Heart Wisdom

Stop for just a moment. Close your eyes, take a breath, and please move your awareness to your chest. There, can you feel it? That subtle and familiar pulse, the tireless throb that has been with you every moment of your life is easy to miss, and perhaps even easier to take for granted.

Beyond beating 100,000 times, and moving around 2000 gallons of blood per day, which itself is quite amazing, the heart has some lesser-known yet no less important functions.

The human heart, in its symbolic and more metaphysical orientation, has always lived in a space beyond the grasp of empirical science. But alas, science is beginning to prove what most of us have known from the beginning. There is more going on down there than meets the eye.

A relatively new field of study called “neurocardiology,” has discovered the heart has its own intrinsic nervous system. According to the Institute of HeartMath, www.heartmath.com (full disclosure- I am a HeartMath certified coach/mentor), this “heart brain” contains over 40,000 neurons that can independently process information. Yes, in its own way, your heart can think. Here are some interesting facts HeartMath research has shown-

• The heart beats in the developing fetus before the brain is even formed.

• There is constant two-way communication between the heart and brain.

• The heart sends far more information to the brain than the brain sends the heart.         

• The heart sends signals to the brain that inform decision making.

• The heart synchronizes many bodily processes to harmonize and synchronize their function.

• The heart is capable of high-speed, intuitive intelligence that acts faster than the brain can perceive, bypassing normal thought processes.

According to HeartMath, the heart communicates with the brain in four ways-

• Neurologically, through vagus nerve and thalamus.

• Biochemically, through hormones.

• Energetically, through electromagnetic fields.

• Biophysically, through the pulse wave.

The heart plays a much larger role in our emotional state and regulation than was previously thought. But, come on, we already knew this, right?

What we think of as the invisible world of thought and emotion affects our seemingly solid flesh and bone, in a genuine way. By becoming aware of and being able to control our thoughts and feelings, we can alter our physiology significantly. Here’s how. The body responds differently to different emotional states. Stressful or depleting emotion (anger, frustration, fear, and the like) cause sympathetic nervous system stimulation (fight or flight) and the release of cortisol (aka, the stress hormone). The net result is an energy drain. Think of this as driving a car with the gas pedal down. Relaxing or renewing emotion (joy, love, compassion, and the like) causes parasympathetic nervous system stimulation and the release of DHEA (aka the vitality hormone). The net result is energy renewal. Think of this as having a foot on the brake. It is a see-saw relationship. Of course, reality is not that cut and dried. Life is fluid, and we are complicated emotional beings; we are all continually moving from one state to another, and there is a blending of energy happening always; it is all about maintaining balance. (More about stress in the Body Wisdom section).

The problem is many people are not even aware of their negative, depleting emotional states, which are subconsciously driven and so familiar they are mistaken for being “normal.” Emotional awareness is the first step in gaining not only control of your internal environment and body, but in gaining control of your life.

(There is so much more to this than I can go into here. I encourage all interested readers to go to www.heartmath.com and/or www.heartmath.org to learn more).

For now, let’s just let the science inform, reiterate, and validate what most of us already knew: the heart is much more than a simple pump made of specialized muscle.

A life lived through the heart.

In the deeper and more cosmic sense, the heart is the doorway to the sacred, to who and what we are. It’s our connection to the infinite and each other. It is absolute limitlessness, and it is the most precious of our gifts. Within its energetic “walls” dwells our eternal essence.

As the energetic conductor of life, it is the organizer, harmonizer, and orchestrator of our wholeness- it integrates our life experience.

In modern life, in this complex, busy, and noisy world, the subtle language of the heart is often overshadowed by the often tyrannical noise of the intellect. The mental jumble, the inner conversation, endlessly categorizing, and judging is most often pointless, but it usually has center stage in our awareness. It is no wonder why so many people feel a strange disconnection within themselves, a longing that they can’t quite put a finger on. It is their own heart for which they are searching.

“There is a candle in your heart, ready to be kindled. There is a void in your soul, ready to be filled. You feel it, don’t you?”

- Rumi

The battle between heart and mind is age-old, and it is one where there are no winners. This was alluded to in A Gentler Path- 

Think of life as a strong current running one direction, like a river, unstoppable. This river is Love. When we live in a way that goes with the flow, life is easy, just as it should be. The current carries us through the forever changing scenery of our lives, starting high in the mountains and emptying into the sea from which we came. When aware of this flow, all is well. We can rest in the current, go at its pace, and let it take us where it will—trusting it knows the way.

Ah, but maybe you are of the thinking you know a better way, that you have all the answers, that you are smart enough to go your own way. Maybe swimming upstream and fighting the current seems to make more sense. Maybe you think you need something beyond what is already given, all that is already yours, and the only way you know how to do this is to fight for what you want—to struggle, to suffer… and so be it, you will. You get what you ask for in life. But my question would be this: how long do you think you can swim? How long can you fight? How long will you struggle against what is utterly unstoppable and intrinsic to all life throughout the Universe? Are you smarter than what created the oceans and all that lives within them? Are you smarter than life? Are you stronger than its flow?

Even the strongest swimmer will grow tired, and if still resistant to the flow even after many years of opportunities to rest and learn, drowning may ensue, manifested as physical disease. Or maybe, through the pain and suffering inherent within the struggle, the lesson is learned that it is pointless to fight the current. Life becomes much more pleasant when one turns and simply floats along. The choice is yours; how long you want to fight life is up to you. Some learn the easy way, and some through immense suffering. And some will never learn in this life.

It is a palpable sensation when one releases into the flow. You can sense the movement of the current, and the stars, moon, and tide never again look the same. You now realize their powerful perfection is your powerful perfection. Can you stop the tide? Can you keep the moon from rising? Neither can you stop the flow. It is bigger than you. And when one turns against the current as all humans will, the discomfort of doing so will be recognized, the resistance will be palpable, and hopefully the correction will once again be made. Life is an endless series of opportunities to choose the direction of your experience, either with the flow, relating to life through the heart, or against the flow, relating to life through resistance to what is, through the fearful material intellect. Accept or resist. Fight for what you think, or rest in what you know. Floating downstream with the current is natural. It is perfect; it is easy, and it is in line with natural law, which is why it feels so good. 

It is time to come home to our hearts; the intellect has let us down. As a race, our overall energetic essence is imbalanced. Life becomes lighter, easier, and more meaningful when the heart is the master and the brain is made servant. Ego-centered intellect can still come along for the ride; it has its purpose; it just doesn’t need to drive anymore. Because the heart is incapable of being hate-filled, fearful, or selfish, we can then move to a way of being that is less hate-filled, fearful, or selfish. Heart-centered reason is the path of true compassion, tolerance, and peace.

There is a responsibility that comes with having the honor of being conscious beings. We are accountable not just for our actions but for our thoughts and feelings as well because they affect all those around us, and even the world.

Science has shown that the heart has the strongest electromagnetic field in the body; it is over 100 times stronger than that of the brain. This is how we feel our world; it is how we sense when someone’s “vibes” are good or not so good. It is how we know when someone is looking at us or is near us without the benefit of having seen these things with our eyes. It is how we radiate what we are, our truth, to each other, and the Universe as a whole. It’s how we bond and resonate with each other. It is how we just know something is right and true without having to think about it.

There are instances of people, after having a heart transplant, demonstrating various characteristics of the donor, who, of course, they never knew. Maybe they develop a love for a certain kind of music or food they never liked or weren’t interested in before. The strange thing is, this doesn’t happen when other organs are transplanted, only the heart. This speaks to the heart being the seat of human experience.

To sum it up- science has begun to prove what mystics have known for centuries. Knowledge resides in the brain. Knowing resides in the heart. In its depths, the heart demonstrates a knowing existing outside of rational thinking, beyond what we know as time and space. Being the focus of compassionate intelligence, it’s timeless, and our true home.  

“The heart has its reasons which reason knows not.”

-Blaise Pascal