Lessons from the Heart
In a time of so much noise, one of our biggest challenges is to find signal. In a sea of information - what is meaningful, what is true, what is clarifying? The question of what we choose to center is an important one. Luckily, we have to listen no further than our own heart to hear something vital.
Let us consider what the physiology of the heart might teach us about love and connection.
The heart is the vital center of our physical body, ever sending and receiving the life blood of our being. The potential action of all cells in the body depends on a phenomenon we would do well to acknowledge: depolarization. As charged particles exchange across the membrane of a cell, the electrical gradient shifts, triggering a cascade of events that allow cells to do their work. Without exchange, the membrane becomes a wall, polarity escalates, and the environment becomes hostile to healthy and coordinated life. The next part is just as important: the gradient inverts, the ions efflux, repolarizing the membrane to allow the cycle to occur again. The ebb and flow of ions, the collection and powerful release of blood from the heart, the trade of oxygen and carbon dioxide within the lungs, the breath in, the breath out - all a rhythm and a dance reflecting the universal principle of exchange.
The muscle cells within the human heart are special. Unlike smooth and skeletal muscle cells, their features allow them to synch together. The lub-dub of a healthy heart is a song of coordinated depolarization and the harmonized opening and closing of the valves that maintain the fluid boundaries within the chambers. Heart cells are also special in that they will beat on their own. However, the rate, rhythm, and strength of a heartbeat is a conversation (another exchange) between the nervous system and the heart itself. We can tune into and read this conversation when we measure heart-rate variability.
By design, the heart is a powerful, steady, and receptive organ. What better seat for the uniting and harmonizing force of Love to reside within the body? On a day when we will see hearts everywhere, let us remember what the physiology of the heart tells us about depolarization, receptivity, and vital exchange. Happy Valentine’s Day!
The Promise, The Practice
Since 2016, I have felt the exponential escalation of division. When everyone seems to be throwing fireballs or ducking for cover, finding stillness in the storm is challenging. For the past two years, I have felt deeply the sadness and anger of real and perceived injustices. As much as I would like to have a sense of control over this chaos, I simply do not. I feel angry about it. Often.
My good fortune is such that I have three teachers who help me to maintain perspective, who generously support me, and who allow me to show up as a more congruent version of myself. One is my daughter. Who am I in her eyes? How do I show her that strength does not mean hardness, that disagreement does not make an enemy, and what it looks like to trust instead of to fear? Another is my partner. Her patience and kindness are unparalleled, her commitment to love and integrity is adamant, and her ability to hold space for me (including my anger, my sadness, my grief) - especially when I do not express these emotions skillfully - has tempered the fire of my anger without diminishing its light. The third teacher is my chiropractic practice. The opportunity to educate and learn, see and be seen, offer and receive, empower and be empowered is a gift. What I recognize is that there can be diversity without division and unity without conformity.
Regardless of your politics, your decisions about how you choose to navigate covid, your opinions about mandates, the level of your concern about personal and public health, your relationship to law enforcement, your age, or your educational background - I am listening and I hear you. Whether you are a college professor, a food-truck owner, a stay-at-home mom, an industrial psychologist, a recovering addict, a dancer, a musician, an attorney, or a carpenter - I see you.
At a time when there is such focus on what we oppose, it is easy to lose sight of what we stand for. It has been and continues to be an honor and a privilege to collaborate with the many and various kinds of folks who walk through my office door. I hold a sacred trust within my heart that this work - helping people to remember their connection to themselves, to others, and to Source - is one of the most powerful ways to cultivate peace. So, here is my promise, and this is my practice:
I will listen and I will ask thoughtful questions.
I will offer a perspective on health and healing that clarifies, empowers, and connects.
I will maintain an open and a safe environment.
I will never withhold chiropractic care or counsel on the basis of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, political affiliation, or vaccination status.
I will support your right to informed consent and your right to choose what happens to your body.
I will invite you to consider that the free flow of wisdom, from above-down, and inside-out is the way that life is expressed.
The aim of my work is to help you liberate and integrate who you are as an embodied being. To be embodied is to have an experience mediated by your nervous system. Chiropractic promotes health by directly and positively influencing the ability of the nervous system to effectively coordinate all of the functions associated with life. Everything is connected. My liberation is tied to your liberation. It is often the case that what I share with you is as much a reminder for myself as it is for you. I don’t have it all figured, but I do want to step out of the fog and toward the light of a clear blue morning.
Control + Shift : Connect
I am not a tech person. I prefer to read words on paper instead of a screen. The word “code” prompts me to think of an occult message or a set of ethical principles instead of computational language. As evolutionary as cyberspace is and is becoming, I still prefer the dirty, salty, temperate, and acoustic experience of the physical world. All of that being said, shortcuts when applied adeptly can be a useful way to cut through terrain. There is little doubt that we have entered the Dark Wood and are still finding our way through. Through is, after all, the only way out.
One of the meta-themes emerging from the Age of Crisis we see, feel, and hear around us is a paradigm shift from models of compliance to models of collaboration. The compliance model of governance from authority is a blunt instrument. Blunt instruments are seldom an effective or appropriate tool for challenges that require precision, coordination, and nuance. Consensus cannot be commanded, cohesion cannot be achieved by separating citizens into classes, communication cannot be clarified with censorship. A collaborative model encourages transparency and discourse, recognizes more than one solution, and can effectively coordinate across domains. Control is at the center of the compliance model, whereas connection is at the center of collaboration.
Whether or not it was Einstein who remarked “We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them,” there is a distinct ring of truth to the sentiment. This idea is an invitation to use a different set of keys. The shortcut Control + Shift allows us to change the keyboard in use when more than one is available. If we change the keys, perhaps we change the language. When we change the language, we open to a new perspective. The shift from control to connect might be the beam of light that breaks through the trees to lead us through.