Your "Hand on (or to) Heart" technique covers matters of the heart - how you feel about yourself, what appears from within your awareness to "emanate" from you (from your core). It deals with the type of "aura"/ "energy" / "vibe" that you emit, and it is fundamental to what one identifies as "self". We ARE this energy that we feel emanating from the core of our awareness/ being, first and foremost.
That said, establishing our identity with the ideal type of "energies" (examples: compassion, peace, love, joy, happiness, psychological security, fulfillment, etc.) does little regarding what we project into the "future self" - who we will be in the future, how we will feel/ behave in the future, how we will appear to ourselves and others at some future time, what specific qualities of life and personality traits will manifest x amount of time from now.
It's awesome to feel the truth of how great we are now, HERE, in the moment; however, it tends to be slow in carrying over into our daily affairs. While continuing this practice of Hand to Heart will carry its own positive momentum and eventually "spill over" into all of our daily activities, more and more, the more we stick with it, there are ways to amplify and speed up the process.
While there are innumerable ways to supplement that practice, which can help speed up a more complete positive transformation, the one technique that I prefer is what I call the "Hand to Head", or, more specifically, "Hand to Third-Eye" technique.
What is the Technique?
It's really simple. You find a position that comfortably allows you to have one hand on your heart and one hand resting on the center of your forehead, just above your eyebrows. After resting your hands in those positions, you repeat the same words that you used for the "Hand to Heart" meditation, only this time you focus more on the feeling of sensations around the area of your "third-eye" - the central point on your forehead about one to two centimeters above the top of your eyebrows - and, while focusing on these sensations, putting an emphasis on being "guided" in visualizing yourself behaving like the type of person who is a strong representation of those qualities/ characteristics.
Example: let's say that the words you chose for the Hand to Heart technique were "healthy", "strong", "masculine", "wealthy", "intelligent", "peaceful", and "compassionate".
Those are the same words you'd then use to do the Hand to Head practice. But, first, you'd have to find a comfortable position to set up your hand placements (one to the forehead and one to the heart). The best way that I've found is to lie in the "side-sleeper" position on my mattress, with a pillow under my head, which is also used to hold up the weight of the hand that I place on my forehead, and one more pillow pushed into my side, just below my heart, which is used to hold up the weight of my hand that's to be resting over my heart.
Once a comfortable position is reached, a few moments would be given to becoming aware of the space inside of one's head, particularly underneath the center of the hand that is resting on the forehead (the area near the third-eye). Some attention should also be given to the "heart-space" (area underneath the hand that is centered over the chest), throughout this practice. If you can manage, the majority of your attention should go to the third-eye, but you should try to maintain some awareness also of the heart-space while doing so.
Once that is all achieved, meaning you feel relatively calm, relaxed and at peace and most of your attention is focused on the sensations of the two areas (hand and heart), most of it towards the third-eye area (under the hand on your forehead), only then start repeating the words again, but this time saying them with the intention of awakening visions of yourself acting out those qualities in real-life, particularly when in situations that you often find yourself encountering in your day-to-day affairs.
The aim should be to say the words slowly, but with strong intent. Say a word, then wait for 10 to 15 seconds (or more, if it feels better), as you hold the strong intention in your heart to manifest that quality into your personality and behaviors, awaiting the "solution(s)" of your powerful intuition and intellect, in the form of providing you the proper visions (projections into the future) to help those manifestations to occur.
This is a visualization technique that is different from most in that we aren't trying to guide or enforce our own interpretation or imagination of what we look or behave like when we exhibit the desired qualities/ characteristics, but rather surrendering our imagination to our subconscious mind, trusting that it has a more accurate vision of what that looks and feels like. So, we're awaiting a vision, NOT attempting to force an image to come or control what it looks like.
Think of it like offering up the task of creating the vision of your perfect reality to your HIGHEST intelligence, that accounts for all the power of your consciousness, to include your subconscious processes, your intuition, your creativity, and your more conventional "intelligence" (what we think of as intelligence when it comes to our daily life and the contexts in which we deem it relevant) - a level of intelligence and understanding that exceeds what you can consciously reach or manage. Leave room for the possibility that your "real intelligence" (some of which may currently be held away in your subconscious) may be inconceivably vast and powerful, beyond what you can even imagine. Coming from that perspective, leave this task of providing the most appropriate and transformation-inducing visions to it - to that real intelligence, or "higher-intelligence", if you prefer.
That's not to say that you should have no say in this vision, or where it ends up, just that you should give most of the "work" up to the higher intelligence. So you provide the word - the quality that you wish to more strongly exhibit - and you provide the strong intention to embody that characteristic more in your daily life (in your future), then you may choose at that time to pick the setting or scene in which you're going to be viewing yourself, but you should leave the work of demonstrating how you'd look and/or behave within that scene or setting up to your higher-intelligence.
Maybe nothing comes, and that's perfectly okay. Don't push it to happen. Don't try to force an image to come. Just accept that the vision hasn't had enough time to form just yet, exhibit some patience and move on to the next word, going through the same process.
Say the word, demonstrate the strong intent (with your heart) to manifest more of that quality/ characteristic into your life and/or character, pick the set and setting, if you so choose (or you can leave that up to your higher-intelligence, if you prefer), and give your higher-intelligence a few moments to work on bringing you the vision. If it doesn't happen after 10 to 15 seconds, or you feel better giving it even more time, say one minute, and it still doesn't happen, worry not, it just requires more times, more repetitions before something will be able to crystalize. Move on the the next word, going through all these same steps. And keep cycling through them in this same way, for as many times as you feel comfortable doing.
It may only require a few minutes of doing this before clear images start popping into your head (these insights into what it looks and feels like to "wear" any given quality or characteristic on yourself), and you should notice that your feeling(s) of possessing the quality that you have in mind are strengthened and reinforced while you're experiencing this vision. Alternatively, you may spend hours and get nothing back, in terms of these powerful visions, but that is by no means a failed attempt.
Again, the proper approach is to have patience. This practice may require a lot of time and repetition before the proper images can be "awakened" and presented to us as a powerful, transformative insight, but, rest assured, the right processes are occurring in your consciousness, if only in the back of your mind, to ensure that the powerful visions will soon happen.
In order for this practice to work as effectively as is it can, it's really important to have faith that it can work, or, even better yet, that it DOES work. Of course, it's difficult to build conviction without first experiencing some success with the technique, but that will happen if given enough time and practice, and the strengthening conviction part will take care of itself. So, please, do yourself a favor and stick with this practice for a good while. Give it a chance to prove its worth to you. I guarantee that you won't be disappointed.
Getting back to the specific example...
A little brain refresher: the words in the example were, "healthy", "strong", "masculine", "wealthy", "intelligent", "peaceful", and "compassionate".
So, you get yourself nice and comfortable, sitting, or lying down, with your hands resting as comfortably as you can manage on your forehead (over your third-eye) and over your heart. You get nice and calm and relaxed, as you settle your attention mostly onto the area around your third-eye (just inside your head, below the weight of your hand on your forehead), but also give a little to your heart-space (underneath the weight of your hand on your chest). Now you're ready for offering up your words (the qualities/ characteristics that you desire to possess, and exhibit, more of in your day-to-day life).
The first word is "healthy", so you say that word, either silently or aloud (which ever you prefer, whichever feels more right to you in the moment), you say it slowly, you may even repeat it a few times, but, most importantly, you feel the strong intention to manifest more of that quality, more signs of health, into your life, now and in the future. You're attentive to the feeling of the strong intent to make this all a reality arising from your heart-space, while still attentive to the sensations around the area of your third-eye. Think of it like establishing a communication between these two "centers" (the heart and the third-eye), in which the heart is offering the task up to the head.
Now, you just sit with it for a while, awaiting a possible response from your higher intelligence, in the form of a powerful vision that will help to awaken that reality for you. You give it 15 seconds, the whole time sitting (or lying) comfortably, calmly, focused on the sensations within those two centers (heart and mind). You find that no visions come in that time.
No problem.
You move on to the next word, "strong". And you go through the same process. This time you get a little hint of a vision, but it's not really clear. It's a bit foggy of an image and it seems like it hasn't really crystalized into something that you can gain much from. Instead of trying to force the crystallization to happen, or to control how it forms, just rest with it in anticipation for as long as feels right. You may find that it doesn't happen and just remains an unclear picture, and then you get bored with it.
That's fine, too. Just move along to the next in line. More time is obviously needed to make the vision clear for you.
So that's what you do. You move on to the next word...
"Masculine". You say it slowly and with strong intent, just like with the last two words, and you repeat the whole process in just the same way, still having faith that the process will eventually work; will eventually offer up something fruitful. You find this time that a clear picture does pop into view and, with it, a strong surge of suddenly feeling like you're THERE, you're actually being THAT character (that you desire to be), exhibiting precisely the type of characteristics you have in mind when you say the words "I want to be more masculine", and it feels absolutely WONDERFUL!
Instead of just moving onto the next thing in line, why not sit with that wonderful feeling, and that vision, for a while? Why not see if we can look a bit deeper into it? Study it a bit more? Maybe learn something more about what it means to strongly possess/ exhibit that quality? What it looks/ feels like when we "wear" that quality?
So that's what you decide to do. You "sit with" it. Soak it all up. Take in all the valuable insights that your higher intelligence is offering you in this blessed moment, showing that higher intelligence the respect and appreciation that you owe it for presenting this valuable vision and insight into what it takes to make this your reality. You sit with this for as long as feels right to you, which may be until you no longer feel comfortable sitting with it, or the vision seemingly disappears, or "life happens" and you simply must give your time to something else that you planned for or that has come up.
There is no right or wrong way to manage a vision, other than to ignore it altogether. You asked the question, so at least show enough respect to take a look at what is offered up as an answer, or, at the very least, a suggestion as to a possible solution. Maybe the vision doesn't quite sit right with you. Maybe you don't fully agree with what is presented, or maybe you do. This is a process that may require some refining from the subconscious side of the equation, so it may not be a 100% hit on the first go.
Whatever the case, whether you're satisfied with the first clear vision or not, you are by no means done yet, nor have you arrived at your goal of being sufficiently masculine, in any set or setting. You've just gotten a potential glimpse of what could be, and that can be powerful in building momentum to get you there, but it's likely going to require a lot more tastes of it (glimpses of that future) before it will solidify into something tangible and reliable, that you can hang your hat on as an unmistakable and unwavering transformation, into the masculine person that you desire to be (in the case of this hypothetical scenario).
Maybe experiencing all that takes all the energy out of you and you no longer feel like going on with the practice. That's fine. Go on with your day and repeat this practice some other time, on another day.
If, however, you still have some energy left and the desire to go on with the process, by all means, push on.
Next, you say the word "wealthy".
As an aside, one might think that something like wealth status is mostly out of one's control (the same may even be argued of health), but I disagree. I'm of the opinion that the biggest component of building wealth is one of mindset. Do you frame building wealth, or being wealthy, as a difficult thing to achieve, or think of it as being detrimental to your own health, or the collective health of humanity/ society? Do you frame it as something that is entirely reachable and completely achievable with your set of skills, creativity, intelligence? Do you think that you can be a balanced person who is wealthy and still a good person who makes a positive contribution to your own health and/or the overall health of humanity? Whether or not you're setting yourself up for ultimate failure, regarding building what you deem sufficient or ideal wealth, mostly comes down to how you frame the task - both in terms of what it takes to get there and what it means you may or may not have to sacrifice in order to get there.
That tangent out of the way, you go through with the same process as the other times before. You have the strong intention communicated from your heart to your head, while you're deeply aware of this happening. Then you have the waiting period that you allow for the vision to happen. Not pushing for it to happen. In no way "working" for the solution, just awaiting a possible "offer" (from the higher intelligence of your subconscious mind).
You give it 30 seconds this time, because it just feels right to you. You find that nothing comes in that time and you now feel bored with it.
Again, no issue.
Just move along to the next, if time allows and you're still feeling it...
Now you say the word "intelligent"... and I'm sure you get the point by now.
This practice should never be something that you dread to do. In fact, it should be something that you look forward to doing and enjoy doing, but it may not start out this way for some. We should find that if we give this practice enough time to successfully awaken visions (provide insights), we will, at least, be able to tolerate going on with the practice of repeating this exercise on a somewhat regular basis. But the "hurdle" here is giving it enough time to provide some clear, powerful visions, and this is where some will fail.
This may require some patience on our part, but I absolutely will double-down in stating that I guarantee that there will be a point for everyone at which the visions will start happening, and that point is well inside of years. I'd estimate the high end is more on the order of a few months (with daily practice), but more than likely inside of a couple of weeks. If you're lucky, it may only require a few seconds!
I'm certain that those who show enough patience to stick with it until it starts bearing its fruits will not be left disappointed. This is a VERY POTENT tool for positive transformation and , in my opinion, the perfect supplement to the Hand-to-Heart technique that I covered in an earlier post.