Heart Mythos
Follow Your Heart: It is a bridge between worlds. The heart bridge is where spirituality and materiality meet.
In a moment of stress and indecision, pressed between opposing and disquieting forces, I heard a whisper: Follow your heart.
I instinctively know my heart is at my core experience. I feel its persistent beat, and the iconic symbol is everywhere. As a child, I acted entirely from my heart center, but the experiences of life dimmed the connection as other voices asserted their authority. For some reason, this time was different. I asked myself, "What do I honestly know about my heart?"
Throughout time, the heart has been the rich and evocative domain of artists, poets, philosophers and sages.
Wherever you go, go with all your heart. – Confucius
Tears come from the heart and not from the brain. – Leonardo da Vinci
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart. – Mahatma Gandhi
If you carry joy in your heart, you can heal any moment. – Carlos Santana
Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye. – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens. – Carl Jung
To know how to choose a path with heart is to learn how to follow intuitive feeling. Logic can tell you superficially where a path might lead to, but it cannot judge whether your heart will be in it. – Jean Shinoda Bolen [psychiatrist]
These wise people are telling us to listen to our inner guidance. To trust our intuition and to differentiate the voice of our heart from our emotions and the screaming chaotic voices of the world. To do so will fill us with peace rather than fear, anxiety, and impulsiveness. Our heart leads us to truths residing within another level of understanding, awaiting discovery.
Our everyday activity is the purview of the brain – it's specific, while artists express the universal. However, we are rational people expecting concrete answers to facilitate our life. Generally speaking, we are not encouraged to follow romantic notions of the heart.
Regardless, the heart does more than pump blood through the body. "Heart Coherence" is a term coined by HeartMath, a scientific research organization that studies qualities of the heart that have a powerful impact on personal happiness, health, and performance.
HeartMath research demonstrated that the human heart emits an electromagnetic field that surrounds the entire body and extends at least four feet in every direction (other researchers say as much as 8-10 feet). The "field" emits signals to every cell in the body, affecting physical, mental, and emotional health and well-being. Moreover, it connects us to one another, the Earth, and space in ways yet to be discovered.
Reported in the National Library of Medicine:
Dr. Armour, in 1991, discovered that the heart has a little brain or intrinsic cardiac nervous system. This heart brain is composed of approximately 40,000 neurons that are like neurons in the brain, meaning that the heart has its own nervous system. In addition, the heart communicates with the brain in several ways: neurologically, biochemically, biophysically, and energetically. The vagus nerve, which is 80% afferent [conducted toward something], carries information from the heart and other internal organs to the brain. Signals from the heart brain redirect to the medulla, hypothalamus, thalamus, and amygdala and the cerebral cortex.
Thus, the heart sends more signals to the brain than the brain sends to the heart. The electromagnetic human heart field is a powerful energy source, existing within a universal ocean of energy and information. The unrestrained heart activates the highest centers in our brain capable of receiving outside information. It accesses our higher consciousness. Scientific research conducted by HeartMath and Dr. Armour confirms the knowledge that wisdom teachers from many ancient cultures knew long before our modern scientific age.
The heart is a bridge between worlds: between the self-centered personality and the desired state of higher consciousness. The heart bridge is where spirituality and materiality meet. Author Gary Zukav called it “The Seat of the Soul.”
When the hectic pace of life creates fear, stress, anxiety, or trauma, it closes the heart bridge to our higher world, and we risk becoming “creatively blocked.” When this occurs, we become cut off from our most potent animating life force. Who has not experienced, at times, the feeling of work and life as flat and lifeless? Depending upon the individual, the block can be fleeting or a paralyzing long-term struggle. Once we learn to walk through our fears and nagging voices, we realize that our internal landscape, facilitated by the heart, is the safe ground of our being.
Everyone has heart-brain communication, but artists pay heed to the heart bridge. Is that why art, literature, and philosophy can speak so majestically to the human condition? The heart bridge is the creator and translator of our personal and collective myths. It understands our suffering, as well as joys, and guides us toward creative and spiritual transformation.
The following video is a presentation by Howard Martin, one of the co-founders of HeartMath. The video provides a scientific foundation for understanding the function of the heart field.
Time: 3:42 minutes
TedX Talk 10 years ago – 16:13 minutes