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Spiritual Coaching and the Open Broken Heart

Writer's picture: Caroline AllenCaroline Allen

neon broken heart
Open broken heart

I’m sharing the rough draft of my memoir (The Way of the Reluctant Psychic) with my writing partner. We're at a little table in the woods at my house. What I love about our writing partnership is that we find really fun places to meet every two weeks. Madeleine points out a phrase in my writing she loves, “open broken heart.” In the section she's referring to, I'm writing in the memoir about the spiritual coaching I'm doing for a client I’ve named Suzanne. She's talking about the death of her loving father. “That’s the hard thing about being a coach. You can have your insides shattered by a brutal father, and you still have to listen with an open broken heart to people talking about their good and happy fathers.” This is the wonderful thing about a writing partner. They can help you see what you take as a given. My open broken heart, held together by tenuous twine, has been a given for so long. Keeping it open with clients has been a spiritual practice for decades now. Since Madeleine pointed it out, "open broken heart" has become a mantra. A song. An epiphany. An open broken heart is what I also call sacred presence. How many times have you been on a Zoom call and the person isn't present? They walk around with their cell in a dizzying trek through their house? How often have you stared at the top of someone’s head or their ear? I’ve had a coach answer emails while coaching me. Why does presence scare us? With an open broken heart, you show up fully present. Heart open. Soul open. They talk about the loss of their loving mother, or the adventures of their healthy father. Or maybe it's something about a career they love or maybe they have authentic financial success. You learn to hold your own estranged heart. You don’t deny your grief, but you don’t speak from it. Perhaps there are other broken-hearted clients where you can speak from your grief, but often you must sit and listen to the kind of love you never received, a life you were never offered, a success that is just out of reach. And then you have to give the cleanest, clearest most loving soul response you can. It takes practice. And faith. Maybe you think, “Why do I have to give so much?” My question: "Why do you give so little? Why do you hold your heart back? Why are you so stingy with your soul?" Open broken hearts are pay dirt for artists. Come to the canvas, come to the page with your broken heart so open it spills out of you. Show up. Show up with ALL of you. Truly ask yourself if you're scared of your own passion. The old adage -- by giving you receive -- is a fundamental spiritual truth. Sacred presence creates a feedback loop. Show up with passion and you’ll be deluged with creative energy. But you can’t expect it without giving it. The art of sacred presence is part of what we’re covering in the upcoming Mystic Circle, a monthly meeting of like-minded souls who want to learn how to channel. As trauma piles upon trauma with global warming and the ensuing fear, we’re going to need more coaches who can muster up sacred presence, more people, who despite their grief and trauma, can show up with their open broken hearts. Join our Mystic Circle or find out more information here. One group is almost full, with one or two openings. The first monthly meeting will be held Friday, August 25 from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. PST. A second group is forming. Anyone is welcome, but we’re particularly seeking active coaches who have been working with clients for a while and want to learn how to break open their intuition.

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