Images of the Heart

“The great man is he who does not lose his child’s heart.”
Confucius,

 

Living for a healthy heart
Total Health- June 2004

Many of us view the heart as a pump that needs to be kept in good order to be healthy.  The recommended regimen includes a diet low in fat, but rich in vegetables, fruits and whole grains, as well as exercise programs to re-energize the body and strengthen the heart. Since lean body mass is considered important for the vitality of the heart, aerobic exercises are also suggested.  To this list add vitamins and supplements to nourish and support the heart. Lastly, there is a whole battery of prescription drugs for treating the ailing heart.

This approach can be helpful, but something fundamental is missing.  We have neglected knowing the heart itself and its mysterious workings as it interacts with our minds, bodies, and souls.  In all of our standard treatments, we stand outside the heart and view it as a machine that needs something done or added to it from the outside.  We have distanced ourselves from the heart’s essence and from knowing its emotions, impulses, and complex subtle links to the rest of our bodies. We try to fix it without truly understanding it.

Body and mind as one
The heart, like the rest of the body, is made up of cells, which communicate with each other. Current researchers in the field of psychoneuroimmunology have accepted the body and mind as sharing a continuous uninterrupted flow of chemicals and electrical signals. In particular, they have researched the links between emotions, thoughts, and body chemicals, and know that it is impossible to separate them. When a person has a negative thought or feeling, whether based on a past trauma or a current life event, the brain responds to the stressful situation by secreting certain chemicals. These stress chemicals, in turn, negatively affect the body and its organs. Conversely, positive, joyful thoughts and emotions will affect the body’s chemical responses in a positive manner, supporting both physical and emotional well-being.

Emotions affect the heart and body
Stress results when we experience emotions such as powerlessness, fear, hopelessness, or anxiety. Under stress, the body will release hormones that interfere with the transmissions of codes between single cells and the rest of the body. Medical science has documented that stress interferes with cardiac response and can cause heart weakness.  In fact, the heart is the organ most susceptible to stress. Stress hormones suppress the ability of the heart to transmit signals to, and receive them from, the rest of the body. Ultimately, stress can damage the heart.

Heart disease is the number one killer of women today, and we see a correlation between the rise of female heart disease and the increasing number of women entering the work force. Women working within the masculine context of a business or corporate structure report that they daily suppress the free expression of their feminine sensibilities, emotions, and perspectives. They feel that they must emulate male styles of leadership in order to be seen as powerful or authoritative. The daily stress of trying to fit into a masculine view of life undermines the natural expression of their hearts. Thus, is it any wonder that their hearts are compromised.

Our hearts govern our interaction with the world
The entire body is governed by the heart. If one’s ankle hurts, it “throbs” with pain as the heartbeat is experienced there. The heartbeat is felt even in one’s fingers and toes, which are farthest from the heart.   Without an abundant and continuous blood supply, circulated by the heart in proper rhythm, the body weakens and dies.

Just as the heart rules our physicality, it guides our spiritual and
emotional interaction with the world. When we relate to others, our feelingful connection to them, or lack thereof, affects the outcome of our interactions. Others pick up the subtle cues we send them and respond in kind. This feelingful orientation, and its attendant mental attitudes, originates in the heart.  When people and events in the world affect us, our hearts receive their impressions first, and then the brain responds secondarily. 

It is the heart that leads, not the head. For example, take a moment and close your eyes.  See an image in your mind of someone attacking you. What part of you responds first as you see the image?  To this query, a friend answered, “ I get a fear response.  A shakiness that I feel in my chest and heart, somewhat like a fluttering, before there is any interpretation in my mind.”

I asked him to see that he was going to meet with someone he disliked. “I get a physical response of contraction in my chest.” Asked what he feels when he sees someone he loves, he said “I have a sense of ease and feel more open and flowing in my heart.”

Clearly, then, our emotions and mental states are key to a healthy heart and color the ways in which we engage with others.  However, it is hard to will ourselves always to be positive. Negative experiences have left each of us with a storehouse of learned responses that we cannot easily control. Stored in the brain like mine fields waiting to explode, these responses are triggered automatically.  How can we overcome them? 

Eidetic Imagery: the mind/body link
Through the pioneering work of Dr. Akhter Ahsen, the leading theoretician in the field of mental imagery, it is possible to heal, energize and activate the heart, using the body/mind link described above. Dr. Ahsen has spent the last quarter century developing and laying the scientific groundwork of the Eidetic Image.  Eidetic Images are clear visual images, stored in our brains, of all of our life experience. When these images are automatically activated from within us, the emotions carried within them send chemical and neural signals to the body, positively or negatively affecting organs and systems.

Through Eidetic images, we can control our physiological brain and body responses.  We can shift stressful negative emotions to positive ones,  thereby enhancing our hearts’ health. Images that have been developed specifically for the treatment of the heart can generate high states of optimism, hope and exuberance. They energize the body and give one the fuel to positively engage in the world. In this Eidetic state, the heart is nourished through a total integration of one’s natural brain chemicals, with positive states of mind, body and emotions. One enters into a natural “high.”

Wholeness is found within Dr. Ahsen discovered that the genetic blueprint of a person’s wholeness resides within the individual. It remains neurologically encoded for a lifetime. The Eidetic images he developed reproduce one’s holistic genetic signals. By activating these signals, one’s mental and physical wholeness is restored. Instead of treating the heart mechanically, Eidetic images activate the wholeness of the heart and its functions from within. Through this process the heart remembers its original state and has the capacity to heal. Thus, regeneration of the heart and the restoring of one’s natural powers is attainable.

Two Images for the Heart

HEARTBEAT IN ALL YOU DO

Putting your heartbeat into what you do activates the heart, energizes the body, and brings forth positive states of mind. In this image you see yourself engaged in a daily activity. You will be asked to see that your heart beats with you as you engage in the activity. Notice the transformations and changes in your mind, body and emotions:

1. See that you are engaged in an activity that is part of your daily
routine, such as walking, working at a desk, or gardening.
2. Feel your heart beating and observe that it pumps more strongly as you do the activity.
3. Feel your interest in what you are doing increase.
4. Let the heart pump faster.  Many people tend to control their hearts when they engage in an activity. Do not control your heart. Let the heart beat go into what you are doing. Let your heart beat with it.
5.  Let your heart keep pace with what you are doing.
6.  Now let the heart beat more strongly and let the pace become faster and more gratifying.
7. As the heartbeat strengthens, see that you are becoming more productive with less effort.
8. How does your performance change when you add the image of your heart?

HEART AND DESIRE

Many of us have closed off our deepest desires to have and to be all that we can be. We no longer feel entitled to wish or hope for things. By freeing our desires and letting our hearts beat with them, we activate and actualize our ability to manifest our deepest potentials in the world.

1.   Think of all the desires you have.
2.  Let all of these desires come into your mind and let your
     heart beat with these desires.
3.  Let the world know your desires and let your heartbeat
      know the world.
4. Go with your desires into the world.

Once you have completed these images, you should experience more strength, vitality, and optimism. By activating your heart utlizing these images, you are sending positive signals and their body chemicals not only your heart, but also to your body, mind and spirit.

About Jaqueline Lapa Sussman
Psychotherapist Jaqueline Lapa Sussman is the Director for Projects for the National and International Imagery Association and one of the foremost practitioners of Eidetic Imagery. She has delivered lectures worldwide and has trained top-level government officials, health care providers, corporate CEO’s, professional athletes and university faculties. She has been featured in Health Magazine, First For Women, New Age Journal, Woman, The Dallas Morning News, The New York Post and Newsday. She is the author of “Images of Desire: Finding Your Natural Sensual Self In Today’s Image Filled Society” (Forge Books, May 2001) and “Freedom From Failure: How To Discover The Secret Images That Can Bring Success In Love, Parenthood, Career, And Physical Well-Being” (Forge Books, March 2003).