Heart-centric awareness

One interesting shift that has been occurring mid-session for me lately is a transition... an opening up... from what I'll call head-centric awareness to a more diffuse, inclusive, expansive heart-centric awareness. Entering this state has been a real breakthrough for me... all energy work (qi concentration/manipulation/circulation) seems easier, more accessible, more powerful from this state. I now consider it a necessary milestone in each session... the more experiences of that I have, the easier it seems to be for me to intentionally cultivate/enter it.

Terms to describe different modes of awareness are not well developed in English... or any other language that I know that I know... so bear with. I'll use the term head-centric for my standard mode of perception... I feel physical sensations around my body, yet process the results in my mind... I'm aware of my hands with my brain... there's a disconnect between a local sensation (I touch something with my finger) and it's interpretation in my mind. That's one angle; another one is where my "seat of awareness" is... or the "center of gravity" of my awareness/intelligence. For pretty much all of my waking life it is my head/brain/mind.

I'm using the term heart-centric to describe a shift in that center of gravity, from head to heart. There are several qi distinctions (whatta pun! I'm so funny...) between the two states:

-- heart-centric awareness, though physically rooted in the chest/heart area, is much more expansive than my standard head-centric awareness, encompassing my entire upper body, from dan tien to crown. -- the field of awareness extends beyond my physical body, in somewhat of an egg shaped field enveloping the majority of and sometimes my entire body... sometimes I swear the surrounding air also contributes my awareness.
-- wha't I'm calling heart-centric awareness is not merely a simultaneous awareness of head and heart, but a fusion of the two.

Catalysts for shifting into heart--based awareness include:

-- spinal exercises, spinal exercises, spinal exercises!
-- the neck seems crucial... even a fully charged spine will often not be enough... some focused neck exercises (circling around each vertebrae, for example) really seems to help bridge and allow the fusion of head and heart
-- feeling from the heart... sounds simple, yet is ongoing interesting/challenging for me... like learning to use a brand new muscle group
-- closing the eyes definitely helps at first... then once a strong heart-centric space has been entered, opening the eyes will reengage the mind... playing with this tension, back-and-forth, has been fruitful for me in terms of understanding the transition