The Shape of Your Heart
“It is incumbent upon us to keep the literacy of the heart alive.” Mark Nepo
Three people I care deeply about have recently undergone hours-long life-saving heart procedures. Life-threatening, life-saving. Only a few years ago, these specific procedures would have been considered invasive heart surgeries. We can all imagine why today they are now called “outpatient procedures”—even though my loved ones were kept overnight and closely monitored—rather than the invasive surgeries they are. But that’s an essay for another time.
What I’m trying to say is that the meaty muscle that involuntarily, 24/7, contracts and pumps blood throughout our bodies, oxygen to our cells, is life-giving. And when the heart is blocked, when the rhythm is off, when the heart is damaged, hurting, or struggling to pump, our life force diminishes. And well, you know.
Anahata Chakra—the Ethereal Heart
“The cave of the heart shines brilliantly: it blazes with a self-born light.”—Gurumayi Chidvilasananda
Often depicted as many-petaled lotus blossoms, the chakras (wheels) symbolize transformation and enlightenment in Tantric yoga. These wheels of energy are power sources that transmit, receive, and assimilate life force and our life experiences.
Our bodies are psychophysical, energetic, and electrochemical. Like delicate instruments, our bodies and hearts need care and fine-tuning. Many spiritual traditions suggest prayer, meditation, visualization, yoga, and other energetic movement modalities to tune the physical and etheric heart.
The power center, known as the Anahata or heart chakra, sits in the middle of the chest and serves as a bridge between matter and higher levels of consciousness. The heart is the focal point that helps balance the interplay of life force through the koshas or etheric layers of our being, consisting of the physical body, energy body, intellect, prana, or subtle essence of life, and abiding stillness.
When we are sad, fearful, and mentally, emotionally, and spiritually impacted, the heart chakra is affected just as the physical heart and is less capable of functioning at its optimal blueprint. The energetic heart center is the well-spring of love, which needs replenishment to flow easily, nourish the self and others, and express itself authentically.
Heart and Brain Coherence
“Heart intelligence is the intelligent flow of awareness and insight that we experience once the mind and emotions are brought into balance and coherence through a self-initiated process. This form of intelligence is experienced as direct, intuitive knowing that manifests in thoughts and emotions that are beneficial for ourselves and others.”—Doc Childre, HeartMath Solution
When the heart and brain communicate well, we experience coherence and integration. Contrary to what we have been taught, the brain does not develop before the heart; the heart is the first organ to develop during gestation—with both systems—the brain and heart, capable of relaying messages to the other.
It behooves us to learn the language of the heart and how to listen to its messages. When the heart and brain work in communion, we experience less overwhelm, more calm, less distress, and more clarity.
The Arts
“It is incumbent upon us to keep the literacy of the heart alive.” Mark Nepo
As fate would have it, I recently listened to an interview with the poet/teacher Mark Nepo. If you don’t know his work, please introduce yourself—his words are a balm for the spirit.
During his talk, Mark offered many nuggets to help us sift through the messiness of our lives and find the gold to give the struggle meaning and purpose. Poetry is one of them. But art, any art, is a prescription for the heart.
The words below arose as I sat in the still hours of early morning, learning to listen.
The Shape of Your Heart
“Describe to me the shape of your heart.”
Oh, but love, my heart is a shapeshifter.
My closed fist holds the innocent heart I first arrived in this world with. Pumping blood into the muscle, contracting and expanding with each pulse beat, a hundred thousand times a day, circling the earth of my new life.
Contracting and expanding with each new dawn, each new joy. Shifting and shaping itself with each new heartbreak, each new day another form.
Oh, the shape of my heart is a hundred pounds of clay waiting to be molded.
Describe to me the color of your heart.
Oh, but love, my heart is a prism.
Red petals opening with passion and desire. Arctic blue frozen solid with pain and sorrow. Blackened from life’s horror. And then green like the valley outside my window, beckoning me with new possibilities.
Oh, the color of my heart is a palette generator unto itself.
Describe to me the song of your heart.
Oh, but love, my heart contains each note the Unitverse sings.
Morning doves cooing to find a mate. The rustling of the wind blowing through the leaves. Winter’s first snowfall in the potent hush of stillness. The roar of a rainstorm gathering force then slowing to the steady patter of melancholy droplets. Coyotes yipping and howling across the miles. The humming OM of the Universe just beneath the cacophony.
Oh, the song of my heart a universe of sounds, whole notes, half notes, quarter notes that only I hear.
With love, Paulette
Also, December is my birthday month! Look for my birthday special savings and what’s coming in 2025.
Gorgeous post Paulette, your words and those of Mark Nepo are a balm for the soul. Here is another quote for you ..💗
Your heart is the size of an ocean. Go find yourself in its hidden depths.
— Rumi
It is so nice to see this post in December, Paulette. So many heart-inspired communication appear around Valentine's Day, and it really is a message for all days, isn't it?! Thank you for this!