What does it mean to follow your heart, or to live from the heart, or to wear your heart on your sleeve? All of these expressions refer to a heart centered life. Evita Ochel states that "[t]he foundation of heart-centered living is love. Pure and simple. Therefore, when we embrace or step into heart-centered living, we are allowing love to be the guiding force for all that we think, say and do. We are moving out of fear-based paradigms and moving into love-based paradigms. How this plays out in everyday life on a practical level is huge, and has massive implications for all life on this planet. Our hearts are starved and we are finally coming back to ourselves, healing ourselves and healing our planet. For example, it is no coincidence that heart disease today is our number one killer. While I will be the first to say that healthy eating is vital to our physical survival and quality of life, beyond this physical nourishment is something much bigger. Our overall energetic frequency of the thoughts, words and actions we experience influences our mind-body connection and this is reflected in the state of our personal health, and collectively in the health of our planet." Being heart centered is both a conscious intention to allow our heart, or emotional center, to direct us in all that we do or say, and to it is a directive to ourselves in how we live our lives, or in how we will present ourselves to the world at large.
“Love doesn’t need reason. It speaks from the irrational wisdom of the heart.” ~ Deepak Chopra
When I think about the physical heart, that organ in the center of my chest, and all the work it does to keep me alive and how it does it all without me consciously thinking about it or having to remember to do it."Keep beating."
"Stay in rhythm."
"Oops, you missed a beat there."
"Ugh, I'm feeling sluggish. Can we get some more blood circulating?"
The heart works like a pump and beats 100,000 times a day. The right side of the heart pumps blood to the lungs to pick up oxygen. The left side of the heart receives the oxygen-rich blood from the lungs and pumps it to the body. Furthermore, according to the Heart Math Institute, "[m]ost of us have been taught in school that the heart is constantly responding to “orders” sent by the brain in the form of neural signals. However, it is not as commonly known that the heart actually sends more signals to the brain than the brain sends to the heart! Moreover, these heart signals have a significant effect on brain function—influencing emotional processing as well as higher cognitive faculties such as attention, perception, memory, and problem-solving." In other words, not only does the heart respond to the brain, but the brain continuously responds to the heart. Our hearts have as much input in our daily lives as our brains, and, perhaps, moreso in ways that really matter. While our brains and minds have unique cognitive abilities both to be creative and analytical, our hearts give us soul. I don't mean soul as in our spiritual bodies, but soul as in our unique assemblage of emotions, feelings, sensations, empathy, sympathy, healing, etc."Put your heart, mind, and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success." ~ Swami Sivananda
We must also protect our hearts, both physically and emotionally. We do this by taking care of our bodies, exercising in ways that are right for our lives, following diets that nourish us, and seeing our doctors when things don't feel right or there are symptoms that something is off. I recently came across an object fashioned into a pendant to be worn around the neck that is claimed to protect the body from harmful electro magnetic fields or EMFs. According to the website, the makers state that "EMF radiation comes from cell phones, computers, television, microwave, electrical appliances, etc. In reality, EMF radiation is everywhere, and it is extremely dangerous to our well-being. It is a well known contributor to multiple cancers, diseases, and illnesses. With the increase and advancement of technology, EMF radiation is not going away, but we have advanced to be able to protect ourself from this radiation. The pendant releases negative ions which combat the positive ions that electrical devices give off, thus, keeping you clean and free from radiation. The Energy Pendant is made from volcanic lava. The volcanic lava is known to be home to over 70 natural minerals. The pendants are structurally bonded together using advanced nanotechnology. There are no harmful side-effects of the pendant because scalar energy is created naturally by Earth. The effectiveness of the scalar energy depends on the negative ions count. The more negative ions, the stronger and more effective. Our pendants have a strength of around 6,000 - 7,000 negative ions, which is the strongest on the market. Overall, the pendant helps restore the natural balance of our body. Scalar waves also referred to as Tesla Waves, or Longitudinal Waves, are capable of penetrating any solid object including Faraday Cages. A transmitter can be placed in a box of thick metal and a receiver outside of the box will still receive the scalar wave. Scalar waves are capable of passing through the earth from one side to another with no loss of field strength as Tesla showed in one of his experiments." Fascinating stuff.“Love for others and respect for their rights and dignity, no matter who or what they are: ultimately these are all we need.” ~ Dalai Lama XIV
To follow your heart is to allow your senses and feelings to guide you on your journey. It's very similar to that of the psychic who links to the subtle fields and inner senses to provide vital information on how to proceed and/or how to help others on their path too. Our hearts carry an intelligence that is different, but works in conjunction with our minds or our objective intelligence. One is not better or worse than the other though some might think so. The two are succinct and intrinsic parts of a greater whole known as the human being or being human. Therefore, to follow your heart is to embrace our heritage of being human and being humane in everything and every way.