The Essence of a Heart
By: Adele Alfano
I use to be an aerobics instructor and a trainer for five years. I taught my own successful program called ‘Renew’ at our local YWCA. During my years of teaching and training, the emphasis was always on the heart. It was stressed to always get the participants heart rate up to their own individual maximum level. Over the music, I use to yell out… “come on girl’s, let’s work it”, “check your target heart rate” or “don’t forget to breathe”!
Looking back and beyond the physical, many of us tend to forget that the heart is the core center of our thoughts, feelings and emotions. The fundamental and inherit nature of our heart is to embrace and receive our most purest and powerful emotion: love! It also receives nutrition from positive emotions such as fondness, affection, admiration, joy, tenderness, passion and devotion. These emotions keep our heart rate and pulse rate in pumping order!
It is medically understood that our heritage, genetics, how we eat, sleep, rest and work, play an important part in our heart’s health. But, how we ‘exercise’ our emotions plays an even crucial role. For example… I use to work with a woman who for years was known as the sourpuss. She was always angry, bitter, jealous, resentful and judgemental of others. Guess what… today she is now suffering from heart problems! Her heart, her very essence, has soured, hardened and has become dis-eased.
I truly believe that negative, self-destructive emotions (as those above) are an enemy of the heart. They will eventually ravage, assault and strike back at the very source that keeps us alive. Wouldn’t you rather be known as having an open and warm heart rather than a cold, black heart? I know I would! Your heart’s essence can be the heaven, the paradise, of your positive emotions or the hell, the abyss, of your negativity.
Give your heart the ultimate gift that it deserves: the valuable present of healing your negative emotions, exercising your choice to think differently, accepting who you are, relaxing and trusting in a higher power and be thankful of all you have!
H -heal your heart
E -exercise your emotions
A -accepting your uniqueness
R -relax and trust
T -thankfulness
