Which is more valuable—your heart or your head?

trust your heart

if the seas catch fire
(and live by love
though the stars walk backward)

~ e e cummings

Last year, my doctor heard my heart doing something unusual and sent me on a several month adventure of tests. Trust me, one thing you never want to hear during a cardiac echo is, “Hmmm…I’ve never heard that before!” Long story short, they decided that everything was exactly where it was supposed to be.  I have the optimum textbook in flow and out flow. My heart is amazingly healthy. It just has a rhythm all it’s own. (Anyone that’s known me for more than a minute probably already knew that.)

We put our minds in charge most of the time, but our minds deceive us. Trusting your gut is a step in the right direction. But your heart? Listening to your heart sometimes gets an undeserved bad rep.

Your heart is amazing.

10. Your heart is incredibly strong. Your heart muscle is strong enough to lift 3,000 pounds.

9. But, you can actually break your heart. Deep emotional hurt releases stress hormones like cortisol which damage your heart.

8. Your heart is a great indicator of your innate responses. What makes your heart race? Who makes it calm? You can convince your mind of all sorts of things. If your mind is telling you you don’t know what you want, listen to your heart. It knows.

7. The six quarts of blood in your body travel a distance of 12,000 miles around and around your body every single day.

6. The blood vessels fed by your heart are over 60,000 miles long; they could wrap around the earth–twice.

5. It used to be believed that the physical heart controlled emotions. Now we know the opposite is true. The cycle of your heartbeat is mainly regulated by your parasympathetic nervous system. When you are calm and happy, you relax into a regular rhythm.

4. Your heartbeat is strong enough to project blood over 30 feet.

3. Your heart beats–on average–100,000 times a day.

2. When you laugh, the blood flow to your heart is increased for about 45 minutes.

1. Your heart pumps over 31,000,000 gallons of blood in a lifetime.

All the things we attribute to our “hearts” may not be true. But when you feel something, in that ever-raw broken open place in your chest, when something makes you skip one of those 100,000 beats—pay attention. Your heart doesn’t lie.