The Four Needs of the Heart

I was listening to some inspiring audio talk while doing dishes a few months ago

-

and I have to confess, I don't remember who it was speaking anymore

-

but they made mention of the four needs of the heart,

and as each one was said,

I knew it to be truth on so many levels.

So I doodled them on a heart-flap my fella made me for my journal...

A T T E N T I O N

A F F E C T I O N

A C C E P T A N C E

A P P R E C I A T I O N

Today, I got curious just who said them again...

and though I couldn't find a link to the audio where I first heard them,

I did learn that it ends up they are attributed to some talks by Deepak Chopra.

Which just made me smile because I'm a big fan of Chopra's Spiritual Laws 

(of Yoga, in particular).

Maybe I'd even heard or read them before
but just hadn't remembered.

And then I found this lovely article by Cara Lumen

where she suggests ways in which we can

offer these needs both to ourselves

and to others.

(You can see that article HERE. )

For me,

this is the key:

seeing - feeling - that we all share the same fundamental desires and needs,
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and trying to hold that in my awareness,

as I encounter others who I don't always understand

or as I catch myself passing judgment and being too hard on myself,
-

 is the very fountain of compassion
where we can all drink and be quenched.

Sometimes I especially need that reminder -

to be tender with my own heart.