Heartbeat meditation discovery

I’m keeping up my one to two hours vipassana meditations a day. It’s hard, it’s been about two weeks.

Today I have had a really good feeling as I was practicing observing thoughts come in and going and each time labelling them “thought”. Then I also label my sensations saying to myself “sensation” and also “time” when I feel like stopping as an hour is long. I say to myself “time” and observe my impatience or discomfort and keep going.

As I was doing this I started feeling my heart beat.

Since I had a doubt I put a finger next to my throat and verified it was actually my heartbeat and it was. I then instead of observing breath started to observe my heartbeat. It was very mild and I lost it many times in the beginning but then it became more obvious and I started feeling it between two fingers, then was able to listen and feel my heart in many places. It was beautiful as it was like I was with my own “aliveness” so obvious. Almost as if I was separated from my body, observing my body beat at the Rythm of my heart. I also practice guitar so it was fun to observe my own natural metronome.

I googled “heartbeat meditation” and discovered after my meditation that this is an actual technique. What they recommend is to then breathe at each heart beat or in and out on an heart beat. I will try this next time but today’s meditation really felt like a “aha” moment in my practice.

Have you ever felt your heartbeat in a meditation?