Listen to your heart

I came across another link between science and spirituality the other day when I was reading about scientific research done over the last decade that suggests that your heart might be just as important as your brain when it comes to processing information, plus more evidence to support the idea that we are all connected at an energetic level.

The relatively new field of neurocardiology suggests that your heart is just as capable as your brain of learning, feeling and sensing.  It follows work pioneered by doctors such as Dr. J. Andrew Amour and suggests that in many ways, the heart resembles the brain enough for it to warrant being nicknamed the ‘little brain’.
Alongside that, ongoing research and work at the Institute of HeartMath that looks at the exchange of information between the heart and brain and how that affects consciousness suggests that the electromagnetic energy expended by the heart differs according to how we are feeling – and transmits at a level beyond consciousness with everyone around us!  In other words, it seems that science has found a way to chart the spiritual truth that how we feel as individuals really does impact on the whole.
Just as importantly, it shows that we are capable of changing our mood, and as we do that we change our thoughts and what we transmit to those around us.

Up until recently, science may have emphasised the brain as the location of consciousness, but anyone who has studied and followed any ancient spiritual and medical disciplines will be totally familiar with the importance of the heart as an energetic and emotional centre of the body, and it’s importance for us as individuals as well as the power we have to affect those around us.
For example, in Daoism or Chinese Medicine, the importance of the heart is recognised in its title as being Emperor of the body.  The classic Daoist text, the Guanzi, which dates back before 200 B.C, says, “Do not race your heart like a horse, or you will exhaust its energy. Do not fly your heart like a bird, or you will injure its wings…If you will be calm and patient, everything will come to you by itself.” As an Italian Aries I struggle with that one but I’m working on it!
Practising Yoga and Tai Chi brings many feel good as well as health benefits, and this recent research shows that everyone around us might just benefit too.  The spiritual understanding of our connection with others is reflected in the many forms of meditation that focus on nurturing the heart and sending love and compassion to the whole of creation.

But this new research provides yet more scientific back up to what our instincts have told us all along; that we should pay attention to our heart on every level, not just in the way that we take care of it, but in taking its wisdom into account.  If your heart really isn’t into something, it might just be a clue to do some further exploration about what it might be trying to tell you!

Loads of love

Read more Chinese/Daoist wisdom on the heart and our emotions