Is your heart your oldest friend?
To follow the path of the heart
We all know countless proverbs and sayings about the heart. For example “The heart has its reasons, the mind does not understand”. “The road that does not start in the heart ends blind”. “Only with the heart we truly see”. “Follow your heart”. We often talk about the heart as an independent intelligent place within us. What if it’s not just talk – what if the heart actually is an intelligent organ in us? There is some research that indicates and proves this.
“The Little Brain in The Heart”
Did you know that there has been research about the intelligence of the heart which is defined as “The Little Brain in the Heart”?
According to research from HeartMath Institute: ”The heart has its own internal nervous system—a network of nerves so functionally sophisticated that it earns the description of a “cardiac brain.” With over 40,000 neurons, this “little brain” gives the heart the ability to independently sensing, processing information, making decisions and even demonstrating some form of learning and memory The heart has its own intelligent system.
Source: www.heartmath.com
The heart is my oldest friend and knows me best
A young girl who has participated in my art project: Open Heart utters the quote: “The heart is my oldest friend and knows me best”. Wow…she is just 15 years old and where does she get this wisdom from – maybe from her intelligent heart? Or another girl who is just 12 years says: “Speaking from the heart means to me, it says the right thing. It always makes the right decision”.
I think many of us intuitively know that the heart is more than just a pump. In my eyes, we live in a culture where we are used to training the contact to our head more than to our heart. As Einstein once said long ago: “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind a faithful servant. We live in a culture where we celebrate the servant and have forgotten the gift”. What happens when we make more contact with our intuitive heart? – Is it possible to “speak with your heart”? And what does that mean for you and me?
In my heart I connect to something greater
For me, the heart is an enormously powerful center that I can contact at any tie I wish to. When I connect with my heart, I get the experience of connecting with something bigger in me and bigger than myself.
With inspiration from a “Quick Heart Coherence technique” by HeartMath Institute, I can recommend to connect with your heart like this:
- Stay in a quiet place
- Close your eyes and breathe more deeply and calmly
- Place your left hand at the heart center, and continue to breathe deeper and more calmly
- Imagine you start to breath in and out of your heart area
- Then specifically ask the heart a question you would like an answer for. Trust the first answer you get.
This little heart connection just takes 1-2 minutes. When I do this, I experience prompt answers of certainty or sensations for which I have deep respect for – and which typically give me a feeling of clarity and calmness. It is a different type of answer when I ask my analytical head for advice, Then I typically experience an internal discussion of “On the one hand and on the other hand” with thoughts and feelings related to the past or the future.
Being in contact with your heart can be an everyday gift
Connecting to the wisdom of my heart is an everyday gift and also very easy to overlook – especially if life gets a little too busy, and I am in an state ofI being where I constantly having “To do”.
Connecting to my heart calls for a little more slowing down, ana a daily self-care practice with self-discipline. Developing my connection to the intelligence of my heart is an important focus for me – and I often think about what can happen if we as a society put more concious focus into our intelligent heart?
What does the heart mean to you?
How do you relate to your heart and what do you think it is capable of?
