give away.
To give a good compliment is an art form. Your compliment must be sincere and true
in order to penetrate the defenses of the other person's heart. Be careful to
purify your compliment from any implied put-down, which can so easily sneek into a
compliment. For instance, when you say, "You look better," you give a compliment with
an attached put-down. The other person immediately thinks, "I must have looked bad before."
There are three points to remember when giving compliments: first, be completely
positive and leave out any implied putdown. Second, state the observable
evidence that supports the compliment, and third, connect the compliment to the
person's heart, to make it clear you're talking about the person, not their looks
or behavior.
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Each of the four
dimensions can be developed by
Heart Rhythm Practice, including Recognition,
Meditation and Application.
The way of giving the gift of a compliment that will empower the other person is a
topic in chapter three of Energize Your Heart.
And since you know you cannot see yourself so well as by reflection,
I, your glass, will modestly discover to yourself that of yourself which you yet know
not of.
-- William Shakespeare
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