Seeing from your Heart

by Jo-Ann Downey on December 27, 2009

in Relationship Communication Skills

Post image for Seeing from your Heart

What do you see when you look at someone?  Do you focus on their physical attributes, their clothes, their circumstances, their behavior or their beliefs?  When you see through “thinking eyes” it is easy to judge situations and people.  

Thinking Eyes versus Seeing from your Heart

When you see someone primarily with “thinking eyes” you tend to do things like compare, contrast, project past experiences into the future, play old stories in your head, insert your own preferences and judge.  You are likely to want to take action and/or control or fix someone or something. 

To see someone as a whole and perfect human being, as someone who is always doing their best, you must feel kindness, compassion, appreciation and reverence. To do that, you need to get out of your head and into your heart where these feelings reside.  You need to see from your heart. 

“The heart has eyes which the brain knows nothing of.” Charles H. Perkhurst

Nonverbal Communication

As shared in “The 93% Impact of Nonverbal Communication”, 93% of the message you send is through nonverbal communication such as body language, voice tone, gestures and facial expressions.  How you truly see others and what messages you send is primarily a silent effort; words only count for 7% of the message you send.  Where you are coming from is far more important than what you say.

Nonverbal communication is a two-way street.  To truly hear someone is to also listen and acknowledge their silent messages.

Attitude and Intention

As shared in “When your Relationships are Good, your Life is Good”, the great news is that you have complete control over 2 powerful relationship communication skills, your attitude and your intentions.  Are you willing to set an intention to truly see, and be with others, from a place of acceptance and unconditional kindness?  Can you see, and be with, yourself in the same way?

“Be kind whenever possible.  It is always possible.”  Dalai Lama

Very Smart Girls see from their heart.

Comments welcome.  The name you type in the comment section (for example, Jo-Ann, Jo-Ann Downey or Jo-Ann from Boston) will appear on the site.  Your email address will NOT appear.  If you provide a website URL (for example, your business or your blog URL),  it will be linked to your name so others can learn more about you.

photo credit: marimoon

Related posts:

  1. 5 Tips on How to Listen Effectively
  2. “I Hear You” is the new “I Love You”
  3. Silence is Golden…and Pauses are Too
  4. The 93% Impact of Nonverbal Communication

{ 4 trackbacks }

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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }

tinque December 28, 2009 at 8:57 am

lovely article. always a good reminder…thank you.
xxoo

Reply

Jo-Ann Downey December 28, 2009 at 4:48 pm

Thank you. I plan to do “listen from your heart” and “speak from your heart” as well.

Reply

Roxanne January 3, 2010 at 6:56 am

Loved this one. The picture is awesome!

Reply

Jo-Ann Downey January 3, 2010 at 10:00 am

Roxanne,
Thank you. Re: photo- I am grateful for the creativity of some awesome photographers in this world. I do believe that a picture can be worth a thousand words!

Reply

Elaine January 4, 2010 at 12:43 pm

Love the article and the picture. Sometimes when I am in a difficult situation and I forget to open my heart (like in a job interview), I think to myself of the other person, “God Bless you. I love you.” That helps me focus on the perfectness of the other person and helps me to open my heart.

Reply

Jo-Ann Downey January 4, 2010 at 5:39 pm

Elaine,
Great idea and great reminder (job interview) that these skills are for both personal and professional situations and relationships.

Reply

Nancy March 1, 2010 at 8:33 pm

It is so true that when I am in my heart I know that Spirit and I are connecting. I am in a place in relationships that is awesome because of my intention to be in my heart and away from ego and judgment. Just this past week I had a couple of days that I was so connected to Spirit and love that everyone I interacted with seemed to float in and out of my life in great love. Alas I also had days when my intentions seemed murky. I was so disconnected and my nonverbal communication screamed out in negative ways. Life is a process and I am thankful to be able to see how I interact and set intentions to be in my heart more and more. Thank you for your wonderful articles.

Reply

Jo-Ann Downey March 2, 2010 at 5:12 pm

Nancy,
Thank you for your words of wisdom and for reminding me about intentions- my intention is to write an article about “pure” intentions- and the purest intentions come from the heart!

Reply

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