A Beautiful Heart

The month of February has been named National Heart Month, and whether or not you celebrate Valentine's Day, the human heart deserves a month of it's own. It's got it's own intelligence which is much larger and more powerful than the brain. The "heart-brain" is such a beautiful example of how the health of our physical body connects to our mental, spiritual and socio-emotional health.

I don't consider myself a "numbers person", but from time to time something numerical catches my attention. This year I became fascinated with the fact that Valentine's Day falls on the 14th, making it the perfect half-way point of this 28-day month. The heart is also located at the center of the Chakra energy system. Its job is to govern between the lower 3 chakras (physical body) and the upper 3 chakras (spiritual concerns). The heart is full of duality from the diastolic and systolic numbers in our heartbeat, to the spiritual significance of loving someone outside ourselves. The heart's location at the center of the human energy system speaks to living a life centered in love.

The heart acts as a pump to oxygenate the blood. Imagine how important it is to have a spiritually happy heart, as it pumps love and gratitude throughout your system or stress and anxiety. We know that there exists a phenomenon called "The Placebo Effect" which acknowledges the power of our beliefs. We also know that stress hormones such as cortisol when in the body for an extended period of time can cause significant damage to mental, physical and spiritual health. Thus having a healthy heart requires a wholistic approach.

During my time as a Tobacco Treatment Specialist working in a hospital, I worked with many cardiac patients. I had read about common spiritual and emotional responses to a cardiac event, but I hadn't witnessed it myself until I was called to meet with a patient in the ICU. He had suffered a near fatal heart attack, and was receptive to getting help with his pack-a-day addiction to cigarettes. During the course of his treatment, the man received a puppy as a gift from a good samaritan, and it completely changed the course of his recovery. Finding this sweet little creature that needed him to look out for it created purpose and connection for the gentleman and he became more hopeful and optimistic about his progress. He no longer felt alone. He now believed that his health mattered because he had someone in his life that cared.

Cardiac patients have been recorded in countless cases feeling strongly about prioritizing their loved ones after such a close brush with death. According to leading Cardiologist Dean Ornish, reflecting on the love in our lives through meditation and visualization is a critical part of healing the heart. Dr. Ornish credits the efficacy of his treatment program to diet and exercise as well as the Open Heart Chakra meditation. This stands as such beautiful testament to the power of healing our bodies through healing our lives.

What does it say about our culture that Heart Disease is still one of the leading causes of death for women in the United States? Is there a connection between the love in our lives to the health of our bodies, and our world? The mind-body connection is explained through the Chakra Model of the Human Energy System. This Eastern approach to wellness provides insight into how our emotional response to the world around us manifests in our health. To learn more about the Chakra model of the human energy system, check out our online course here:

An Introduction to the Chakra Energy System

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If you are looking to improve your cardiovascular health, one of the most important things you can do is quit smoking. Many of us have heard how smoking affects the lungs, but we don't think about how it damages the heart. Smoke contains carbon monoxide. With the increase in carbon monoxide, the heart has to work much harder to filter carbon dioxide (oxygen) into the blood. The heart becomes overworked, and this can lead to heart-attacks and heart disease. What is the wisdom behind illness of the heart? Energy work and spiritual healing address addiction and illness at the root. As we learn more about the human body, and the energetic layers we are composed of, the argument for a holistic approach gains more and more traction.

If your heart is telling you it's time to get support with quitting, check out the Free & Clear Tobacco Quit Program.