The Healing Power of Heart Synergy

My husband and I have been studying hearts in one way or another for decades. And no matter how you slice it, they are POWERFUL. But when it comes to how the world works, the real power lies in the resonance between hearts.

We need to restore that resonance and start harnessing that power again.

Profound and magical healing can happen when our hearts synergize.

It’s why we all so moved by meaningful connection.

Reteti Elephant Sanctuary @RetetiSanctuary

Love is woven into the fabric of our daily lives, here at Reteti. Love is not a grand gesture or a fleeting moment. It’s found in the simplest, and even the smallest acts of kindness and care that we show each and the world around us. Happy Valentines Day! ♥️🐘♥️

It’s why hugs are so healing… why babies need to be held.

It’s why authentic grassroots efforts bring about such powerful change. Heart connection fuels inspiration, hope and creativity. Resonance between hearts is a powerful alchemical process and it’s nothing short of magic.

Spend some quality time with your favorite people and you know.

So imagine how wrong things can go when we withdraw our hearts from the equation.

It’s hard to strike the necessary balance between strength and vulnerability that is required to maintain a healthy heart. And most of us can only endure so much before we go into protective mode. But there’s a cost to building a wall around our hearts. An overprotective or guarded heart becomes inaccessible. It can’t be easily penetrated, but it also can’t readily shine it’s love and wisdom outward.

And consider the physiological manifestation of an overprotective heart. Our pericardium is literally our heart protector. Consider what happens when it becomes inflamed and/or hardened.

Getting Out of Our Minds

How did we get here?

I think we got spooked. Fear, and maybe anger, pushed us out of our hearts and into our heads. We sought refuge in power and safety and moved from the realm of heartfelt intention to ideas that became infected with agenda and strategy.

And ideas that aren’t rooted in heartfelt intention quickly become ideology. The byproduct of wounded hearts.

It’s no surprise then that prolonged isolation and fear of sharing space led us right to upticks in suicides and violent crimes and a mental health crisis.

“Build Back Better” and “for the greater good” ring hollow to many because there is no heart behind these words. They’re the mind viruses of philantropaths and technocrats who consider human nature a liability rather than the very thing we need to balance and cultivate.

It can be confusing though, because many of these ideologies echo our values. The ideas sound so familiar to tired and wounded hearts.

Fairness? Of course! Access for everyone? Yes! Sharing? Amen!

But those ideas filtered through the agendas of “global stakeholders” are not the same as ones borne of resonance and connection. If you want to observe the difference, simply consider the World Economic Forum and it’s plans for The Great Reset.

A smart city modeled around the WEF idea that “You will own nothing and you will be happy” is very different from an intentional community rooted in shared values that carefully chooses how to delegate resources and responsibilities.

I get stuck sometimes trying to think things through... with facts and data and science and reasoning. I keep trying to wrap my mind around what’s happening now and I keep getting lost. Because what’s happening is INSANE.

But my hearts maps things differently. And when I come from my heart - which I generally do when I’m face-to-face with people - I can’t help but notice that people respond with compassion and understanding and kindness and hope. I notice that I can access these things pretty readily in others when I come from my own place of compassion and loving kindness.

How do we restore balance and harness this power? Charles Eisenstein suggests that it may begin with trusting our hearts.

… when we accept that that story of how change happens might not be right, then we’re plunged into the mystery where we have to rely on some other impulse to guide us in choices about how to spend our time and how to devote our gifts. So one of those impulses could be “what is it that makes you come alive?” and to do it for no other reason than because it makes you come alive. Because it gives you a feeling of life.

Ultimately, what we are in service to is Life. The current situational setup is in service to death. The planet is dying around us and we, the dominant civilization, are headlong converting all that is alive into products. To serve the opposite direction, to serve life, means first and foremost serving life within yourself and accepting what makes you come alive as a valid source of information to guide your choices.  And when “what’s the point” encroaches upon them, name and recognize that as a voice of the old story.

Heart as Empress

According to Chinese medicine, the Heart is the Emperor/Empress. Ross has written an entire book about what happens when trauma impacts our hearts. From his book Heart Shock:

Heart Shock refers to a systemic instability, and to some degree chaos, resulting from  life insults or traumas. …

The Nei Jing Su Wen states: 

The channel, blood and energy of a man will be affected and changed by  terror, fright, anger, fatigue… Under these situations, if one has a strong  body, his energy can be dredged, and his sickness can be recovered; if  his body is weak, the evil energy will hurt the body in the wake of it.

…The  Heart is considered the Emperor (or Empress) in Chinese medicine, so instability to the Emperor will affect the entire Empire. This is true of any systemic insult of this  nature, and is how it can become an obstacle to long-lasting and effective treatments.

Given what the entire global population has been through, this really strikes me.

Su Wen Chapter 8 discusses the vital role of the Emperor: 

As the Heart is the monarch in the organs, it dominates the functions  of the various viscera, so when the function of the Heart is strong and  healthy, under its unified leadership, all the functions of the various  viscera will be normal, the body will be healthy and the man will live a long life, and in his life long days, no serious disease would occur. It is  just like the condition in a country when the monarch is wise and able  and all the work in various departments are in concert, the country will  be prosperous and powerful, but when the monarch is thick-headed,  that is, when the function of the Heart is incapable, the mutual relations  between the viscera in the body will be damaged, the body will suffer  great injury to affect one’s health and the length of life. In a country, the  political power will be unstable and every thing in the country will be  out of order. It is advisable for one to pay attention to it greatly.

Right now, we can look at both our “monarchs” and the prevalence of heart pathology and readily see the chaos and instability reflected all around us.

In our (acupuncture/Chinese medicine) practice, we can also perceive the instability on the pulses of our patients via irregular rates and rhythms and pulse qualities that reflect varying states of pathology.

“Heart Closed” is one pulse quality that has become increasingly prevalent. It’s reflects an adaptive response to trauma. The result of protectively withdrawing our hearts manifests as the stagnation of heart energy. This of course poses a physiological threat and impacts circulation, but it can often hinder interpersonal relationships going forward. Often, you can spot a “Heart Closed” person by their blunted expression because they are no longer animated by the full expression of their hearts.

This is just one example. Other imbalances manifest with more anxiety or irritability, reflecting hearts that can’t regulate or contain. But suffice it to say, the imbalances have only been amplified since COVID.

Collectively we are WAY out of balance and the evidence is everywhere.

Looking at the human race as a critical part of the earth’s microbiome, it’s easy to see why Mother Earth is struggling. And why the “climate solutions” proposed by technocrats will never succeed in healing her.

So How Do We Heal?

I think the answer lies in a different kind of reset. We’ve been trained to fear external enemies, both visible and invisible, and seek refuge in band-aids that merely mask our problems.

I’m trying to return to the practice of listening to my heart… and then using it to listen to others. It’s truly a practice and I stumble regularly. I’m aware of the fear and I’m prone to the triggers like everyone else. But the pursuit it so worthwhile.

I revisit this Hindu parable about Why We Shout in Anger often:

‘When two people are angry at each other, their hearts distance a lot. To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other. The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear each other to cover that great distance.

What happens when two people fall in love? They don't shout at each other but talk softly, Because their hearts are very close. The distance between them is either nonexistent or very small…'

The saint continued, ‘When they love each other even more, what happens? They do not speak, only whisper and they get even closer to each other in their love. Finally they even need not whisper, they only look at each other and that's all. That is how close two people are when they love each other.'

He looked at his disciples and said.

‘So when you argue do not let your hearts get distant, Do not say words that distance each other more, Or else there will come a day when the distance is so great that you will not find the path to return….”

We can cover this distance… little by little. It can start with a hug. Or tea with a friend. Even a few minutes of yoga.

But let’s start.

Namaste.