We are frequently held back from realizing our full potential by fear and other negative emotions. According to holistic healer Mikaya Heart, these limiting factors can be overcome if we gather our courage and commit to the process of dealing with them.
Sponsored Content
Many people are held back from their full potential as human beings by an unseen — yet undoubtedly felt — force. That force is what we call fear. It can stifle us and our environments, prevent us from taking chances due to a lack of confidence, and stop us from experiencing joy.
The emotion of fear is instilled into many of us from a young age. Even if there’s no logical reason to suspect harm or negativity in a situation, the simple imagining of danger can produce crippling anxiety and doubt. And when we are motivated by fear, we are likely to create more fear.
Learning how to live in a place of trust instead of fear is obviously desirable, though few people understand how to accomplish such a change, or even where to begin. There are plenty of questions and “buts” on the road, which holistic healer Mikaya Heart knows plenty about. That helps her to work with clients, teaching them how to develop the awareness they need to make a difference.
Heart’s understanding of fear and her ability to navigate its treacherous pathways comes from a childhood of challenges and trauma, including sexual abuse. However, in her thirties, she decided to confront the issues that previously haunted her, and did the work that was required to shift out of her fear, anger, and pain.
She believes we all need to be more willing to talk about what we might otherwise perceive as failings and weaknesses. “If we talk publicly about sexual abuse, it wouldn’t happen. It’s because people are afraid of talking about it, that it is allowed to happen.”
“People are afraid of being vulnerable but there is actually great power in vulnerability because you are not pretending to be something you’re not.”
Born in Scotland, Heart would undergo her own personal transformation upon reaching the U.S., where she lived off the land while building her own home out of recycled materials. While she played around with a variety of different professions — such as a factory worker, kite-surfing instructor, and farmer—her inner motivation always came from time spent alone in Nature, where she felt loved unconditionally, which helped her to recognize the value of seeking and speaking one’s personal truth in all situations, without any judgment of others. It was her connection to Nature that gave her the courage to face her fears and tell the truth.
Heart used kitesurfing as an example of how fear can be overcome by viewing the situation logically instead of getting caught up in dread of impending failure. “Kitesurfing can be pretty scary when the wind is strong, and there are times when I look at the winds and think, ‘Oh my god, I don’t know if I can handle this.’ Then I look at it logically. I have the right kite, I have good equipment, there are other people that could help me if I need [it], I’m gonna be okay, I’m gonna give it a go.”
Heart is a living, breathing example of how a person can reinvent themselves by finding courage that they never knew they had, or perhaps recovering that courage after it was eroded by experiences of trauma. “The more people can accept and appreciate themselves for who they are, with the body and personality they were born with, [the more will find] that is the ultimate place of authenticity. And when you can act from that authenticity, you’re much more likely to be kind, considerate, and supportive of others.”
“That’s how I came to the work that I do because I wanted to help people to be who they are, instead of trying to present a false persona to please others, or to make yourself safe, or to make yourself look good. Those are not motivations that will help you to lead a truly fulfilling and happy life.”
“You can love someone and still recognize it’s not appropriate for you to spend all your time with them.”
Heart mentors people individually, offers workshops, leads ceremonies of all kinds, and has authored several books including “Life, Lies, and Sex: A User’s Guide To Being In A Body,” “A Different Rhythm,” “My Sweet Wild Dance,” and “With The Sun In My Eyes.” While she may have the title of holistic healer, she explained her approach to the process we call healing is different from that of most healers. “My work is not so much about healing a specific individual, but helping people to learn to heal themselves,” she said.
Many of Heart’s clients come after trying more standard methods in order to shift the energy in their lives, and finding that nothing has succeeded. “We are told a lot of lies about the nature of reality in this world. We all need to find what is true and right for us individually, but most people are stuck in a small box with very limited ideas and perspectives. We need to expand our ideas of what is right and possible, and let our imaginations roam.”
“When someone is ready to make a change, it can happen very easily. All I really do is point to a door that is already open! I might just say one or two things that enable them to make a 180-degree shift in their perspective on reality.”
Heart explained that once the shift is experienced, it then becomes the person’s responsibility to ensure that it manifests as it needs to. “Once someone has made that shift in their perspective, then they can run with it, and they often don’t need another session with me. It’s their job to incorporate that new perspective into their lives and operate from there.”
Heart recalled one instance with a client who called her and said, “‘I love my wife, but I’m not sure what that means.'” “So we talked about love and I [told] him a couple of things,” Heart explained. “Just because you love someone, it doesn’t mean you need to be with that person all the time. Or maybe you love them, but they’re abusive, and for your own sake you need to stay away from them.”
In this case, Heart’s client spoke about how he goes out in Nature when he needs to escape from stress, saying that he feels Nature accepts him exactly as he is. “All I said to him at that point was, ‘That is love.’ He made a shift, and grasped a truth that our culture normally doesn’t tell us.”
“There are infinite possibilities in that expanded understanding, in that vast reality. From that vastness, Soul makes choices to experience limitation, for the joy and for the learning of it.”
One of the crucial staples in Heart’s teaching is the belief that there are an unlimited number of “realms,” where our souls are able to incarnate if they so please. “The truth is we are all eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing beings who exist in love, and have chosen to experience a limited, physical form as a human being because we can learn a great deal from doing so. Souls can choose to incarnate in many different realms, physically or otherwise,” Heart said.
“Soul chooses to incarnate from a perspective where there is no time, which is completely impossible for us, as humans, to wrap our heads around, because time dictates our lives. And we’re intending to be fully engaged in this incredible realm, this reality that can be terrifying and awful, but also awe-inspiring, gorgeous, magnificent, delightful.”
“It’s all those things, and that’s what makes it fascinating to Soul who cannot be harmed and exists in a continual state of love. That sounds wonderful, and it is, but it’s not the adventure and anticipatory excitement that we know from being in form. On this planet, we experience duality which means both pain and pleasure, night and day, dark and light, and so on.”
Heart stated that while this reality may be initially hard to comprehend, the expanded awareness of such a broad and deep perspective can be extremely empowering. “The truth is that with our physical eyes, we only see a tiny portion of the vast reality that exists around us all the time. Within that greater reality, there are many guides in unseen form, who are always there to help us.” Of course, time and duality don’t exist in the greater reality, which changes everything.
“One cannot experience peace without knowing conflict and war, because nothing can exist within duality without an opposite.”
Heart explained that the concept of duality is one of the defining features of the human realm. “One cannot initially experience love on this planet without also at some point knowing hate. One cannot experience pleasure without also knowing pain.”
According to Heart, Soul wants to “experience it all, wants to know everything from every angle.” “Over many lifetimes, as we evolve, we reach a point where we truly understand both love and hate. Then from that perspective of knowing both, we absolutely and completely choose love, and that changes everything. That is a benefit to the whole cosmos, the whole universe. When you really accept love, then love flows through you. We might call it joy.”
Another aspect of Heart’s teachings is that we must learn to allow our feelings to move through us and be expressed. “The emotional, the physical, and the mental are not separate. They are completely interlinked. So if you deny something on one level, it’s going to manifest on another level.”
Regardless of what form it manifests, Heart emphasized that all life “is energy, and it wants to flow.” “Trying to stop the natural flow of life is a very common cause of physical illness. Most people repress and avoid feelings that they label as weak or socially unacceptable, or just plain unpleasant, and that is exactly the wrong approach because they then stay with you forever, sapping your life-force energy. There is a specific knack to expressing feelings quickly so that they pass on and are transformed without any effort.”
“One doesn’t need to be able to put one’s life’s purpose into words but we do need to identify [and] follow what leads us to joy. Because fulfilling your life’s desires will bring you joy. And joy is infectious – it benefits everyone.”
Some Souls might choose to experience darkness and pain simply because they want to experience everything this realm has to offer. “People who really want to experience darkness are not likely to come to me because even on an unconscious level, they know they want the darkness and they know that I am bringing light.”
Heart cautioned not to ignore the darkness completely, but simply not dwell on it, since what we focus on is what we will experience. This has been a planet of darkness for many centuries, and Heart believes that a break in darkness is coming soon, with many beings choosing to incarnate now with the intention of helping to bring the light.
It takes a lot of patience, commitment, and courage to work through our fears and be who we truly are. “On this plane of duality, I would say that the opposite of fear is trust. And ultimately, that means we have to learn to operate from that grand perspective where we know that all is well,” Heart said, acknowledging that this will always be easier said than done, especially in a world as hectic and sporadic as ours.
Still, she explained that when you allow yourself to relax and “fall back,” a phrase she uses in her teachings, you can access that expanded awareness that enables you to see this Earth plane as an incredible playground of opportunities, to be treasured and appreciated. To learn more about Heart’s plethora of resources — including her books, various travels, mentoring, counseling, workshops, and courses — or to contact her, you can visit her website by clicking here.
Andrew Rhoades is a Contributing Reporter at The National Digest based in New York. A Saint Joseph’s University graduate, Rhoades’ reporting includes sports, U.S., and entertainment. You can reach him at andrew.rhoades@thenationaldigest.com.
