How well do you know your heart?

Many years ago I read an interesting novel by Rose Tremain called Restoration. Set in mid-17th century England, the book’s main character, Robert Merival, along with a fellow medical student, encounter a man with a gaping wound on his chest that allows one to see his beating heart and touch it with the human hand. When they reach out and touch the man’s heart, the two marvel that when they touch it, the heart feels nothing. This organ, to which we attribute everything related to the most powerful of human emotions, in itself has no feelings. The human heart has no feelings.! Something about this “heart fact” continues to intrigue me, so I decided to look at some of the things we know, or don’t know, about the complicated and much-discussed human heart.

If asked to place their hand on their heart, most people would place it on the left side of their chest, but it is actually closer to the center. The left lung is slightly smaller than the right, to accommodate the heart. The heart weighs less than a pound, the average woman’s heart weighing only 8 ounces and a man’s only 10. A woman’s heart beats faster than a man’s. Some scientists believe that the longer the ring finger in children, the less likely they are to have a heart attack.

Here are more essential details about your heart. The heart is almost entirely muscle, the myocardium, and it is strong enough to lift approximately 3,000 pounds, almost the weight of a compact car. Your heart beats about 35 million times a year… 100,000 beats a day, 70 beats a minute, with enough force to shoot blood 30 feet! By the time we turn 70, our hearts will have beaten 2.5 billion times!

The heart is the first organ to show itself at nineteen days and scientists believe that by eight weeks, when the embryo is only one inch long, the heart is fully developed. The heart begins to beat in the fetus before the brain is formed. Scientists don’t yet know what causes it to start beating, but they do know that it’s generated from inside the heart and doesn’t need a connection to the brain to keep beating. (1)

The origin of the traditional heart shape remains somewhat controversial, as the human heart only vaguely resembles the stylized images we see. If you clench your fists and place them side by side, that’s about the size and shape of the adult human heart. So where did this universal heart-shaped symbol originate? Wikipedia reports that the seed of the silphium plant, used in ancient times as an herbal contraceptive, could be the source of the heart symbol. The heart symbol could also be considered to represent the characteristics of the human female body, or when viewed upside down, part of the male.

The heart has long been used as a symbol to refer to the spiritual, emotional, moral and, in the past, also the intellectual core of a human being. The heart symbol is constantly used to represent love, particularly romantic love, its red color representing both blood and passion. Classical scientists and philosophers, including Aristotle, believed that the heart was the seat of thought, reason, or emotion, often rejecting the value of the brain, viewing the heart as the seat of the soul instead. The word “heart” originates from the Latin “cor”, which means soul or feeling, and in most cultures, references to the heart have continued to be used metaphorically for feelings and deep emotions.

Universally, the heart represents similar things. In the Chakra system, the fourth Chakra is located in the center of the chest and is called the Heart Chakra. This Chakra is associated with the scent of the rose, the doves and the planet Venus. After all, it was Venus, the Goddess of Love, who considered the rose sacred. Her son Her Cupid along with the rose, dove and heart have become enduring symbols of the most celebrated “heart” day of the year… Valentine’s Day.

In the Chakra system it is not red, but the color green, which represents the Heart Chakra. Green symbolizes harmony, creativity, health, abundance and nature. The Heart Chakra is associated with unconditional love and compassion, the center where all feelings of love emanate. When we open our Heart Chakra, we become channels for universal love.

According to most Chinese medicine, the heart “houses the mind,” and the health of the heart’s energy has a lot to do with our mental activity, even our consciousness. The heart governs our ability to sleep soundly, think clearly, and have a good memory. A healthy heart plays an important role in our emotional health and our ability to experience meaningful relationships. The heart represents the element of fire. Mother Teresa said it very well, “A joyful heart is the inevitable result of a heart that burns with love.”

The HeartMath Institute, a nonprofit research organization, has made groundbreaking discoveries in our understanding of the intelligence of the heart, reporting that scientific evidence now indicates that the heart is much more complex than we ever imagined, sending signals to us emotional and intuitive to help. They rule our lives. The heart is much more than an organ that pumps blood, directing and aligning many of the body’s systems so that they can work in harmony with one another. Although the heart is in constant communication with the brain, it makes its own decisions. The heart has its own independent nervous system called “the brain in the heart.” (2)

HeartMath also reports that positive emotions such as happiness, appreciation, compassion, caring, and love improve hormonal balance and immune system response. The heart has the ability to retain memories and there are documented cases of heart transplant patients who report that the implanted heart often brings up behaviors or memories that are not their own, but the donor’s. HeartMath research has shown that our intelligence and intuition increase when we learn to listen more deeply to our own hearts. (3)

I wonder how often we stop and consciously pay attention to our hearts. Even at rest, your heart muscle works twice as hard as your leg muscles when you run. We’ve all heard that laughter is the best medicine, so exercise your heart well as it laugh increases blood flow for up to 45 minutes and this alone can improve the overall health of your heart.

Perhaps stopping to smell the roses, listening to your heart, and sharing laughter with loved ones are good things to focus on this summer. Although the heart does not feel physically, when you are in love, you really “feel” with your heart. Perhaps the heart, more than any other organ, feels and feels emotions and responds. It makes me realize that every day is a perfect day to experience and feel love.

I leave you with a beautiful phrase from Helen Keller… “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched. They must be felt with the heart.”

I invite you to open your heart and see what happens. I would love to hear ways you listen to your heart every day!

References:

[1] Childre, Doc Lew, Howard Martin, and Donna Beech. The HeartMath solution. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999. Print. p.9

[2] Childre, Doc Lew, Howard Martin, and Donna Beech. The HeartMath solution. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999. Print. p.10

[3] Childre, Doc Lew, Howard Martin, and Donna Beech. The HeartMath solution. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999. Print. p. 23