A mindfulness process created by a Los Angeles based Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Elizabeth Winkler. Elizabeth has been teaching Heart Surgery to children as a way for them to effectively process emotions in the heart. First, children learn to nurture their tool of focus by becoming aware of how unpleasant emotions manifest in their body. Children learn to bring their focus to the heart center as an effective way to free and release emotions. Children become active participants in releasing their challenges by using their beautifully creative and open imagination when they pull their emotions from the heart in Step 4. Engaging with their imagination, curiosity, and heart fosters self-awareness, focus, attention, and empowerment for each child as they move through the process. After Heart Surgery, children transition from feeling challenged to having fun freeing their heart.