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Amy Thinks Deep

philosophy for the curious soul 

The Purpose and Life of the Heart

Have you ever heard any of these three facts?

1. The leading cause of death is due to heart malfunctions/diseases.

2. The most common regret among the elderly and dying is that they didn't love enough in life.

3. Love is most closely associated with a healthy heart chakra.

When I realized these three facts altogether, the secret to life started to make more sense. You see, many of us wonder what the purpose of our life is, yet when on our deathbed, we may regret not being able to love as much as we wanted to. They say hindsight sees better. If this is so, perhaps we should be taking the opportunities to love rather than saying it is our regret when we decide to leave this incarnation.

Why do we leave anyway? Recently I read an excerpt from Gregg Braden's book, which, in short, claims that the way we die depends on the way we treat our heart in this lifetime. Stress is the ultimate factor of wearing down the heart. In fact, as he says, "[James Blumenthal of Duke University] identified long-term experiences of fear, frustration, anxiety, and disappointment as examples of the kind of heightened negative emotions that are destructive to the heart and put us at risk" (Braden, p. 55). 

The heart is the first organ to develop in a new life in mother's womb; it is the central force that everything else of the body builds itself around. Besides just sustaining our life, it rather begins our life. The heart plays a critical role in life. Of further notice, it is located in the center of the body - both of the physical body and of the torus field, which is associated as the heart's own electromagnetic field. No wonder when the heart has had enough, the whole body turns over.

Heart malfunctions can include heart attack (cardiac arrest), congestive heart failure, or other diseases. What is the cause of these? If it isn't due to poor nutrition/dieting, doctors might next look to stress. When stressed, the heart is impacted. In fact, stress leads to most of the body's complications, whether it is a direct or indirect cause.

Love is commonly associated with the heart, rightly so. It is within the heart chakra that we mitigate the feeling of love. Moreover, the heart chakra is all about living love. The heart chakra is the first of the chakras (from the root to the crown) that incorporates a deeper sense of spirituality. After developing the stages of the body (root chakra), emotions/sexuality (sacral chakra), and the personality/ego (solar plexus chakra), next is to take risks by incorporating love into the daily routine of these three opportunities. The heart chakra meets a new dynamic that, in a way, transcends the limitations of this world. As we approach the development of the next chakras, the heart chakra prepares us for embracing the spiritual life of loving one another and sending love across the fabric of spiritual space-time (if there is such a thing).

After the heart chakra comes the throat chakra, which is one of expression. So we learn that loving and expressing are two separate energies. This means that love can be love without the necessity of expression. Love is a feeling in the heart. Even though I can't think of a study, I imagine if you hooked a heart monitor to a person who is meditating on love, then the heart's behavior and feeling would shift. The feeling of love helps the heart feel fresh, new, young, and relaxed. Taking the feeling of love up to the throat chakra helps one to express that love outwardly. But first, things must begin on the inner level. We must feel love in our own heart before we can begin to shift it to outward expression.

I suspect that many stumble on this point. Children who bully are not taught to feel the love on the inside. "We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19) comes to mind. Also, in Hinduism, Lord Krishna serves as a strong symbol for love and wisdom. Teaching others to love comes first from experiencing love and knowing what its like. Loving children spring from loving parents or other role models who inhabit a love presence. Love, in this regard, is a power harnessed within one's heart that is passed down, so to speak. Could there, then, be a genetic trait for feeling love?

If one is more inclined to love, then one could live much longer, as love is a healing force. Love repairs and heals many illnesses, and I suspect love does the same even with DNA. The pattern that life follows after can be healed by the factor that sustains life. Opening up and sharing from the heart is at first understood as risky, but true love is found no other way. Love that doesn't come from the heart is not love that heals, that sustains life, or that grows. The basis for love is in the heart, a feeling - not an emotion, not an expression - it is a being.

Love is a mode of being. Love is God. God is Love (noun) Being (verb). God is love... being. Love is life manifesting life. Love is everlasting life.

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Braden, G. (2006) Secrets of the Lost Mode of Prayer: The Hidden Power of Beauty, Blessing, Wisdom, and Hurt. Hay House, Inc.

If you are asking "what is love," please check out my book, Spirituality Matters: Deeper Thoughts for Spiritual Curiosity, where I dedicate a whole chapter on explaining what love is. 

 

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