All of these things are present in your heart at the same time. To live as you would like, you summon the built-up strength of your heart from the loving acts of your whole life. But working against your heart's ideal are the resentments of not having done what you wanted to do in your life, and not having become the person you wished you would become. You can't hide the condition of your heart; your heart speaks in everything you do and it reveals the proportion of stored bitterness to stored sweetness, of defeat and triumph, of hardness and softness.

Before your heart can give you elegence and charm, you have to give your heart attention. By meditation you can "wake up," from the state you wake up to from sleep. Meditation creates a state of intense awareness of your inner sensations, including your deep feelings that usually move like a silent current below the surface of a lake. The increased available energy you'll feel will restore your hope and optimism. You'll be so awake and alert that you'll be able to feel like you would like to feel.

Occassionally, you'll feel emotional when you meditate and your heart will hurt. Like a wound that stings when you put on an antiseptic, this is when the progress is made in healing and then integrating your past. It's hard work; no wonder it's so rarely done. But the power and the protection of meditation make it possible. If you make it here, inside and alone, you'll be much less likely to lose it in front of your friends.

Once you feel your heart within your chest, sit with it and listen to its wounds; don't be afraid of its memories. Stay in your feelings; they give music to your life, and they change their songs as they sing.