Brain freeze and broken hearts
We know the heart loves and feels, but did you know the heart also communicates with other hearts, helps regulate immunity and contains stored information that continually pulses through your body?The heart is more than just a pump, it contains the cellular symphony that is the very essence of our being. The hearts energy is so powerful, if we chose to utilize it as often and as well as we use our brains, our lives would be very different.
If our brains, bodies and hearts collaborated together, we could maintain a permanent state of peace, joy, happiness and optimal health.
In 2009 it went viral. A controversial documentary challenging the conventional medical understanding of how we heal proposed the ‘New Science of Healing’. Scientists, psychologists and bio-energetic researchers (of systems we can’t see or touch like thoughts, emotions and intuition) revealed new evidence and insights into our bodies, mind and health. The press releases said of The Living Matrix’ ‘The most significant revelation is how energy and information fields- not genetics –drive human physiology and biochemistry. The film illustrates the undeniable benefits of integrating alternative healing modalities into conventional healthcare and advocates shifting from a disease centred system to a healing centred model.
So what does this have to do with you, the heart and how does this all relate to a blog on relationships?
A book called The Hearts Code by Paul Pearsall, Ph.D which precedes the film, published in 2006 has profoundly changed my life and I think it can do the same for you. It is about the recognition that our heart has its own intelligence. It proves that the heart, not the brain, holds the secrets that link body, mind and spirit.
In the film The Living Matrix, The Institute of HeartMath proves scientifically that despite popular belief, the brain takes instruction from our hearts and is the ‘ambassador’ of the body. It is the largest electro-magnetic signal in the body which sends pulses at the speed of light to all our organs which are supposed to work harmoniously together. To date, our brains, hearts and bodies have been at war with each other and we have tended to follow either one or the other. The consequence of this is that there is ‘disharmony’ or dissonance in the body.
Pearsall says, “The brain/body covenant is one designed primarily for staying alive, seeking stimulation, doing and getting. In effect, the brain “drags” your body around with it to do its bidding, hauling you and your heart along on its tough ride, whether or not you are sure “in your heart” that you want to go where it is taking you…The brain seems to want to “have a blast” while the heart needs to “have a bond”…Even though something may “break our heart”, our brain seems to seek the sad and terrible. While the brain may consider sameness boring and predictably dull, the heart is constantly on the lookout for wonderfully simple pleasures of life.
Essentially, our brains’ desires are very different to our hearts interests which is catastrophic given that we predominantly live our lives according to what our brain suggests is a good idea. Because our brains intelligence (conscious as well as subconscious mind) has had the majority of our attention and focus, we (when I say we I mean predominantly westerners) tend to live a ‘brain based life’.
“The brain thinks that only its own clever competitiveness, high level energy and natural self protectiveness is able to cope with the pressures of life. The idea that the heart may also be able to think is met by incredulous anger and dismissive mockery from a brain that believes that it’s heart, even if it does think, must be thinking much too slowly, sentimentally and subtly to be of immediate use in its daily wars for self preservation and enhancement.
A brain run world may not be the world our heart desires. While we can enjoy the conveniences of the wonders of our brain’s modern inventions and technology, these same accomplishments can threaten our very existence. There are two questions the thinking heart might ask about the new millennium. It may wonder if we can survive the world our brain has created for us and the pace at which it is running us and, even if the brain is clever enough to keep us alive in its new millennium world, will we want to live in that world if we only end up feeling more disconnected, hostile, afraid and alone in the universe – brilliant minds lacking loving souls. An objective of this book is to offer the possibility of putting more heart into our life by learning to quiet the restless, passionate brain so it may listen for the code of a gentler, more loving heart capable of reminding it that it is supposed to not only fulfil a biological evolutionary imperative but also be an instrument for refinement and expression of the soul.
If you are wondering if you are currently living a brain based or heart based life, answer this:
Which question do you most ask yourself?
1. “How do I feel?”
2. “How do I make other people feel?”
Ironically if you want to feel happier, healthier and more peaceful- rather err on the side of option 2. A balance between both is best. Most of us need to freeze our brains a little bit and listen to our hearts more often.
I have done it and I feel exuberant the majority of my time despite the fact I am wading through one the most challenging and difficult years of my life. I know I would not be coping as well as I am, if it were not for the wisdom in this book and the love and appreciation I feel for my life despite all the drama. My heart has reminded me every day of how much I have to be grateful for. Life is a gift. The details and content are only the ‘drama’ of what happens. The process and my response to the drama- the how– is what is important. How I am ‘being’ and not what I am ‘doing’ is where we can make a shift from one type of existence to another. If you feel like making that shift, you know what to do.
Read the book. Watch the movie.