According to some eastern philosophies, the heart is where our soul resides. Western medicine tends to ignore this concept and describes our heart as a pump denying any aspect of soul or emotion. Western medicine focuses on ‘fixing’ what’s wrong with the pump while neglecting all else. It’s now February and what better way to celebrate the month dedicated to love than focusing on heart health? I’m not talking about the traditional sense of Western Medicine heart health where we follow the latest health trends regarding what to eat, exercise, labs, EKG’s, heart scans, etc. I’m talking about focusing on heart health energetically and spiritually as well as physically. Heart disease remains the number one killer worldwide according to the World Health Organization. While what we eat and how we exercise absolutely is important for our heart, we also need to incorporate energetic and spiritual healing for our heart. True heart healing addresses heart health from all three aspects of body, mind, and spirit.
Physical Heart Healing:
Exercise: We are all at different fitness levels. Moving our bodies is important for our heart health. This might be a brisk walk for some, where others will require more intense cardiovascular movement. But the point is to move the body to get the heart pumping.
The current Amercian Heart Association recommendations are to get at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity or 75 minutes per week of vigorous aerobic activity (or a combination of both), preferably spread throughout the week. Exercise to the point where your heart beats faster and you breathe a lit bit harder than what you normally do. Go to www.aha.org to learn more about current exercise recommendations from the American Heart Association.
Nutrition: We aren’t what we eat, but what our bodies can do with what we eat. Eating nutritiously is paramount to hearth health. With so many controversial diets, lets focus on the very basics that make sense.
Whole foods: Limit processed foods, or if possible, eliminate completely. I cannot stress this one enough. Whole food is exactly like it sounds, the food whole.
Add omega 3 fatty acids to the diet: They may help reduce inflammation, slow the development of plaque in the arteries, and reduce triglycerides. Some examples of omega 3’s I recommend are high quality fish oil, hemp, chia, and flax seeds.
Eat the color of the rainbow:
high quality organic fresh vegetables in season.
seasonal fruits, especially berries such as blueberries due to their antioxidant properties.
Organic grass-fed, grass-finished meat or wild caught fish.
Proper breathing: poor breathing forces the heart to beat more frequently (work harder) in order to feed our cells properly. In Ayurveda (ancient Indian healing modality) it is believed the quality of our breath determines longevity and the slower we breathe, the longer we live. Slowing down the exhale helps our rest and digest portion of our nervous system, the parasympathetic nervous system.
Heart Breathwork: place your right hand of your heart and breathe in focusing on breathing in oxygen into your heart and imagining your heart opening and taking in the oxygen rich blood, then slowly exhale imagining your breath exhaling toxins and negativity from your body.
Emotional Heart Healing:
The emotions of the heart are love, joy, and compassion. When our heart is in balance we give and receive these emotions freely. But when we have a blockage in our heart, we may experience grief, depression, sadness, or lack of joy and compassion. Healing our emotional heart means we examine our emotions, accept them, and then let them flow through. We surrender. We bring to life any unhealed emotions so we can heal and let it go. We can do this by:
Awareness of emotions. Become aware of the emotions you are experiencing. Do you have unresolved sadness, or grief from the past, or current situation? If so, don’t try to suppress them or deny their existence. When we do that, when we bury our emotions, it festers inside our physical body. If we don’t deal with our emotions as we experience them, they may manifest physically in the body down the road.
Heart meditations:
Loving-Kindness meditation: ‘May I be happy, may I be healthy, may I live with ease, may I be from suffering.’ This is a common meditation used in Buddhism called Metta meditation where the focus is on the repeating the script first to yourself, then about someone you love, then someone you find neutral, and someone you find difficult, then finally, all beings everywhere.
Focus on Scriptures about love. A common Christian scripture about love is 1 Corinthians 13:4-7:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered, it keeps not record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always perseveres.
Ho’oponopono prayer. This is a Hawaiin prayer used for making things right with yourself, others, and ultimately the world. It can be a powerful heart healing prayer. This simple prayer can be said similar to the loving-kindness meditation where you first recite for yourself, then extend outwards. Or it can be repeated over and over again to help refocus on healing and love. The words for the prayer are:
I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you, I love you.
Affirmations: Below are some suggested heart affirmation examples:
My heart is open to give and receive love
I am deeply loved
Love is my natural state and flows freely through me
Love is all around me
Spiritual Heart Healing
Spiritual heart healing is addressing the spiritual body to heal the heart from grief sadness, and trauma from the past or present circumstances. This can be done through:
Prayer
Meditation:
emptying the mind
imagining water flowing through a waterfall and then imagining the heart being open and love pouring into it
Spending time in nature quieting the mind
Energy work such as Reiki, therapeutic touch, reflexology, acupuncture, etc.
Journaling:
Practicing gratitude and love for others
Wearing the colors green and pink. According to ancient traditions, the heart chakra (energy centers) is associated with the colors pink and green. Carrying gemstones such as rose quartz or jade may be healing. Even if you don’t believe in energy from gemstones, carrying them may help remind one to focus on love.
Yoga: Yoga addresses the body, mind, and soul. Some good heart opener poses: camel, upward dog, bridge, wheel, cobra, fish. I’m sure there are many more, but those are the ones that come to mind. Any pose where you open your chest and let your heart reach for the sky.
Our mind, body, and spirit are interconnected so when we focus on one area, we inherently heal the other aspects as well. I truly believe true heart healing demands us to look deeply into the emotional and spiritual realms as a way to help our hearts heal or prevent heart disease. Focusing on self-love may seem selfish but I would argue that when we learn how to really love ourselves unconditionally, we are able to then extend that love outwards and heal not only our own hearts but those around us as well.