Download Matters of the Heart February is often designated as “Heart Month

Matters of the Heart
February is often designated as “Heart Month”; to remind us of
cardiovascular health, checking our cholesterol, blood pressure and getting out and
doing aerobic activity to keep the heart pumping. February is also the month of
Valentines Day with the hope of being a target for Cupids arrow, revisiting the love
of your soul mate, or rebuilding relationships that may have grown apart due to
busy schedules and the ever growing list of things we have to do outside of the
home.
The heart is responsible for keeping us alive. It pumps precious oxygen rich
blood through our bodies and delivers it to every cell along with vital nutrients
responsible for keeping our body healthy. When was the last time you stopped to
think of your body as a structure of tiny little pieces all perfectly put together,
working in unison at all times allowing us to not only do daily routine tasks but also
accomplish marvelous feats like lifting heavy objects, skiing down mountains, or
catching a big beautiful native cutthroat trout on a dry fly. All of which would be
impossible without a healthy heart.
However when it comes to a healthy heart there is more to it than just the
mechanical rhythmic pumping over and over again. You have probably heard the
heart referred to in many other contexts especially around emotions. Sayings such
as: “he has a heavy heart” when referring to the loss of a loved one, or someone is
“light hearted” when they are having fun. Throughout humanity and spanning
multiple cultures the heart is the emotional center of the human. “He wears his
heart on his sleeve”, or “she has an open heart” are sayings commonly used by
people. The heart is a sign of caring, compassion, and love, and every human feels
this. It is a feeling or a sensory perception that affects our nervous system and
causes us to react to the stimulus, just like any other touch, or taste or smell would.
Being emotionally healthy can take a little more work then you might think.
You see emotions and rational thoughts operate in different aspects of our brain.
Often the emotion will supersede the rational thought because of the stimulation
that occurs in the older part of our brain, the limbic system, whereas rational
thoughts occur in our cortex. The limbic system goes back to reptilian development
and the ability to react emotionally to pleasure or pain. It is easy for many of us to
get caught up in bad habits due to the emotional reactions we have to those habits,
looking for stimulation of our pleasure centers.
If you have never had the pleasure of visiting with an acupuncturist, it is
often an insightful experience. Acupuncturists evaluate the state of health of an
individual by evaluating how their energy is moving though special evaluation
techniques such as pulse point diagnosis and various other physical observations
and measurements. There are 12 channels of energy (meridians) moving on either
side of the body, and 2 meridians in the midline. There are also 7 Chakra’s or energy
centers that are present within the body as well. It just so happens that the Heart
Chakra is located over top of the heart, and is an energy center that is related to our
emotions.
Emotional health is a work in progress, and takes constant evaluation to be
kept on track. The more mindful of your emotions you become, the easier it is to be
able to regulate your response to those emotions. As I stated earlier however the
emotional brain and the rational brain can act separately from each other causing
great distress within us.
The good news is there are many tools available to help regain emotional
balance and keep our emotional heart healthy. Meditation and introspection are
very useful tools to evaluate our own emotional health and keep us in tune with
what we are feeling. Emotional Freedom Technique is a tool to help with the body’s
physical response to emotions and is a system of tapping acupuncture points. Bach
flower remedies are homeopathic remedies used to treat emotions. Each remedy is
used to treat different emotional troubles a person may be having. Another
technique is Heart focused Technique, which is a visualization technique that comes
from research done by the Institute of Heart Math. They have scientifically studied
the connections between the heart and the brain and have developed many useful
techniques to regain balance and reduce stress. There are also many great books
and DVD’s available to learn more about this topic. One of my favorite books, The
Day Society Found Her Soul, by Dr. Eugene Charles is a story written in the form of a
conversation between the soul and all the different emotions. It is truly a thought
provoking, inspiring piece of work that will teach you a lot about yourself. You can
learn more about all of these tools by doing a simple Internet search for them.
Having a healthy heart is very important to the overall state of health of our
body: physically, physiologically, and emotionally. During this month of heart
awareness consider all aspects that make a heart healthy. Spend some time working
with these tools to get more in tune with your heart. It can be an exciting journey
and one that opens many doors into our own human understanding. I want to leave
you with one last piece of information. Being grateful is the most powerful healing
emotion a human can have. The feeling of gratefulness will instantly change many
physiological and psychological parameters as demonstrated in laboratories with
both blood and MRI tests. Spend time daily focusing on things you are grateful for
and you will have a healthier heart.
Dr. Phil Cameron DC is the owner of the Bozeman Wellness Center. He is a Chiropractic
Physician and Professional Applied Kinesiologist. He treats every patient based on his
or her individual health care needs and strives to help each patient Live Healthy, Live
Naturally, and Live Optimally. Visit www.bozemanwellnesscenter.com for more
information.