A human heart contains 40,000 neural cells that form a complex nervous system.
This “heart mind” sends more signals to the brain than the brain sends to the heart. Just as the brain produces hormones/neural chemicals, the heart also produces its own adrenaline, oxytocin, dopamine, as well as ANF, (atrial natriuretic factor) a peptide that helps regulate healthy heart and kidney function. The heart also keeps the energetic signals of the body and brain regulated through the physical contraction and expansion of a “heartbeat”.
But here’s where things get even more interesting: The heart produces its own electromagnetic field that is 5000 times greater than that of the brain.
This magnetic field is a signal network that extends around us in a range of fifteen to twenty-five feet (!) and interacts with other living beings as well as the earth’s own electromagnetic field, feeding us information about the world around us and broadcasting our own information to everyone and everything we meet.
This also ties into the Enteric Nervous System – a network of 100 million nerve cells that line the esophagus down to and through the gastrointestinal tract, which also communicates information back to the brain.
This complex system of heart-gut-brain relation and communication is much more the “knowing mind” than the brain as a segregated entity, which largely makes decisions for us based upon past experience and neurological patterns rather than the full picture of each moment.
So cool, right?
As many things that were taught for thousands of years but discarded with the dawn of the Industrial Age, I believe our ancestors were on to a fundamental truth with adages like “You will never find peace of mind until you listen to your heart.” Or “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.”
J Krishamurti said “Intuition is the whisper of the soul.”
One of my personal favorites – “At the center of your being you have the answer, you know who you are and you know what you want.”
If we wanted to get a little deeper into the quantum physics of the magnetic field, all of the information that we gather in the “quantum field” – that field that extends beyond us and into everything and All That Is, is also feeding us information.
It is the aggregate of information that is gathered between our brain, our heart/magnetic field, and the gut in the “field” that gives us the 11 million bits of information that humans process each second. But the problem here is that the brain has to translate all that information into roughly 40-50 bits per second for us to function and think without shorting out.
This is where unconscious bias comes in. The brain uses a system called the Reticular Activating System (RAS) to filter out anything it screens as impertinent.
Unfortunately, this can be a huge detriment to helping us to achieve a happy life.
Because the human brain works largely on programming and patterning, it often filters out the information that we actually need to find joy in favor of the information that the brain thinks will help us to survive best based upon our past programming and experience.
So if following the crowd, people pleasing, shutting down, fighting, accepting less-than treatment, (or even abuse) or any other trauma-based behavior were childhood subsets, there is a good chance that those early programs will be dictating your adult behavioral experiences, too.
As we have discussed before, the brain is wired to survive, not to thrive. So ouch.😣.
But awareness of this can help us to recognize and bypass what is past programming and what is actually truth and the best solution for not only our greatest happiness, but also for the greatest expansion of who we are in the evolution of our souls.
That just makes me wanna shout “hellllll yeah!”😁.
Because this means we don’t have to be a slave to our past programs. We can begin right now to steer our own ship and navigate our destiny for a greater joy than we ever dreamed possible.
I know this from personal experience.🥳
Even in the times of my greatest sorrow and heartbreak, I can’t help but go back to the feeling of joy – what is now my personal preset of “baseline happy”, which is pretty damned amazing.
I may have moments, or sometimes even hours where I feel unhappy, or I need to allow myself to grieve for whatever the unhappiness of my circumstance is – but here is the absolute truth of my existence – the vast majority of the time, regardless of whatever that circumstance may be, I am dance-in-the-fields-when-I-walk-my-dogs or in-my-kitchen while-cooking happy. 💫💃🏼
I don’t get bored. I feel a huge amount of gratitude for this big beautiful life. I smile at nearly every stranger, and go out of my way to help others feel a little of my joy – because I believe the world would be a much better place if we all understood these truths about ourselves and chose to live happy. I wish we all would make the conscious choice to fully live, rather than existing or waiting to die.
So, the next time you have a dilemma or a problem you can’t solve, perhaps the best question to ask is this: what is the consensus of my heart and gut/intuition telling me?
Then, bring the brain into the equation to ask – “Is this my truth/wisdom, or is this the voice of my parents/peers/societal norms that are giving me these answers?”
Intuition+heart intelligence+past experience and programming = answers. 😎
Today and all days, please remember – You are loved. You are worth every joy. You are amazing.💖
We may not realize it, but every moment we are choosing who we are. Hero, Villain or Victim. Eggplant or shining star.
But when we act like a 🍆, it is only too easy to make excuses for our bad behavior, isn’t it?
“I’m in a bad mood because…
– I’m tired.
– I have a headache/stomachache/body ache/allergies, etc…
– My boss/employee/friend/acquaintance/partner/kid doesn’t value me.
– I didn’t get the job/promotion/position I wanted…
I didn’t get my way…
There is always a litany of reasons/excuses why it’s ok for us to be difficult, moody or angry.
These “reasons” allow us to lash out at those closest to us. To be a d#ck to our friends, co-workers or the cashier at the supermarket. To allow a dark cloud to follow us around and confirm all the reasons why we are a victim.
Right about now you might be thinking that I’m kind of a 🍆 for being so harsh, right? 😬
But here’s the thing, babe. The truth often hurts – and it’s not until we take an honest look at our behaviors that we can actually become the person that we want to be rather than the person our past experiences and behaviors dictate we be.
Unfortunately for many of us, our past involved parental figures and peers that made us feel less than capable. Less than valuable. Less than worthy. And so we play out the emotional repercussions these past patterns cause each day by allowing our subconscious to rule our emotions and actions rather than our awareness. But when it comes down to it, most of us would probably choose happiness, light, ease, kindness, and compassion as our key traits rather than being known as an Eyore or an asshole, right?
You choose your behaviors, consciously or unconsciously. The difference between training good behavior in yourself – or not – is whether or not you choose to be conscious or allow your unconscious patterns to dick-tate who you are.
So ask yourself this question: Who do I want to be – a hero, victim, or a villain?
This is your story and you are writing the plot, characters and outcome, my love. You are the hero – or villain (victim) of your own story.
So what are you choosing today?
Are you allowing all of life’s contrasts to shape you into forged steel – or melt you into slag?
Are you allowing that headache/fatigue/negative experience to excuse bad behavior – or are you becoming the hero and shining your amazing light, in spite of your circumstance?
This Blessed Sacred Life 