Heart Connections: How to Reach People At Their Core
Our fast paced lives can keep us from forming heart connections with the people around us. Yet it’s vital to mental, physical, and most important, spiritual, well being to feel soul to soul bonds.
In the whirlwind of our daily routines, we may miss chances to create close ties with those we come in contact with. However, these bonds are vital to our mental, physical and spiritual health, and anchor us with a sense of relationship.
Not all of us possess an innate talent for forging such ties; for many, it is a skill honed through conscious effort and persistence. Even Mother Teresa was not immune to the weariness that comes with relentless dedication, reminding us that the path to connection is a journey, not a given. She wrote:
Where is my Faith—even deep down right in there is nothing, but emptiness & darkness—My God—how painful is this unknown pain.
Mother Teresa in ‘Come be my Light’
I’ve been thinking about this lately. If it’s not a natural talent, how hard should we work at making heart connections? Is it something we can learn? Is it a spiritual gift from God when we begin to serve him?
The Master of Heart Connections
Jesus was the master at heart connections. Any story you read in the New Testament tells how He touched someone(s) at their core.
What made Him the master connector?
Love.
Pure and simple.
He could be waving his arms and shouting at the merchants in the temple, but did the people who felt His vision go away feeling let down?
He told the Pharisees on the street corner exactly what God thought of them, but then five thousand people followed Him to the mountains.
This mystery will never be explained by mere earth people, yet it helps to take on some of the core beliefs that produce connection.
Learning the Art of Heart Connections
- Be sincere. No one was ever more real than Jesus. There was simply no guile in Him. To impact others, you have to be okay with who you are and have a big-picture goal that never wavers.
- Touch individuals. I had a school teacher who could make each student feel as if we were her favorite. She did this by taking time to connect with each of us, walking down the rows of desks, rubbing her “extra” lotion onto willing hands or tousling a head or smiling into eager eyes. She “got” the boys’ jokes in an honest buddy way, never a fake, flirty way. (Even in grade school we knew the real thing.)
- Focus on others. As the saying goes, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Soul to soul bonds happen in that magic place where vulnerability meets kindness, where two people see and accept each other in their authentic forms.
- Offer hope. This little story shows how life can improve with just slight changes:
How To Reach People At Their Core
One day, a man sat begging for money on the street corner in rush hour…
He had a tin cup and a cardboard sign.
On his sign was written:
“I AM BLIND. PLEASE HELP ME.”
But people rushed right on by without seeming to notice him.
A young woman walked past and observed the blind beggar holding his sign. She worked at a marketing agency down the street and helped companies advertise.
The girl took a black marker from her purse, turned the cardboard sign back-to-front, and scribbled some words on it.
Then, without saying a word, she gave the sign back to the man and walked away…
In minutes, the man started hearing coins drop in the bottom of his tin cup… people began leaving more money than ever before.
The blind man couldn’t figure it out. Although very thankful, the man became more and more curious to find out what the woman had written on his sign.
With a tear rolling down his eye, he stopped the next person who walked past him to ask what the new sign said.
The person stopped, bent down next to the homeless man and said:
“It says,
IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY AND I CAN’T SEE IT.”
Heart Connections Anchor Us
So let’s cherish our heart ties. They anchor us to what is real and worthwhile. They are the light that brightens the darkest days.
They are what we think about at the end of the day. They create the neurons that enable the heart to send signals to the brain that calm us and bring the feeling of content that signals time well spent.
