These days there is a lot of talk about heart health. It is the number one killer of men and women. There is tons of information out there on the top healthy foods for a healthy heart, but I want to dive into the emotional side of it. You can eat all the organic healthy, holistic, awesome food out there, take the best herbal tonics, exercise regularly and still have heart problems if you are not taking care of the emotional side of your heart. Not only can you build walls in your arteries from a bad diet, but you can also build walls in your heart due to the negative emotions, fears, loss, sadness, ego, anger, that you do not process or let go of. There is only so much your heart can take before it implodes or hardens and stops.
So, here I will begin with my story of understanding I was Hopelessly Holding On....
Humans hold onto way to much. To much storage of physical things and emotional things..
I have been concerned with heart health. You can do all the right things with your health, like eat organic healthy food, finding out your food allergies, exercise, etc.
But, if we don't laugh enough, get stuck in the fast pace of life, a life that does not feel like it completes you, a stressful job, no community and holding on to the past, this will clog and malfunction your heart. These negative emotions, will give you a traffic jam in your system. Broken Hearts, (either physically broken,emotionally or both) are the number one killer for humans.
They say that you heart is your brain and that 40,000 sensory neurons relay information to the brain from the heart. The heart connects to your nervous system, it produces hormones and it receives energetic information from strong electrical and electromagnetic fields.
The heart is a muscle and if it is not worked on it will become weak. It provides the body with nourishment and oxygen. If you are not being emotionally nourished it would be hard for your heart to produce it's breath of life (oxygen) to feed all the other organs of the body. Therefore you get stagnation and stagnation brings pollution and pollution brings disease.
Dis Eases of life.
Your heart carries away waste, but if it is clogged with negative emotions and holding on to what will never be, how can it carry the waste away? If your system is short circulating due to this process, where will this waste end up? Holding on to waste is toxic and it can effect you physically and mentally.
The heart consists of chambers, arteries and more, which to me represents the paths that you have walked in your life and where you have lived. And from the paths, if there was stress, hurt, anger, jealousy and unforgiving, these negative hurtful times are the brick and mortar of the cement walls that are being built in your arteries. And for some, this process started at a very early age, literally ones heart is bursting from the overload of heartache
There are two chambers, one chamber of your heart gives and one receives.
If the giving and receiving in life are off balance this can negatively effect your chambers and fill them up with waste. If you give too much, because you do not set boundaries and people keep coming and taking from you, this negatively fills you up with emotional waste.The other side of this, is you do not give enough to community at large, family or friends and this leads to sour heart becoming tight and stiff (remember the story of the Grinch).
Your receiving chamber of your heart, do you receive giving from others well? Or do you expect it, Has your receiving made you a taker? Hoarding and taking to much, builds walls within this same system...
As you can see with two chambers it is much like a yin yang symbol. It really is all about balance.
Holding onto happy memories that are dear to ones heart feels good, but if you hold on to them hoping you can have it back again, then this is not good for ones heart. Which means you are building cement walls within the tiny paths within the chambers of your life, a hardening of the arteries, stagnation and shut down in the system.
Holding on to negativity eats your heart out like acid... Acid Relfux, heart palpitation, insomnia, anxiety and stress induced asthma,
I wish I could deny the fact that I have had serious turmoil in my life. No glass slippers here. It has been ongoing since I was a child. My heart is stacked full. I believe my heart has been speaking to me and I am glad I am listening. Most people would either ignore it or medicate it. Ignoring builds more walls and medicating it adds more toxic waste.
It wasn't until I hit my two year anniversary from the bad accident, that I had been hit with some serious emotions from the past. There was a couple of times that some serous quietness, deep thinking and depression had hit me for a couple of days in a row. During these times I was seriously in my head, which really meant I was trying to break down the walls that have been built in my heart for to many years.
I have been known to be a person who does not cry and if I do I stomp it out quick, I am full of fire, stubborn. Being very connected to the earth, I find that at this age, I get even more angry towards,farmers, the city, the county, with their chemical applications that they toxify the earth with. I am also past the middle of my menopausal journey.. This means, I am going through a journey of my past, present and who I am going to become.. It is a bit painful at times but this process is important. Just as important as a butterfly hatching out of its cocoon. You can't help it otherwise it will be deformed. Menopause is just the same, it is a process that can be hard, painful and joyous all at the same time. I feel blessed to be on this journey and especially blessed that I am listening.. For the men out there, you also go through a process it is called Male Menopause. Some might call it mid life crisis
It was December 21st 2015, Winter Solstice, seven days from my TWO year anniversary date of my accident. I was dealing with a lot of emotions. I was feeling dragged down by all the things that have been left undone, physically and mentally in my life. I already had big list of to do's, prior to my accident. The list is now bulging and I am feeling overwhelmed and trying to find a starting spot to continue the journey.
When your activity has been reduced to a minimum and you have so little help with things, life just feels overwhelming. Starting points seem unclear but you have piles and piles in front of you.
On Winter Solstice, something was stirring in me. My husband and I headed up the mountain with our animal family, tea pot, candle and smudge stick. It was beautiful and quite. We talked of changes, heart aches from our past, enjoyed a cup of tea, had prayers and mediation time.
That night I had something come to me that spoke so strongly that it stuck in my head. The message was this "LET GO OF WHAT DOES NOT SERVE YOU" It was if I had a revelation of some sort. A few days later, I am headed up the mountain to the spot that I had my accident. I was going to sit there and have tea and work on letting go. As my husband and I were walking the horses up the mountain they made a turn down another road. This never happens on this road. I usually have to lead them down. My husband asked me what I wanted to do, at that point they ran. At first I got tense, but then a few seconds after I realized my message was happening right in front of my eyes. "LET GO OF WHAT DOES NOT SERVE YOU" It was time to finally let go of what happened to me, not only from the accident but from everything that has been backed up, clogged up in my heart center. This means a purging process has begun and that I need to make sure it does not get damned back up.
I know most people were looking for a blog from my husband about our New Year. They were probably expecting a funny story about his wife (me) and our empty nester experiences. But our New Year experience has been about purging. We have been taking dump loads of stuff from our past or things that are just not going to get done, to the dump. Believe it or not some of these things have been holding me back without me realizing it. Storage is nothing but a place to store things that do not serve you. Some of those things you hold on to tightly hoping to feel that feeling again... These things effect your heart, your center and they take you off balance.
As I am purging I am getting things done, as I purge it is opening up opportunity's in my life to heal and have new experiences.
Today January 8th 2015 marks another step. We had a old dodge van.. She just left to live the rest of her life to be scrapped out and become something new again. As the man was loading her up. I kept having to hold back tears. I thought how funny that would be if this strong woman started crying as the man was towing away a rusty old metal dodge van. I held strong, took a few pictures, helped him out of the drive way and cried as he drove away.
I am going from a Mom that was needed, to a Mom that is finding herself as her kids find out who they are because they have spread their wings in the flight called life.
That beast of a van held so many fun memories when we were a family of 8.. Memories that I cherished and loved. It was a time of me being mommy and step mom. I loved being a mom ( I am still mom) Kids laughing in the back seat, singing, sleeping, being grumpy, being excited, fourth of July fun on the beach and so much more. I can still here the kids singing we will rock you in the van. I can still hear my son Brandon laughing in the back seat and years later on my birthday I sat in back as he drove us home from the beach.
Having a mixed family was not easy and this is what I have held on to. Hoping for the good memories to come back. This has built up in my heart and letting this beast of a van go is the last purge of the past.
The "Time Of The Van", there were life changes, people changes, people come and go and we all had to to except that without it affecting our hearts.
Holding on to that which is not...
To much hope and change, without change becomes stagnation and no growth
Holding on to happy memories is what also creates holding onto to much hoping to create that situation again
You never know until you finally release something that holding on was holding you back
Yes, there is such a thing as hope but one must realize that holding hope for too long can hold you back
Release breaks up stagnation
Release is what brings in the new
You can't fix what has been lost
Let Go Of What Does Not Serve You
What serves your heart?
This is my year of new, It is my new birth year, a new year to birth out new ides, more happiness, more nature, more epic adventure out in the Oregon Wild, success, community, knowledge, love, peace and for me it is the year to 'LET GO OF WHAT DOES NOT SERVE ME)
Besides a fantastic diet, herbs and exercise this is what will heal my heart and yours. For the heart is the brain and this brain controls the functions of you...
If you don't take care of your body,
where are you going to live?
Mickey Spillane
What Is Good Heart Medicine?
21 Principles That Keep Your Heart Happy and Healthy
1. Put your emotional life in balance
2. Keep it corny, laugh and play frequently
3. Make life juicy, not dry
4. Peel the extra layers of heaviness off of your life
5. Size matters, eat many small healthy meals a day
6. Reject violence with your whole heart, but if violence is used on you, fight back with your whole heart
7. Practice daily acts of kindness towards yourself and others
8. Keep it cool in life
9. Shake it up, dance more
10. Perfect you smile, use it more
11. Light you fire, kindle the flame inside you, what are your desires?
12. Rest your head, nap when you can, cat nap when you can, go to bed early, winter time get more sleep
13. Ease back on stimulants and addictive substances (if you can’t fall asleep at night by 20 to 30 minutes you could be drinking to much coffee, eating to much sugar or having to much screen time)
14. Remember a negative environment breeds illness. Positive grows happiness
15. Exercise, this is a must
16. Eat simple, delicious, unadulterated foods and liquids
17. Eat organic berries
18. Eat good clean sources of protein
19. Summer lovin, get your daily dose of sun, as much as you can
20. Make bone broth
21. Include the cardiovascular nurturing herbs in your daily diet
Hawthorn flower, leaf and berry– Cardiovascular tonic -Motherwort—Calms the heart, reducing heart palpitations—Ginkgo– peripheral vasodilator( Peripheral vasodilators are agents which act on the most distal parts of the vascular system i.e. the arterioles and venules. They dilate these distal blood vessels and lower the blood pressure, therefore makes it easier for the heart to pump blood through these peripheral blood vessels).—Passionflower– calms—Yarrow– vascular tonic—Garlic normalizes blood pressure -Cayenne and Ginger—circulatory stimulants
Recipes For Heart Health
Hawthorn Leaf, Flower and Berries
Grandmother Hawthorn, the tree of the heart. Hawthorn is the 6th tree of the Celtic Tree Ogham, representing Love, fertility, protection, the release of blocked energy and preparation for spiritual growth.
Hawthorn is the prime remedy for the heart, the circulation and is safe to take over long periods, The flowers, leaves and berries can all be used as a safe heart tonic, Hawthorn is helpful for high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries, heart palpitations and all heart conditions. The leaves, flower and berries also have a beneficial effect on the nervous system, relieving stress and anxiety They bring calm sleep if drunk at night.
Hawthorn Recipes:
http://natural-healing-guide.com/Therapeutic-Teas/Hawthorn-tea.htm
Linden Leaf and Flower Tea, relieves nervous tension, calms the mind, could help with insomnia, soothes the digestive system and is a great heart tonic
2 tsp. linden leaf and flower
1/2 tsp. rose petals or a couple of rose buds (organic only)
Bring a cup of water to boil, add herbs, cover and steep 10 minutes, strain and enjoy.
I personally make 4 cups at a time in a french press and steep it longer. I also make linden leaf and flower infusions. For more information on herbal infusion click on link below.
http://www.susunweed.com/herbal_ezine/September08/anti-cancer.htm
Kale and Nut Pesto
Small bunch of kale (4-6 leaves, remove the thick part of the stems*)
1/4 cup walnuts, toasted or soaked dehydrated almonds or soaked and dehydrated pumpkin seeds.
1/2 to 1 clove of garlic
1/4 cup olive oil (or more for a smoother pesto)
Juice & zest of one lemon
Salt & pepper to taste
Optional: grated raw cheese, or organic Parmesan
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Fill a large bowl with ice and water.
- Blanch kale for about 30 seconds, remove and place in the ice bath to stop the cooking process.
- Dry the kale a bit, squeeze out some of excess water and set on a towel for a few minutes more.
- Blend everything together in a food processor. Pulse to create a chunky pesto, blend longer to create a smoother one. Taste and adjust, adding more salt, pepper, lemon, olive oil, as necessary.
High Vitamin C Tea
Ingredients: rose hips, hibiscus flowers, lemon grass, cinnamon chips
Note: Vitamin C is a noted antioxidant with disease-fighting abilities.
Rose Hips: They contain more vitamin C than almost any other herb, many times the amount found in citrus fruit when measured gram by gram.
Hibiscus: high in vitamin C and bioflavonoids. It has slightly astringent properties. It is useful for treating mild colds, flus, bruising, and swelling.
Lemon Grass: http://planetwell.com/lemongrass-health-benefits-and-healing-proper...
Cinnamon: Although cinnamon is considered to be simply a spice by most Westerners, herbalists have been using it for centuries as a warming digestive aid. It is a wonderful mild stimulant and can be combined with ginger to treat circulatory and digestive problems. It has antiviral and antiseptic activities, making it useful for fighting infections.
High Vitamin C Tea Recipe:
4 parts rose hips
3 parts hibiscus
2 parts lemongrass
1 part cinnamon chips
Information on beef heart:
Beef heart is a muscle like other cuts of steak, but more dense with a higher content and additional protein. Beef heart contains all essential amino acids, zinc, selenium and phosphorus. It has more than double the elastin and collagen than other cuts of meat and a highly concentrated source of coenzyme Q10, also known as CoQ10. Make sure you purchase organic grass-fed beef rather than grain-fed beef because it may have higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids.
Below is the link to the information about how to cook the beef heart:
http://ruhlman.com/2011/08/how-to-cook-beef-heart/
