Women in the Workplace

Good Woman Project

Cultivating our hearts is something of an art. The practice of any art, according to philosopher Erich Fromm, requires discipline, concentration, patience and supreme concern.

1. Discipline. Within the art of cultivating your heart, the practice of discipline is as simple as focusing your thoughts on what is right, true, honest and good (you are your thoughts, never forget this – Philippians 4:8).

2. Concentration. Concentration implies living fully in the present, engaged in what is noble and right, rejecting false ideas implanted by the media (lust, sexuality as the basis of intimacy, individualism and false standards of womanhood) and also rejecting today’s greedy corporate culture that preaches entitlement above all else. When you feel you’re entitled to something, it’s easy to get caught up in emotional wrong-doings. For instance, if you’re lonely and feel you’re entitled to romance, then your heart will make up excuses if you find it in the wrong place.

3. Patience. If we fall, we get up, forgive ourselves and try again, knowing that God, our biggest fan, roots us onwards.

4. Supreme concern. The condition of practicing any art is supreme concern with its mastery. This means we must be diligent, considering the art of cultivating our hearts to be of supreme importance.