The Heart of the Matter

Dear Reader,

I have been focusing on the heart a lot lately in my writing. I changed the tagline on this website to “shifting the balance of head and heart,” and I wrote a blog post recently about what I mean by that.

Why all this emphasis on the heart?

A Big Heart Adventure

One obvious reason, as some of you may know, is that a few months I underwent open heart surgery. I needed a valve repair – sounds like taking the car in to the shop, right? The procedure is much more common than it used to be, but still a big surgery. And mine was severe enough that they had to go in the traditional way, rather than do a “snakes-tubey procedure” as a nurse friend put it.

First and foremost, the procedure was very successful. the surgeon and the whole team were amazing, and my recovery, although not quite complete (I’m not back to kayaking yet,) has gone well. The whole experience led me to contemplate a lot of things – my own mortality, the miracles of modern medicine and technology, the importance of a good mindset – but it also led me to treasure the gift of my heart in a whole new way.

The Heart of My Work

“Heart” has always been at the center of my work. As a dancer, I developed a focus on depth of expression and feeling, as well as authenticity of experience in movement. In my work with clients, I have always focused on what I consider “the whole person” – body, heart, mind, and spirit, made of energy and existing in connection with others.

In a way, the heart – on all of those levels – is the core of who we are. That’s what we mean when we talk about “getting to the heart of the matter.” We mean get to the core, the essence, what is most important.

What is most important?

What is most important to you in life, dear reader? Each of us may answer that question differently, but for each of us, the answer will be connected to what we love most. In my last blog post, I gave you an exercise to figure out what that is.

Your heart knows.

Your heart is wise.

Physically, your heart is an intelligent organ that pumps blood throughout your body, among a host of other responsibilities. Emotionally, your heart helps you discover and process your feelings, not just on the surface, but on the deepest levels. Mentally, the heart is in constant dialogue with your brain – and as it turns out, the heart sends far more signals to the brain than the brain does to the heart! And spiritually, the heart is the doorway to your intuition, the voice of your soul.

And there’s more. Energetically, your heart is the seat of one of your chakras, that connects with the rest of your subtle energy system as well as with your environment. And speaking of connection, your heart emits an electromagnetic field that extends at least eight feet from your body and interacts with other heart-fields within its range (for more about this and other aspects of the heart, please research Heartmath.org)

After surgery, I am exploring a whole new relationship with my heart. As the physician’s assistant said to me, “We changed the physiology of your heart.” It beats differently now. It feels and sounds different. Its capacity is changed, and its efficiency.

I’m not sure what that implies for the other aspects of my heart – energetic, emotional, mental, intuitive, spiritual – but I do know one thing:

It is time for all of us, individually and collectively, to get to the heart of the matter.

I honor your loving heart,

John