Heart Wisdom - Does your heart hold the answers?
Heart-Brain Connection:
There have been many times in my life where my heart has been filled with elation, joy, excitement, anticipation and of course LOVE.
Equally I’ve experienced heart break more times than I care to remember. I’ve felt my heart sink to the pit of my stomach; and also felt as if it ‘stopped beating’ due to loss, bereavement or other life shocks.
Our hearts are at the very centre of everything we experience. Like me I’m sure that you’ve, experienced the full range of heart-felt emotions during this amazing, unpredictable and crazy life!
So as we feel and experience so much with our hearts, why do we tend to rely on our minds for answers to life problems, dilemmas, and decision making? Often without even consulting our heart.
Sure, our intellect is important, yet decisions made using both heart wisdom and intellect, well, this is how our wisest decisions are made.
I find it curious that we often spend so much time “in our heads”, yet when we gesticulate towards ourselves, we point to our hearts, not our heads. Yeah, that would be weird.
Ancient Wisdom vs Modern Science:
It’s clear to see that there is a universal knowing that our hearts are not just anatomical pumps, they hold endless power, wisdom, intelligence and mysticism. Ancient teacher and philosopher Lao Tzu wisely said:
“…abide at the centre of your being, for the more you leave it the less you learn. Trust your heart and see, the way to do is to be”
Clearly, wise uncle Tzu was encouraging us to deeply sense into and trust the intelligence of our hearts, rather than getting tied up in the thinking mind.
The Heart Math Institute has studied heart intelligence for almost 30 years and their findings are incredible. Such as the human heart has a brain, 40,000 neurons that can feel, sense and remember. Our hearts send more information to our brains than our brains do to our hearts! Heart signals received by the brain help us to make decisions and healthier gene expression.
It seems that ancient wise teachers knew this thousands of years ago, but it’s wonderful to have this backed up with scientific proof in our times.
When we harness our heart’s power and intuition magic happens! There are numerous benefits to elevating our emotions through heart-based practices, such as gratitude. The Heart Math Institute coined the term “heart coherence”, meaning the balanced partnership between the heart, mind, emotions & physiology, which enhance our well-being, relationships and performance.
“Heartmath found that five minutes of feeling love and care can strengthen your immune for up to six hours, whereas five minutes of feeling anger can weaken and suppress the immune system for up to six hours. Love releases very powerful beneficial chemicals into the body.”
Symbolism & Heart Power:
This brings me to the gorgeous image that accompanies this blog. To me it holds multiple layers of meaning and mystery.
It starts with Hermes, the Greek mythologist, wielding a staff, or Caduceus, similar to the golden staff in this image. Hermes was the god of dimensions and guide of the souls and afterlife.
The snakes intertwining around the staff representing the double helix, which of course contain our DNA codes with the instructions our bodies needs to for growth, development and health. In ancient cultures snakes held symbolic meaning of creative life force, transformation, rebirth, masculine & feminine energy, healing and medicine, to name a few!
When the Caduceus is placed in front of the body, as in this image, it is clear to see the connection to the chakras and rising of the Kundalini, or source energy, usually depicted as a snake.
When harnessed or ignited this energy rises from the base chakras towards the heart. The heart chakra connecting the lower centres, responsible for grounding, our relationship with the psychical world and emotional identity, and the higher chakras connecting us to self-expression of our heart and our connection with our higher selves and the divine.
When this heart opening occurs, we truly begin to connect with this centre more fully, things begin to shift and change. We experience more joy, forgiveness and connectedness to ourselves, our life purpose and everything and everyone around us! It’s where pure love is experienced and empathy felt and expressed.
It’s something I’ve been working with spiritually for some time now and I can feel my heart opening layer by layer, petal by petal. It’s sometimes joyful and sometimes painful, but it’s always worth it. Especially as the alternative, of allowing my heart to be harden by life, is not something I’m prepared to live with. The cost is far too great.
This heart-opening is of course a lifelong process. Our heart never ceases to soften, expand, grow, open and share its wisdom, if we continue cultivate our connection to it.
One of life’s greatest challenges is to keep our hearts open, even when we most want to close it shut like a fan. Being human, we often take steps to protect our hearts, when we get hurt. Ensuring discernment regarding who we open our hearts to is obviously a wise choice. When repeatedly hurt, we may create ‘heart walls’ which in time require gentle dismantling, so that we can more fully open once more to love and life.
“If you keep your heart open through everything, your pain can become your greatest ally in your life’s search for love and wisdom”
Top 5 Tips for Heart Connection:
1. Heart Pause Meditation - Find a quiet place where you can remain still and undisturbed. Place your hand over your heart (this act alone increases oxytocin levels). Close your eyes and take a few slow deep breaths in and slowly and mindfully release each breath with ease. Continue for a few minutes. You can return to this short practice as often as you need.
2. Heart-based practice such as the Loving Kindness meditation – This is where you simply repeat the following phrases “May I be well, May I be happy, May I be safe, May I be at peace (or variations of this) It can be extended to others but a good place to start is with yourself! (Join my Facebook group Beyond 21 Days 2 Calm for heart-based practices)
3. Daily Gratitude practice – Every morning acknowledge and write down3-5 things that you are grateful for, such as nourishing food, a comfortable home or loved ones. You can repeat this in the evening by express what you were grateful for from each day.
4. Random Acts of Kindness – sending a friend a small gift or kind text, smiling and expressing appreciate more often. Offering your seat to someone in need on public transport. The list is endless…
5. Energy Flows Where Attentions Goes – Fill your life with experiences, activities and people that energise you, not deplete you. Minimize or eliminate time with activities and people who drain your energy. Do not underestimate the difference even small changes in this area will make to your vitality.
I invite you to cultivate a daily spiritual practices, no matter how small, to feed your heart and soul, your future self with thank you for this decision.
Drop me a line in the comments below and share what tips you plan to integrate, I’d love to hear from you!
Ready to dive in further?