February is heart month, no doubt about it! Everywhere you look on newsstands, in magazines and on TV, there it is: hearts, valentines, love, chocolate and medicine! What a combination! There is the love/sentiment side and on the other, heart health. And at some intuitive level, we know that both sides are connected. The heart is more than an organ that pumps blood through our systems; it is at the “heart” of who we are.
One Year Ago
Also, February marks the one-year anniversary of my husband Ron’s ‘threatened heart attack’. He/we were so fortunate that our youngest son recognized the signs of a heart attack and took him immediately to the emergency department of the hospital in Calgary that has an excellent cardiology unit.
One year later, Ron is making choices toward keeping his heart healthy. Not always my kind of choices…but his choices. Between conventional medications (which I am mostly hoping he will be able to decrease and eventually not need…but his choice not mine), homeopathic support, nutritional supplements, exercise and diet, his outlook on life is positive. We are grateful.
Courage
It takes tremendous courage to make the decision, to consciously choose health, especially when and if we are faced with a serious illness. Courage comes from the Latin word cor which means heart.
Courage is “the state or quality of mind or spirit that enables one to face danger, fear, or vicissitudes with self-possession, confidence, and resolution; bravery.”
Sometimes, a brush with death can wake us up to our mortality and mobilize us to make the changes needed to keep us well. For those who have heart conditions, have experienced heart attacks or if you know someone who does, may this issue be a source of encouragement and hope.
The Heart’s Code
For Dr. Paul Pearsall, author of The Heart’s Code: Tapping the Wisdom and Power of Our Heart Energy, the brain’s self-talk, if not observed, is so determined in its course of self-preservation that ironically, it can eventually self-destruct by the demands that it puts on the body!
“In its potentially lethal covenant with its body, the brain never shuts up. It is designed to constantly be on some level of alert. It is in a state of perpetual readiness to react, defend, or attack when it or its body senses threats-real or not-to its self-enhancement. The brain/body covenant is one designed primarily for staying alive, seeking stimulation, doing, and getting. In effect, the brain ‘drags’ your body with it to do its bidding, hauling you and your heart along on its rough ride, whether or not you are sure “in your heart” that you want to go where it is taking you.” The Heart’s Code by Dr. Paul Pearsall
What Dr. Pearsall’s book is all about is a scientific exploration of the wisdom of the heart, its connection to cellular memory and the possibility that the heart may be the entryway to understanding the soul. The way to access the wisdom of the heart, is to slow down.
“While our brain’s urgent defensiveness often causes us to behave as what poet William Blake refers to as ‘armed crustaceans eternally on the alert’, the gentle, steady beating of our heart soothes us, makes us feel loving and loved, and assures us and those who love us that our soul is still here as expressed in the spiritual energy resonating through our heart. The silenced heart is our greatest dread for those and ourselves we love, and regardless of legalistic definitions, death is ultimately the loss of the rhythm of the heart. Whenever I become too busy, too impatient, and too cynical in my daily living, I stop and remember to listen and feel for my heart. I attend to it before it has to demand my attention by gripping me by my chest.” The Heart’s Code by Dr. Pearsall
In sharing and speaking from the heart, we become connected to one another in a way that transcends words and conversations.
“When the receiving heart becomes a sending heart, the energy it sends is no longer just its own. It blends its energy with the memory of the vibrations of the energy it has received. This resonating process continues infinitely, meaning that with every beat of our heart, we continue to create the info-energetic vibrations that become our collective soul.” The Heart’s Code by Dr. Paul Pearsall
Today, I would like to leave you simply with the idea that you can begin to listen with compassion and loving-kindness to your thoughts, the self-talk that goes on inside your brain and in doing that, slow down long enough to hear the gentle beat of your heart.
“When we silence our brain, quiet our body, and become still enough to feel the beat of our heart, we may be able to remember more profoundly the thrill of being alive.” The Heart’s Code Dr. Paul Pearsall
There is plenty of information available on the Internet about heart disease, the various conditions, treatments available and advice about nutrition, exercise and lifestyle. Read what’s available, talk to your family physician, get homeopathic support, make small changes (big changes rarely work), begin a practice of observing thoughts without judgment, find activities in your life that support you in those moments when you feel most alive and connect with your heart with even the simplest of gestures such as placing your hand over your heart.
Heart Math www.heartmath.org is an amazing resource: “Since our inception we have been developing and delivering research-based, practical, and reliable tools and technologies that enable people to align and connect their heart, mind and emotions to produce transformative outcomes—with more flow and less stress.”
Heart disease can be a long term, chronic condition so any remedy suggestions I offer here must NEVER take the place of ongoing medical treatment. If you suspect a heart condition for yourself or a loved one, your first course of action is to book an appointment with your medical doctor. Pronto! And trust your “heart” with that even if your mind is telling you something different. It is absolutely miraculous what modern medicine and heart surgery can do.
Homeopathy can be incredibly supportive and helpful during any kind of heart emergency but again; it cannot do what only surgery can correct. An approach of both systems of medicine working together is the most potent one that I can imagine.
Also, if you are on heart medication, blood pressure medication, cholesterol lowering meds or any other prescription medicine, it is important and imperative that you work closely with both your physician and your homeopath. Your doctor is the only one who can assess and adjust medication levels. Please be responsible.
Here is a poem that can remind us all, Valentine’s Day is every day!
A Perfect Heart
By Ted Kooser http://www.tedkooser.net
To make a perfect heart you take a sheet
of red construction paper of the type
that’s rough as a cat’s tongue, fold it once,
and crease it really hard, so it feels
as if your thumb might light up like a match,
then choose your scissors from the box. I like
those safety scissors with the sticky blades
and the rubber grips that pinch a little skin
as you snip along. They make you careful,
just as you should be cutting out a heart
for someone you love. Don’t worry that your curve
wont’ make a valentine; it will. Rely
on chewing on your lip and symmetry
to guide your hand along with special art.
And there it is at last: A heart, a heart!
Yours in Health and Healing from my heart to yours,
Donna
