The heart is a Shrine. The body is a Temple.

Your heart is the chore of a sacred place, a sanctuary…it is the altar of a temple where a deity is standing. Your heart is the most important part of your life.

It is quite common in yoga to use the metaphor of the body as the temple… taking care of your body such as eating healthy, exercise often, protect your body from the sun, enjoy a body massage to relax…everybody thrives for a beautiful and good looking body to impress yourself and others….but is it just the outside of the shell.

But for me taking care of my body as a temple is great but too incomplete if the heart isn’t worshipped too. In a temple, the shrine stands in the middle, a beautiful altar with offerings paying respect to a deity or few deities.

Taking care of your heart is like taking care of a shrine inside a temple…bringing offerings… praying a deity…respecting a sacred universal energy…paying respect to your SELF…

You can develop a beautiful body but what for if you are still hurting people and animals, what for if your words put down people around you, what for if you don’t have a good heart to share your knowledge, what for if you are greedy, selfish??? What is the point? What for if you are hard with yourself having negative thoughts? What for if you are not able to do beautiful deeds in your life? What for?

I go even further…taking care of your heart as a shrine is being aware of keeping a healthy environment with less stress as possible, setting boundaries around you by learning to protect yourself by negative people in your life. Giving giving with your heart is great but you need to find a true meaning as well. What is the point of opening your heart and not being respected? With people who aren’t grateful? In that sense you need to see your heart as a shrine and protect it. Sometimes moving on, changing goals, stop seeing some people can be the right way to take care of your beautiful heart.