Heart Posture

What is heart posture? How is it defined? Have you ever found yourself wondering about the state of your heart? Often times when we talk about matters of the heart, we speak on experiences of heartbreak, deceit, and betrayal.  What if I told you that aligning your heart and actively listening for how things make your heart feel could mitigate some of the experiences that we face.  In a perfect world nobody would ever experience such pain, but in the real world we can allow pain to be our greatest teacher.  Come with me on the final episode of Season 1 to unpack matters of the heart, and why a healthy heart is so important to flow with the rhythm of life. I can't wait for you to join me, you don't want to miss this!

With Peace & Love,
ThaPrettyRebel

Transcript

0:00

Welcome back to Crown Culture, the podcast, if it's your first time joining us, thank you. And welcome if you're returning shout out to y'all, you're my tribe. And I'm super, super excited to unpack more issues, more topics, just, and to flow. You know what I mean? So welcome back. I don't think we talk enough about matters of the heart. we talk about heartbreak, we talk about love, but do we talk about the in between? Do we talk about the condition of our heart? Do we talk about the positioning of our heart? Do we really unpack the matters of the heart in the way that we need to? So today I'm really just here to explore this with you I would really say in an intimate way, on an intimate level. I just really want to better understand my heart and maybe me trying to better understand my heart can invoke that within you and it can inspire you on your journey. So before I begin any episode, I try to. Remember, but if I don't, then I do it at the end. But, father God, thank you for this day. Thank you for everything that you have done for us. Thank you for everything that you do for us. God. We ask that as we go throughout our day, our evening and our night, God, we just praying. We ask that you cover us, you cover us. You protect us, you shield us, and God, allow us to abundantly give back to you in the ways that you need, in our productivity, in the way that we explore, and the way that we treat others in the world. So God, as we unpack heart posture, This evening, I pray and ask that you just go before me and you word my mouth with the words that you need the people to hear. So I welcome them. We are excited. Heart Posture Episode 8. Here we are let's do this. So, you know, I really, really love to begin my episodes exploring like questions, questions that I'm always constantly asking to myself. Like, Episode 2, You're Only As Good As Your Tribe. One of the beautiful guests that I had on, spoke about heart posture. And that really, really, got me thinking, you know? I don't know, maybe it did the same for you, but, I'm just in a place where I'm like, what is heart posture? Outside of being in love and self love and, all of these things, like, how do they go into the grand scheme of Matters of the heart, so what does it mean to have a healthy heart posture? What does that look like? What does that feel like? Am I driven? I asked am I driven more by my heart? Am I driven more by my mind? Am I driven more by my Spirit my soul, And I talked about in peace of mind my first episode just about how those three components Of your body, one are major, but two, how they are, they independently exist, and then how they intertwine in an inter interdisciplinary fashion. So it's like, what is the importance of the posture of the heart with God? What does that look like? You know what I mean? Why does he care so much? Why did he, incorporate matters of the heart so much in scripture I guess a fair question is like what shapes our heart, you know what I mean? Like what does that feel like? What does that look like? it's easy to say Experiences, right the experiences that we face every day I would say shape our heart posture because it can have the ability to have a positive effect on us or it can have A negative effect on us, and It's like how do we operate? What is a pure heart? like, how do we operate from a space of purity? And it's not pure in the sense that I haven't done anything in my life, right? Like I've done wrong. I feel like everybody has done wrong, done wrong by someone been done wrong. Like I feel like that applies to anyone, but really, really understanding, it's important understanding how that Shapes what we do and how the experiences that we continue to experience in the world, you know So, we can dive in but these are all the questions that I just wonder I have Regarding the heart and its posture. Heart posture really It's an aspect That puts us in the best position to be successful in our investing, in our giving, and it really drives our generosity, our kindness, a lot derives from the heart, and, The heart's posture stems from a sense of gratitude, for the gifts that we've been given by God, and our eagerness to, serve Him, right? if you've ever heard the terminology a servant's heart, if you've ever heard anything about a servant's heart, it centers in God and it not only centers in God, but it's in every aspect of what we do. It determines how we love. And that is, our love for self, our love for God also drives our servitude and our ability to serve and be in spaces and places where you can remain true to yourself because your heart is healthy. Your heart, Posture is upright is beating healthily in your body. And so, I started asking like What is a healthy heart? It's in a sense purposefully orienting your own Heart towards love if that makes sense, On Sunday, I attend the Life Church in Maryland. It is phenomenal. Shout out to my people. But Elder Shamika, spoke about from sifting to shifting. And I think That can go into your experience from sifting, it's like a cornmeal and you sift out the bad things and you take the good things, but there's a process and I think that that's what goes into your heart's posture, how much time you spend with you, how much time you spend taking inventory or an audit of the things that you hold to be important, so in order to get to some of That I would say let's first look at the position of your heart, the first principle of Generosity within the kingdom begins with the posture of the heart obviously But when talking about the heart it refers to both the position and the condition, you know Both are important to the flow of the rhythm in which you live your life in which you operate in which you get the flow. And you heard me start this episode off with flow And I talk a lot about Flowing you Can ask me like how are you or whatever and when I tell you I am free flowing It's like I do go with the tide But if something is against what I believe or something goes against what I know in my heart to be true Then I'm not for someone else disturbing my flow, but I'll disrupt the flow of others in the event or in the desire to save And I hope and I pray that in putting myself first in that way, I'm never harming anyone. And I'm doing it in a way that God is pleased and not in a way that I'm self serving, you know? Jesus makes it really clear in Matthew chapter 6 verse 21 that wherever your treasure is, that's where your heart is. And that treasure is normally defined as something that is precious and stored up often a resource of some sort, and that's what people strive for the treasure. If you knew your heart was a treasure and you treated your heart like treasure. What would that look like? Would your world, would you say okay, I'm actually, I'm doing this, I'm making progress, I'm proud, or would you say hmm, maybe I need to take a couple of steps back and I need to evaluate where I am and figure out what steps I need to take in the right direction that's gonna be most beneficial for me. When your heart is jammed, when your heart is, It's clogged with the wrong things, it really hinders and inhibits room for the right things. And I think I learned that early on, growing up, I always just knew I was very, I guess, I, I, I don't want to say I wore my emotions on my sleeve, but my parents couldn't figure out like why things affected me so much. I'm such an empath. Like I feel everything. I can cry at seeing someone homeless, it can break my heart. I can feel for the next person. And I've always thought that it was. I always thought that it was like the worst thing in the world. Instead of thinking it was my superpower, and my ability to feel others gave me the ability to evaluate and gain these people skills, this emotional intelligence. But that was because I let myself feel. And Letting yourself feel In a sense, it really is an invaluable tool. I think when you experience so much heartbreak in your life, you're like, I'm not dealing with this anymore. I swear, I'm not dealing with this person doing me wrong. I'm not dealing with this person. He cheating, he doing this, or she doing that. just walking all over me, grinding up my heart. It's like, my heart, like. Because of my love for whom I serve and who my heart belongs to, it's restored. And it's always made better the next time around. It's always put back together. When he saved me from what I thought I wanted, what my heart thought it wanted, it made me so much better in a sense that not only did it save me, it made me grateful. And it also made me Smarter in a lot of ways. A lot of my, savviness, it was just very different. And so, you know, as humans, Two of our most valuable resources, I would say, in the modern era is time and money. Time, specifically, because that's something that you just can't get back. And money because it's currency, They're both currency really, they really are and Your energy stems from, it's your aura, it's your heart, it's everything that makes up you as an individual and based on Jesus statement about treasure, just by taking a look at how you manage your resources will tell you a great deal about yourself. Where you spend your money, who you hang out with, how you spend your time, what your goals are. That tells you, am I an ego driven person or am I A heart or purpose driven person. I think that that tells you a lot about you in a general sense. aNd I'm not saying to be ego driven is bad, but it's like, to be ego driven, where is that going to get you? Because nothing can purely develop form. From the ego, if you continuously build a cycle and date the same types of women Who feed your ego? You're not going to ever have anything purposeful That is rooted in love god anything like that. You're going to have something that's rooted in lust. That's something that's rooted in appearances, aesthetics. It's going to be something that is surface level and you say, well, why can't I have both? Or why can't I be this? And you can care, you can have nice things, but if you make that yourself as a person, then I just feel like, I'm not even gonna say I feel like, because I am removed and displaced from this, but it's just how it's received in the world is completely different than someone who is rooted in genuine authenticity. You know, you can be humble, right? Like, you can be humble hearted. You can be lion hearted and the most humble individual in the room, doesn't it? Like, you can't tell God who he calls. So, you know, that's why jealousy, envy, those things are rooted in an unhealthy heart. You know what I mean? When people are envious and they do things You know, I hate you or I want to be you, you know people walking around here They killing people because they're envious of them Because somebody had the courage to go out and get it or do it or whatever You know or they had a misunderstanding that literally was Just that misunderstanding and they're killing people their are young men are killing each other at alarming rates over You got something that I want and I'm gonna kill you for it or we had Like I said misunderstanding about something so small and it's so small because you you know If you woke up tomorrow, it might have bothered you, but would it be worth ending his life and now yours? Because now you sitting behind bars for 20 plus years. And now that person, you took someone from this world without permission. None of us have permission. So it's, That's why your heart has to be healthy because what we're seeing, you know, young women getting taken, young women getting, Violated, young women getting, and dare I say it, pimped out in this era because their heart is not healthy. I don't mind a man doing things for me, buying me nice things. That's great. I appreciate that. But as long as he knows that like, I'm someone who operates from a space of gratitude. I'm someone who just appreciates you texting me and letting me know that you want me to be a part of your day, your world, your life, your livelihood. You know, you're thinking of me sending me flowers every now and again is just a thought or a gesture or even just leaving me a nice card or me waking up to a nice text message, you know what I'm saying? Like, There are other things that can suffice other than taking me out to dinner, why you not taking me out and doing this, and why you not taking me and doing, and we not over here like this person, and why we not, you not icing me out after three months, that's just crazy. You know what I mean? Like, and, and if that's your MO, that's your MO. That's great. I, but at the end of the day If I asked you Right, because we as women we come to the table and we say well We evaluate what a man brings to the table, but if a man came to the table Men or women actually this can be interpreted Intertwined, interchangeable. If he or she came to the table and says, What do you bring to the table? And I think I've like referenced this, but like, you get somebody that gets to talking and saying Oh, I am the table. I do this, this, and this. I have my own house. I have my own car. I have my own this. I have my own that. And that's great. That's great. But, As a man, hearing that, you should run in the other direction. As a woman, hearing that, if you ask someone, That and they the response is you know, I got this I do this I do that But they can't tell you anything about themselves. They can't tell you that they have unique characteristics Like they can't tell you that the way I love is just different They can't tell you the way that I nurture is different and I would hate and like me I'm not somebody who likes to list because I had this conversation with one of my, good girlfriends and you know, she's also come off my work bestie too. That's my girl. Shout out to Reagan. Miss Reagan. But yeah, we were having this conversation about this and I kind of was just like, for me. I'm not going to do a whole lot of listing out about what I'm about. Like I feel like you do see the material So you operate accordingly? however I feel as though when it comes down to the things if you ask me I could list them I could let you know that my man, you know, my husband he will never starve You know, physically, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, as long as I'm his partner, as long as he lets me in, as long as he allows me to create, to be in that space, I will hands down, that's me as a person. I love, to no limit. These are things that I would say about myself, but I feel like a lot of women nowadays, and they don't know or realize. What makes them them? My heart's posture these things that are intangible, but yet we're so quick to rush to the tangible things You know, you have a job you're supposed to have a job You have a house that you know You you're supposed to have a house like you have a car like I'm not saying you're supposed to have a car but I'm just saying like I'm saying these are things, like, what do you want to pat on the back for? Those are self serving things. How do you treat people? I pay attention to a lot of, like, how, when I'm engaging, interacting, how he treats people. Does he have manners? You know, does he, act like he has some sense? You know what I mean? Like I'm paying attention to all of this. So I feel like as a woman, women and men both have responsibility to guard their heart is written in the Bible. You know, Jesus said it, it was written in the Bible, Above all else, guard your heart for everything you do flows from it. Proverbs chapter 4, verse 23. Because everything that you do stems from your heart. That's why when you get your heart broken, it literally feels like the world stops. That's why it feels like that. Because when we feel things from the heart, Now, to the folks, I would say, actually I'm going to take a quick detour because God just gave me this. To the folks who struggle, I would say in the sense of, um, you've blocked your own heart. You've created your own blockage because you said I don't want to experience this anymore. I don't want to feel pain anymore. This person that I love, you know, my world is so different. Those people I'm talking to you, you will love again. You will laugh again. You will get back to all of the things that make you you. Even make you better than before, you know? So on this platform I'm always challenging you to think differently, to think about something maybe from a different perspective or, I challenge you to take an audit on how you spend your time, how you spend your money, how you spend these valuable resources, right? This means really taking an in depth look at you, what you make time for. I would say what you make time for, where and how you spend your money and your behavioral patterns or habits. This will tell you a lot about you. It'll tell you a lot of what you believe or deem to be important, and after you've done that audit. Of these resources, I want you to examine how you stewarded your heart, right? Have you taken a moment to locate the source? where is God located in all that you do? Is he first? Is he an afterthought? Does he have any place in what you do? He ain't in your hair, he ain't in your nails, I understand hair, nails, feet, you know, eyebrows, you know, staying right tight, I get it, I get it, gym memberships, I get it, all of that factor into your gift back to him. the way that I challenge myself to work out, I've been in this great groove of working out and the way that I've been challenging myself and what I've been telling myself is that there is somebody who doesn't have the activity of their limbs, any of them, one of them, doesn't matter, two, four, like there there are someone out there that does not have the ability to do that. So I'm not going to, take advantage of my ability to do that, or take it for granted. I would say that. I wouldn't take that experience for granted. So I'm going to get my tail up, and I'm going to go work out. Because he gave me this body, he gave me all my limbs and everything like that. Go work it out. Even if it's just an hour. You know, 30 minutes. That's what's important, giving your time to God, giving your time to the gifts that he gives you. Because if you spend time asking for the gifts, you're praying for them, but how are you going to keep them once he gives them to you? Are you prepared? You just gonna wing it. That's not gonna fly if you want the best from him Then you should be giving him your best and there's no possible way you can give your complete Optimal best if your heart is not postured correctly healthily in your heart You know so I want to I do I will this does come with a warning because The results of what you find in this audit. I'm always constantly taking an audit. I'm always constantly taking inventory of the things that make me, me, at first I used to do it when I received major defeats in my life. And then I think as I grew in my maturity, that's when I started to really, really, do them Consistently, every few months or, I go and I write. I write in my journal because I wanted to see my progress. I wanted to see if I had achieved what I set out to do the week before, the month before so, I think you could also be very much pleased with where you are. You could be like, wow, I'm much further than how far I've gotten. And maybe you're not giving yourself enough credit, enough grace for what you've done. I just, I want you to see that it will tell you a story. I'm really big on storytelling. That's why I love to have people come and sit with me and talk with me here. Because I'm just really, really big on storytelling. I think that there's so much learning that can be achieved through listening to just someone else's story. You know, learning what not to do. Learning what to do. Learning, you could cut the line. You know what I'm saying? You could cut your time in half just by wisdom. So beyond the numbers and the places and the behavior, it just reveals something much deeper about your heart. And it reveals its condition more specifically. So you know, guard your heart, because everything you do flows and I can't emphasize that enough. I know I've said it, but if your heart can't flow, you can't flow with life. And I mean that in the realest way. You can't flow with life. Something is going to trip you up, so if your heart is filled with the joy and the love and the hope and the peace of God, you know, knowing that your joy is just not based in the conditions of the world. But on the presence of God in your heart, in your life, you experience a fullness and a joy, right? But then if it's filled with bitterness and unforgiveness, fear of guilt, it will reflect in how you manage your resources, specifically me, the condition of your heart definitely determines the condition of your giving both in your time and your money. iT begins with the posture of the heart and the posture consists of position and condition. God desires for his children to be as he is, generous to people, to places, to things, it doesn't matter if you get it back, God will give you better. So if you're having trouble with being generous, I really just encourage you to prayerfully examine the position and condition of your heart and allow God to heal and reposition you as necessary. But you can't be afraid or try to dictate how he does in fact reposition you. You just got to surrender to the flow and let it come and let him do what he needs to be done. So, you know, I think even just some of the questions that we posed about, what is the importance of the posture of the heart to God? I'd venture to say it's to communicate non verbally with God, or with the higher power, you know, how do we operate? From a pure heart and Matthew chapter 5 verse 8 says blessed are the pure at heart for they will see God Everything we do everything we touch Everything that we are the rhythm of our sound in fact really really really determines how We fare in life, how we forge our own path, what that looks like, what that feels like. Does it feel honest? Are you cheating? Cheating in the sense of doing anything that's not upright and honest. Trying to snake someone over to get ahead. Where is your heart rooted? Are you rooted in a by any means necessary kind of person, or do you care about the people that you experience and come across? It all flows together, as I mentioned earlier, but also in my first episode, the mind has to be well, the heart has to be well, and your soul has to be well. Your soul has to be pure, your mind has to be pure, Your heart has to be pure. Your heart is big, big, living, pumping, breathing, and how you nurture your heart really dictates your ability to love, your ability to experience love,

Computer Audio: 28:26

your ability to nurture, nurture an environment, nurture your home, nurture your children, nurture your partner. It's all important. And if you can't clear your heart space, if you can't make room for God because it's cluttered and jammed with, things that maybe they just, they were meant for you to let go, maybe it's time to heal. And, we talked a lot about trauma and grief and a little bit about healing in my last episode, but it really is important to process these really major aspects of life that we come across daily. The effects they have on us and how they shape us, how they shape our heart. But the heart never forgets. there are people, there are places that leave an imprint on your heart, wherever you go, whatever you do, so enough of my rambling, I really just wanted to dive into the heart's posture. What is a healthy heart? What is the condition of your heart? Because your heart shapes our experience. It's our filter. What we feel, that's what our heart really, really, really, really, really determines. How we experience life. So, the heart is just that. It's how we experience life. And if you want to come from a jaded place, then you'll leave your heart posture exactly how it is. You won't take an inventory and you will let it be just that or we'll take inventory and you'll look to forge a new path in a new direction that is God given and driven. I really, really hope that you enjoy this episode about the heart.,, I guess I could have talked a little bit more about love, but I could talk to y'all about love for days, weeks, hours, months. I love love. I think love is so beautiful. Definitely having a healthy heart affects The beauty in what you love and how you paint your strokes on the beautiful canvas, masterpiece that we call life.,so I just wanted to get on here and talk to y'all a little bit about the heart posture. So, if you're on your way to work, have a great day. If you're on your lunch break I'm happy that you took it with me. And if you're on your way home, have a great evening. And if this is a nightcap, goodnight. XOXO