What gets your heart beating?

The impulse that gets our heart beating, starts in a small bundle of specialized cells. These are located in the right atrium, called the SA node. The cells create an electrical activity that spreads through the walls of the atria and causes them to contract. This forces blood into the ventricles. The SA node sets the rate and rhythm of our heartbeat. At least this is the medical explanation of what makes our heart beat.

What does our heart tells us?

When observing my own heart, I feel it beat faster when I’m exited or when out running. It slows down when I’m lying comfortably, reading a book. It is able to synchronize with the heartbeat of my dog, and seems to jump out of my chest when seeing an old friend again. At times I can make up my mind in just a heartbeat. At other times, it feels like parts of my heart have gone missing, and are on a journey with the people I love. My heart missed a beat or two when I realized that I was pregnant. And it beat so loudly when talking to a larger audience for the first time. I remember not even being able to hear my own words over the rush of blood in my ears.

So, what really sets the rate and rhythm of our hearts, and gets our electrical sparks firing? Undeniably it is not only the SA node that dictates the rate. But rather, it is the way we feel, and what we love that seem to be the natural pacemakers in our lives.

Our hearts set the rhythm for our uniqueness

Each heart beats at a unique rhythm and rate for the things that it feels and falls in love with. I might get my heart racing in anticipation of teaching again. While for somebody else, this heart racing could translate as panic, and the wish not to be present in front of a large crowd. For the next person, this event has absolutely no effect whatsoever.

Our hearts, and what makes them beat are great indicators of how to live our lives in our own unique way. My heart knows me and who I am. It sets the rhythm and rate in a very clear manner. In turn, it shows me what makes me beat.

So, do you know what gets your heart beating to a different rhythm? What makes it wish to jump out of your chest or what keeps it beating peacefully? Are you tuned in to this organ of yours or do you wish that you could distance yourself from it even further? Do you try not to follow it’s directions because it takes you on a path that challenges you? How does it connect to you? How does it make you grow? How do you communicate? And how does it ask for your love, your trust and your courage? Does it make you strive or instead, lead you to stumble?

Communicating with our heart

These questions remind me of a client who came to me for help with her panic attacks. I was not the first professional she had been to in order to deal with her racing heart.
She told me that she knew exactly how and why it started, yet she didn’t know how to change it. The panic started a few years ago, when she needed to bring her best friend to the hospital after a bike accident.

Since then, she said, every time she set foot into a hospital or her doctor’s office, or even upon hearing the sirens of an ambulance, her heart would start beating like a sledge hammer in her chest. A cold rush would spread through her entire body. This would be followed by sweating, a dry mouth, impaired hearing. And she would start shivering and trembling.

When she managed to gain back control over her breathing, the spike would be over in around 10 minutes, leaving her exhausted and weak. When this was not possible, it could easily take her more than an hour, with the help of friends, to get back on her feet.

Let your heart be heard

“Do you know what your heart wants to tell you?” I remember myself asking her in our first meeting. She looked at me with surprise. The question, seemed not to make sense to her. She was struggling with panic attacks and had already tried many things in order to get them under control. How could my question be at all relevant to her problem?

Not taking my question very seriously, she was quick to respond: “That’s not rocket science. It seems to want to tell me that I, or someone dear to me is in immediate danger. It’s just that nobody is really in any danger of getting hurt right now.”
“Does your heart know that too? Is it clear that you or your loved ones are well?” I asked. She looked at me bewildered. How am I suppose to let my heart know that? How do I communicate with my heart?”

Being heard by your heart

And with this question in mind, we stared the hands-on part of our session. We learned together to listen to what her heart had to say. We discovered how she was then able to answer back and tune into feeling as one. What gets your heart beating?

I placed my hands on her chest, in the area of her heart. And supported her in creating the space to feel how her heart felt. With my instructions, I asked her to breathe to her chest so the entire area could expand. I directed her to become aware of how her heart felt, how it loved and how it perceived when it received love. She became very quiet and her body relaxed under my hands. She was obviously surprised by her ability to communicate with her own heart. Given the right space and circumstances, she recovered her language of love, connecting to her core; her heart.

Communicating with your heart is powerful

My client glowed when she arrived to her next session. She had managed to use this form of communication with her heart, right at the beginning of one of her panic attacks. And she had managed to breathed to her chest, remembering that the people she loved were safe. She was safe. The allowed her heart to feel and get the answers it was asking for. Her heart stopped racing and slowed down. The panic subsided.

But that was not the only time she managed to reach out to listen actively to her heart after the session. My client communicated with her heart on many occasions. She noticed when her heart wanted to leap out of her chest to embrace somebody. She felt her heart race when she went to work, and she even noticed when it was unhappy. And all this allowed her to act according to what her heart needed. This made her happy, even though it sometimes demanded courage and could result in discomfort.

Do you want to know what makes your hear beat?

So, our hearts beat when they receive the electrical impulses produced by the SA node. However, these are largely ignited by our feelings, sensations and our love.
When are you most tuned into your heart? When do you allow your heart to lead you so wonderfully towards yourself and others? Are you curious to dive deeper into this form of communication?

An easy exercise to practice is: to take a moment of your time, breathe to your chest, place your hands over your heart and just remember the person, thing, or activity… that you love most. Give space to the sensation. Notice how you feel in your chest and in your heart by doing so. Now you have the first step, to letting your heart be heard.

Your heart is you. It is your core. It beats in your own individual rhythm and rate. And it loves in your unique way. It is wonderful when you are able to listen, talk and communicate with your core; to become one with your heart.

By Claudia