Het trainen van hartsvaardigheden (zoals ik Heart Virtues maar vertaal in het Nederlands, wat hartdeugden, klinkt wel erg deugdelijk) is een waardevolle bezigheid. In het gratis e-book van James (The When-Which-How-practice) worden allerlei voorbeelden genoemd. Momenteel ben ik zelf ook aardig in de weer met het werken met hartsbewustzijn en met hartscommunicatie. Mocht je geïnteresseerd zijn om als 'hartsproefkonijn' mee te werken met het uittesten van bepaalde hartmeditaties die ik heb opgenomen, laat het weten via de contactpagina.

Hieronder volgt het fragment dat mij bij het lezen wel ontroerde (p.79):

"A young, single mother is running late picking up her daughter at daycare. She can hardly afford to pay for daycare, but she has to work in order to pay her rent and keep food on the table. If she does not get to the daycare center in the next ten minutees, she is going to be charged an additional $20.00, an amount her tight budget cannot cover.

Suddenly, an elderly man pulls out in front of her car and is driving far below the speed limt. She is very frustrated and angry, asking the universe why this has to happen to her. Doesn't she have enough problems already? Then she remembers that she is supposed to be practicing emotional self-mastery, and quite honestily, at this moment she really doesn't have the desire.

Nonetheless, somehow she manages to calm down enough to realign her heart. She visualizes herself as divine love with the six heart virtues radiating outward in a field around her. She sends forgiveness to the elderly man in front of her, for understanding has shown her that this man may be as financially strained as her. He may be on a fixed income. He may not see to well, but still must get to the store to buy his groceries. He is probably driving slowly to avoid causing  an accident. Should he be forced to give up driving?

Suddenly she feels enormous compassion for this person, after all he could be her own father. How would she feel if someone was cursing at her father or mother because they were drving too slowly? At this point, the virtue of humility entered her energy field and she accepted her situation as just part of the overall circumstances of living in the twenty-first century.

She thought to herself, "We've all got problems; we're all in this mess together so why add to the negativity of humanity, when I have an opportunity to send out positive emotional energy." Just then, the elderly driver turned right and she was free to get to the daycare center in time. She then thought, "It's amazing how much you can learn in two minutes."