How can I make people feel comfortable to open their heart?
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Dr. Dean Ornish answered:“Just listening to people generously strengthens them, because then they can become more fully present. They are not trying to keep parts of themselves out of the room. They can be there in one piece. As you listen to someone, they stop fixing themselves in order to get approval, and remember who they are. Anything that has been fixed is not as strong as something that is whole. We have learned to become ashamed of our wholeness in this culture. There are parts of ourselves that we are ashamed of, that we hide, which are the very parts we may need in order to recover - either to recover from an illness or to live well with an illness. Anything that is not intellectual is seen as a weakness in this culture - the intuition, the spirit, the soul, the heart. Up until very recently, people devalued these things. It still opens one up to the pointing finger of touchy-feely. But I don't care about that pointing finger anymore. Often the people who point that finger have no idea what human strength looks like, or what human power looks like. These things that are seen as so soft are far more powerful, when the chips are down, than the ideas and the intellect, all these things we respect so much. They are what enable us to meet with the events of our lives and not be tram pled by them. Ideas are not as powerful as the heart and the soul. Love is more powerful than ideas.
“Just listening to people generously strengthens them, because then they can become more fully present. They are not trying to keep parts of themselves out of the room. They can be there in one piece. As you listen to someone, they stop fixing... More
