How many times have we watched or listened to something that really ‘touched our hearts?’ Or, how many of us have experienced or knew someone who suffered from a ‘broken heart?’  Not to forget someone who is ‘heart-sick’ over what happened. Even when faced with a seemingly impossible decision, someone invariably says, “What is your heart telling you? Often, we touch our hands to our hearts when we feel especially loved, complimented, accepted, or overwhelmed by the generosity another person has shown. Conversely, when we feel wounded, we also think of that wound within our hearts. The hurts, pains, disappointments, delayed hopes, and broken dreams of our lives are all hidden in the deep chambers of our hearts.

          To overcome these hurts, we must understand that our thought process cannot heal a wounded heart. The brain cries out to understand the ordeal, but the heart searches for love, appreciation, joy, and peace. The brain needs to know that the heart understands the depth of its suffering. To understand the depth of our wounds, we must learn the language of our hearts. When the brain remains in the driver’s seat, the heart—the soul, the center of emotions—can be abused, stressed, and often depressed.

          Your heart is the real you. Even before the brain of a fetus forms, a tiny heart begins to beat. Medical practitioners do not know what makes the heart begin to beat. Researchers believe the brain controls the timing of each beat, but the heart does not need the brain to continue a steady, rhythmical beating. When Doctors do a heart transplant, they sever the nerves running to the deceased person’s brain. When they put the heart into another person, they do not know how to reconnect the nerves of the newly installed heart to the brain, so that connection is lost. Nevertheless, the new heart that is jump-started continues to beat.

          We know that the heart has a memory and an independent nervous system. In other words, the heart is more than a biological pump. These nerve cells give it a thinking-feeling capability. Researchers have found that while the brain may send instructions to the heart through the nervous system, the heart doesn’t automatically obey. Instead, the heart seems to respond as if considering the information it has received. They have concluded that the heart appears to have an opinion of its own, which it communicates to the brain. What is more interesting is the messages the heart sends back to the brain are not only ones that the brain understands but obeys. In effect, the heart and brain hold an intelligent dialogue. At times, the heart submits to the brain; at other times, the brain submits to the heart.

                                        The Profound Power Of Emotional Expression! 

What is our heart saying to us? And How can we communicate back to it?

Here are three practical ways to recognize and learn to listen to our hearts.

1.  We need to tell our brain to listen to our heart!   The brain is the taskmaster of the body—it never shuts up. It is designed to be on some level of alertness at all times. Even as a person dreams, the brain attempts to sort out perceptions and emotions and make sense of life so the person can respond.   Because the brain is primarily programmed to seek success and not the connection the heart craves, it barely tolerates the emotional language that the heart speaks.

2.    Communicating with your heart: We don’t have to go far to find others who learned the healthy art of communicating with their hearts. King David talked regularly to his own heart. In Psalm 42:5, he writes, “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why are you so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him…”  David used three steps in communicating with his heart. 1. He admitted that there was a disturbance going on with him. 2. He said out loud that he would put his hope in God, not in the circumstances surrounding him. 3. He said out loud that no matter what, he would praise Him for his continual presence despite how things looked on the outside.

3.   Can our hearts remember: I had a conversation a few years back with a friend about a doctor whose patient, an 8-year-old girl, who had received a heart transplant from a murdered 10-year-old girl.  After the surgery, the young recipient started experiencing distressing nightmares about the man who had murdered the child, which led her mother to seek professional assistance. The more the therapist talked with the child, the clearer it became that her vivid recollections were not imaginative. Deeply moved by the girl’s descriptions, her mother and therapist decided to take action and reached out to the authorities. Remarkably, the information provided by the young heart transplant recipient proved invaluable in apprehending the murderer. Every detail she recounted matched the evidence, from the time, weapon, and location to the words spoken between the perpetrator and the deceased girl. It led to the conviction of the child’s murderer. It was a chilling tale and showed just how much the heart remembers.

 Get in the practice of asking your heart these questions!

What is it that you are really feeling? (Psalm 139:23)

Why are you really feeling this way? (Philippians 4:6, 1 Peter 5:7)

What good things are you really hoping for? (Psalm 37:4, Jeremiah 29:11)

What good thing do you want to see done? (Galatians 6:9, Psalm 37:5)

Then, give your heart the benefit of communicating its wisdom to your brain.

When your Heart Is At Peace, It Communicates Harmony to the Entire Body!

A seventeenth-century clockmaker discovered a fascinating principle we can apply to the heart’s beating. Christiaan Huygens invented the pendulum clock, and with great pride, he manufactured a collection of his clocks to sell. One day, as he lay in Bed, staring at his clock collection on the other side of the room, he noticed all the pendulums swinging in unison, even though he knew they hadn’t started out that way.

Huygens left the bed and restarted the pendulums, purposefully setting them at different times to break the synchronized rhythm. To his amazement, the pendulums began swinging together again in relatively short order. Later, scientists discovered that the largest clock with the most robust rhythm was pulling the other pendulums into sync with itself. They named this phenomenon ‘entrainment, ‘ which is apparent throughout nature.

The fact is, the strongest biological oscillator in the body is the heart. It acts in a way similar to Huygens’s clocks. The heart can pull every other bodily system into its own rhythm, whatever that may be. When the heart is at peace or filled with love, it communicates harmony to the entire body. Conversely, when toxic emotions have triggered the heart to beat irregularly, harder, or faster, the heart communicates the opposite of peace to the body’s other organs.

Spiritually speaking, when you experience God’s peace, the heart communicates peace to every fiber of your being. Each and every organ experiences that rest. When love fills your heart, your entire body begins to physically experience health and wholeness. Many labels on our food these days state that they are ‘heart healthy.’ We believe that God is teaching us how to be spiritually heart-healthy. When we live in His presence, our life emanates peace, love, and joy, and this becomes the best solution to having a healthy heart; it contributes to our total wellness and touches those around us. May the presence of God find its home within our hearts!

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