Change of thinking brings about change of heart

Is it really possible that your heart will quit beating if it no longer has a reason to beat? I don’t know . But  according to Dr. Oz, it’s true. He once said on a promo for NY MEDS. “If you don’t have a reason for your heart to keep beating, it won’t.”

It’s an arresting statement when one considers the significant attention focused today on heart disease.  However, many of us may not have a problem with the physical heart, but this comment leads me to believe that heart problems have a lot to do with our emotions and how we are thinking and feeling.

I began to think of different adjectives and clichés attached to the heart: hard-hearted, soft-hearted, cold or warm-hearted; heavy or light-hearted, broken-hearted or heart breaking; half-hearted, whole hearted; heart of stone; and more. 

Then I looked up the word “heart” in the thesaurus and found emotions attached to various heart problems:  heartache is connected with sorrow; heartbreak is connected with pity or disappointment; heartburn is connected with jealousy and resentment; and heart pain with fatigue.  When we are afraid or anxious, our heart beats faster and when we are calm and relaxed it beats at a normal rate.

These are all symptoms connected with emotions.  Mary Baker Eddy, a 19th Century spiritual thinker, health expert and author of the best-selling book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, defines “heart” as “mortal feelings, motives, affections, joys, and sorrows.”

I have been heavy-hearted when discouraged, or broken-hearted when a friend ended a relationship with no explanation and left me wondering, “What happened?” or “What did I do wrong?” Some become so devastated over a broken relationship that they would rather die than go on living.

How can we overcome these kinds of problems of the heart/heart problems – that studies show can lead to actual heart disease?

In a January 10 article in Time Healthland, author Alice Park comments on “How Grief Can Break Your Heart.”  She leads her article off by stating, “Grief is a powerful emotion, and the latest research shows just how damaging it can be, especially for the heart.”

She found a study in the journal Circulation, comparing the loss of a loved one and the probability of a heart attack.  The study noted that the day after the grief struck, the rise in probability was 21 %; the next week dropped to 6 fold; and after one month, the heart began to mend itself and the risk declined.

In my experience of overcoming what might be called heartbreaking experiences, I have found comfort by turning to God as the following healing of a young mother exemplifies.

A young mother began suffering with heart problems when her boy was a baby. After the symptoms went on for several years, she began working with the above definition of “heart,” and began to take notice of how her emotions were affecting her health.  She felt she had a tendency toward oversensitivity, anger and emotionalism.  She replaced fear-filled, anxious, tense thoughts with God-enlightened, peaceable and loving ones.  She saw the need to spiritualize and purify her motives – let go of selfishness and began expressing forgiveness on many fronts.  She made a concerted effort to be more affectionate and thoughtful toward others. The Bible verse from Proverbs became a motto: “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.”  She began to let go of painful memories and eventually all symptoms of a heart problem left.  She was able to be a normal, active mother with a “merry heart.”

My friends experience shows the impact our thinking – grief, anger, emotionalism, etc. – can have on our heart health.

Lead author of the study, Elizabeth Mostofsky and her colleagues, are planning to continue the study “to better understand how both the medical and social communities can improve the way we support the bereaved to lower their risk of suffering from a truly broken heart.”

Kate, a resident of Westminster, is interested in blogging about health, spirituality, science, the importance of prayer and religion.  She is a Christian Science practitioner and the media, legislative and public contact for Christian Science in the state of Maryland.