The Lionheart West blog

By Laura Fine, H.H.P., M.F.T., M.A., A.E.A.

In Saint Exupery’s The Little Prince, he states, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.” The heart is not just a physical organ, it is an energy center, a place of consciousness, a space of expanded awareness of the existence of essence, the essence of the universe which is love, that lives and pulsates inside of us. It is our most natural state. Our “other” states are those of lifetimes of learned distortions of the essence of our True Self.

My teacher says, “We use the mind to heal the mind.” He is referring to the True Mind, which lives near the physical heart, not the brain. All distress that isn’t life threatening is based in learned distorted perspectives of our mental patterns, sometimes referred to as “belief systems.” These belief systems repetitively replay like cassette tapes in our mind. Our belief systems can either perpetuate a state of well being and ease, or a state of distress. Some of us who may already be working with positive thinking, understand this concept. But the question is, if “positive thinking” were really that effective, why hasn’t it worked for me consistently? Why do I still struggle with old repetitive negative hurts?

If you look at a cell under a microscope its natural life force impulse is to move. If you restrict its path, in one direction, it will look for movement in a different direction. If you continue to restrict its path until it can no longer find a path for movement, it will pulsate in place, its walls will begin to thicken, and finally, it dies. Inherent in our nature are spontaneous creative impulses looking for life force expression in every direction. When one direction is thwarted, we create defenses, we then look in another direction until we can find movement. The more restricted our possibilities for movement, the thicker our walls become. These restrictions and walls create rigid patterns in the neurological matter of the mind.

The subconscious and unconscious mind retain these deeply patterned thought rigidities. These patterns have an energetic dynamic that originated in our childhood, infancy, and uncountable past life times. These unconscious patterns express themselves as restrictions to our present life interactions, relationships and ambitions. They cause us pain, distress, a sense of low self esteem, insecurity and other limitations. As much as we may possess an intellectual, rational understanding about “why” we may feel defensive or insecure in a particular situation, it often does not diminish our feelings of discomfort. Our frustration lies in the knowing presence of our True Mind that senses we are capable of more pleasure.

When we explore the invisible electromagnetic realm of the physiological and energetic dynamic that contains the constricting experience of discomfort, the light of consciousness exposes the distorted cellular memory message and brings about a “combustive experience” that necessitates change. Conscious awareness of the emotional content, life force (unconstricted breath), and cognitive understanding, release the cellular trauma from its rigidified state and allow that once stagnant rigidified energy of the belief systems to again flow freely. It can feel something like an internal shower of tingling sensations, that can be experienced as invigorating, highly stimulating, small body spasms, or fluid electricity that floods throughout the body. This energy then “washes” over the mind, the experience itself bringing new insights and clarity where there might have been confusion or doubt.

This process is not “magical,” it is physiological, though our responses to it sometimes feel as though it is miraculous, enlightening, and uplifting. This process is the activation of the body’s natural innate self-correcting healing mechanism bringing us closer to the heart’s natural state which is one of unconditional love and The True Mind’s natural state, which is one of clarity and serenity.

I wanted answers to all the BIG questions

My soul was questing. My mind did not understand what it was questing for, but there was an inner drive constantly pushing me. I wanted answers to all the BIG questions, like, what is the purpose of my life? Why am I here? What am I supposed to be doing? I knew that I wanted it to be something GOOD and something FUN! I just didn’t know what that was. I wanted to understand all the mysteries. I wanted to be psychic. I knew there was magic in the world and life and existence beyond what I could see or understand. I wanted answers. I wanted to experience aliveness in my body. I wanted to achieve the greatest heights of my aliveness, spirituality, creativity, and psychic potential.

This quest that began in my early twenties, brought me to a Polarity therapist where I experienced a kundalini awakening that changed my life direction. I already happily enjoyed a career in the theatre arts working as a professional director and acting teaching, but this inner drive led me to sessions in healing, astrology readings, numerology, channelers, mystics, transpersonal psychology,  spiritual practices and teachers, vision quests, meditation, yoga, tai chi, churches, temples, retreats, etc. etc. etc. I studied Polarity Therapy, Feldenkrais, Trager, Reiki, Alexander technique, yoga, Tai Chi, Chi Gong, Continuum and more. I spent four years in training and graduated from the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, studied Kabalistic Healing with the Society of Souls for two years and helped found the School for Enlightenment and Healing where I taught for five years.

Remarkable results seemed to happen

During this time of exploration, learning and study my passion for healing and thrill for the powerful results of working with the chakra energy system captivated a good deal of my focus and attention. Remarkable results seemed to happen with little effort. With my background as a former theatre director and from my experiences through such a variety of training in the field of energy healing I began to be invited teach workshops on my own. As these workshops were well received, there was a naturally unfolding demand for more training from the students. With my background in directing and stage management and my administrative experience through teaching I found myself in a position to begin to offer a more structured program.

I had the desire to provide a solid core essence and foundation for the principles upon which energy healing emerges. I wanted the training to be accessible and affordable and yet deeply affective for physical, emotional and spiritual health. I wanted it to be grounded in universal truth with high integrity in such spiritual principles as humbleness, gratitude, forgiveness, compassion, respect, purity, innocence and love. I wanted to make it practical so that graduates could not only leave the program having achieved an inner-personal awakening and healing transformation but also have the option to create a professional energy healing practice and build a career out of this invaluable service if so desired.

Heart centered yet based in physical grounded reality

I modeled the curriculum structure of Lionheart in such a way that people could fly in for a weekend from out of state if necessary and still be able to keep their day job. It was important to me to make it affordable to the middle class householder. I wanted to keep the class size intimate, ranging between 15 and 25 per class. I hired teachers whose approach is heart centered yet based in physical grounded reality and spirituality. I set the curriculum so that it could unfold at the students own pace and while in the program they have opportunities to be part of a community of like-minded friends for support while applying their inner work to their outer life, the REAL test of change.  I wanted the approach to be highly experiential and inter-active, inter-relational and hands-on so that people would leave with a greater sense of their own body/mind power. I wanted it to be stimulating, challenging and FUN!

Lionheart is now over ten years old. Did it work? The student testimonials speak for themselves.

-Laura Fine
Co-Founder, Instructor & Academic Director of Lionheart Institute