I recently heard a lyric from a song that touched me, and I’d like to share its essence with you.  It had to do with “thinking of all the hearts in the world beating at the same time”.  As I focused on that thought, image and awareness, my immediate sense of connection expanded to include not only my community but the whole world.  I imagined all the hearts of every person, every animal, every living being that has a heart, beating at the same time.  They may not beat in the same rhythm, but all are beating at the same time.  I was deeply moved by this awareness.  It’s obvious, once you think about it, but it’s not something that usually comes into consciousness.  It’s like realizing that we all breathe at the same time and – even more fundamentally – that we all share a need to breathe, even when we do so in very different ways, as when fish breathe under water.  Even plants breathe.  There is so much that we share with the life around us, and so many ways we may feel separated from this sense of connection.

What happens when you take a moment to recognize that every living being with a heart has a heart beating at the same time as yours?  What images or thoughts come to mind when you recognize this?  Then, what do you experience when you remember that there are countless living beings breathing, even as you breathe right now, right here, in this moment?  An awareness of breathing brings us even closer, as we share the oxygen all around us with so many other living beings.  The process of our breathing even connects with the plants as we give them our exhaled carbon dioxide and they give us their exhaled oxygen.

For this week’s experiment, I invite you to be more consciously aware of the fact that your heart beats along with countless other hearts – of people, animals, and other living beings.  Start with an awareness of the people and other living beings around you in your immediate environment.  Then, expand your awareness to the larger area where you live, then to ever-larger contexts, until you imagine the whole world.  There isn’t one beat of your heart that isn’t accompanied by the beats of countless hearts around you, all around the globe.  What do you experience in your body when you take time to “think of all the hearts in the world beating at the same time”?  What state of mind emerges?  Do you notice any mixed feelings about this? 

Then, what do you notice when you remember that, with every breath you take, you breathe in air that is also breathed in by so many other life forms on the planet?  We share breathing even more intimately than we do our heartbeats, as we all actually partake of air that touches everyone.  What do you experience in your mind and your body when you realize that the air you breathe in, in this moment, right here, right now, has traveled all around the planet, and has been shared by countless life forms?  What happens when you recognize that your exhalations offer carbon dioxide to the plant life around you, giving them what they need, just as they contribute to the oxygen you need?

Be sure to allow mixed feelings as you play with this experiment.  Sometimes, this level of interconnection feels very good and offers a sense of never being alone in the world.  Sometimes, such a deep interconnection – as when we realize that we all breathe the same air – may feel a bit intrusive, too close, too connected.  Just notice whatever emerges.  There’s no need for any particular response.  This is an opportunity to deepen your awareness of interconnection, to recognize experientially that we never exist in a vacuum, alone.