In last week’s blog, I discussed the evolution of our understanding of the heart throughout history, and modern, integrated thoughts about the heart’s role in connecting mind/body/spirit. Today’s blog expounds on contemporary research regarding the heart, well-being, and creating a positive heart rhythm in our lives.
In my exploration about the heart, one author who impressed me perhaps the most was Dean Ornish, a medical doctor, a cardiologist, researcher, and author. One of my favorite books by him is Love and Survival. He suggests that the heart contains energy that affects everything in a person’s life from issues of intimacy, intelligence, and immunity, to love and healing.
Dr. Ornish’s research confirmed that people who grew up in families that were allowed to express themselves or self-disclose were more likely to enter into healthy intimate relationships that, in turn, led to healthier outcomes in regard to physical health later in life. He also suggests that the heart’s electromagnetic field far out-powers that of the brain or any other body system– and since calming the heart calms all other body systems, it makes sense to learn to bring coherence to the heart. Because when your heart is in harmony, its rhythm creates a favorable response of hormones and biochemistry that, in turn, benefits the entire body and your health. Dr. Ornish’s research has shown that through various forms of opening your heart (for example, sharing your feelings and issues and practicing forgiveness), a person is affected physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Dr. Ornish believes that a person is composed of a system of energy that is connected to others and that people can open and shut down this energy system that moves through them when they shut down or close off their hearts. How do they do this? Through fear, worry, stress, negativity and so on. In fact, he says we suffer not because we’re in pain, the real suffering is that we feel we are in pain alone. If on the other hand, we open our heart by making a connection with our outer world and with others in it, he believes that the energy that flows in nourishes us at all levels such that love and intimacy play a very powerful role in a person’s health and even in a person’s survival. He says this is documented by hundreds of scientific studies.
What the research also showed is that while a person can’t change particular events that may have happened earlier in their lives (for example, certain traumas), the ongoing pattern of relating to others is the most important factor in their health and well-being. And that people can change the way in which they relate not only to themselves but to others.
How does a person improve or change negative patterns of relatedness—that perhaps have taken place throughout their lifetime? Dr. Ornish, says that there is tremendous scientific evidence about the importance of spending time talking with people and that a person’s well-being improves if the person does what he calls “opens the heart.”
You could say opening the heart would mean being willing to allow yourself to be open and vulnerable to another person. So even though diet and exercise may help reverse heart disease, Dr. Ornish says that love and intimacy might be the most important factors in heart health. So it’s important to look at what brings joy, value, and meaning into your life.
So how do we create heart harmony or positive heart rhythm in our lives?
- Disclose what we’re feeling. You can do this by talking with others– either talking with one person or getting involved in a group process that would allow this.
- Write about how you feel. You can keep a journal, write letters, and take notes in any way that works for you. You can draw your feelings, too.
- Allow yourself to feel. Remember, “What we resist, persists.” By admitting your feelings you are opening your heart.
- Love and accept yourself for who you are as you are.
- Stay with your current feelings and not your old story. The old story will often take you into your mind and out of the present.
When you can acknowledge your feelings and share them, you take a big step toward healing. And along the way, it is so important to ask yourself questions that get you exploring and releasing your heart feelings more.
In next week’s blog, I’ll give you more techniques and tips on exploring and releasing your heart feelings.