In considering Luving Yourself Skinny, Healthy and Happy doesn’t it seem appropriate to begin “body systems” with the heart? After all it is attracting to you, via your emotional offering, an equivalent life experiences on every subject. But in a “matter” sense what is your heart doing for you on a daily basis? 

    Your heart is the deliverer of life as it  moves up to 2000 of blood a day through approximately 3.8 billlllion inches of blood vessels. That is correct 3.8 billion. This is a huge undertaking and it happens continuously until you expire. This system is responsible to distributing nutrients required to build and repair you and to maintain your internal body temperature. It acts as both your heater and your ac unit all in one. 

     Many things affect the performance of the heart and blood vessels. What you take in and how well your hormones are supported. And on that note one of the interesting things that I learned about the heart is that the thyroid (mostly) and the adrenals (a bit less) actually instruct the heart in those efforts. They indicate how powerfully to contract the heart muscle in pumping the blood, how tightly to or loosely the vessels contract to increase or decrease the pressure with in the bloodstream itself and when to speed up or slow down. They help the heart to regulate your internal temperature at all times, no matter what activity you engage in. 

     The thyroid/adrenal contribution to the function of the heart I feel has been sorely overlooked. Often times a thyroid condition is the main contributor to poor heart function. Does the heart need medicated in this instant or would the entire system be better served by addressing the thyroid? A couple great reads about this further are Thyroid & Heart Link To Lifelong Health by Leo Heusaff and Heart Problems Caused by Thyroid Disease by James M. Lowrance. 

    Energetically speaking, knowing that we are 99% energy, what effect can suppression of emotion have on the heart? Even doctors agree that stress is a major contributor in heart concerns and events. Here are some interesting things to know about how different types of suppression can affect or apply pressure to the heart structure and negatively impact its performance. 

Emotional – triggered by feelings of sadness, loss, grief and loneliness. Often stems from unresolved anger, resentment, bitterness, over-whelment, vulnerability, etc. Can be experienced as pressure or weight on the chest. 

Mental – thinking that causes anxiety, overthinking (obsessive loops of thought that aren’t creating solutions) negative imagining about what could happen that might not ever happen, dwelling on the past (the useless kind when it couldn’t have happen any other way simply because it didn’t). This type of stress on the heart is experienced as tightness or constriction directly around the heart. Like it’s being internally squeezed. 

Spiritual – disconnection from our authentic self, often feels like unworthiness, lack of boundaries, diminished sense  of purpose or direction, suppression of the deep seated need for connection to the authentic self, lack of meaning or fulfillment. Depression is the primary physical experience and indicates a need for “Deep Rest” from holding up the avatar that we have placed over our authentic self.

The heart is in the energy center governed by the Heart Chakra. A good avenue to work with any of these above energetic contributors in through a heart chakra meditations or general chakra aligning meditations. Below is a link to one such but many can be found on YouTube as well.