“It is only with the heart that one see’s clearly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.” –St. Antoine DeExubury
It is important to begin at the beginning when speaking of distinguishing the head “brain” from the heart because there are significance and meaning found in creation. The Creator has a sovereign reason and meaning for everything in creation. The first organ formed in the unborn child in the womb is the heart. The heartbeat, in the beginning, fires off neurons in the brain which then takes over to monitor the heartbeat. The heart is equipped with an electromagnetic field that extends beyond the body between five to eight feet. The inner sanctuary or inner heart is the seat of the spirit which connects with the spirit of the divine source. According to a Sufi’s saying, “If you don’t have a temple in your heart, you’ll never find your heart in a temple.” Gordon MacDonald sheds light on the heart as the strongest and most resilient of our muscles and is designed to be still between every beat. Every cycle is completed by a period of stillness and to be still is to learn how to “be.”
HeartPath interventions seek to mend the spiritual path that trauma exposure blocked with fear. Faith only comes from believing in the unseen and something greater than self/ego. When everything appears to be falling apart, it is difficult to have faith. Trauma exposure can attempt to control our thoughts based on the “survival brain.” Inside the amygdala, the area of the brain functions for memory, decision-making, emotional reactions, and the fight and flight is also located there. Trauma can impact the body and brain with a neurobiological causality of fight/flight/freeze responses. This biological response can cause a constant of the state of hyper-arousal, fear, and anxiety. Bringing the patient to an awareness of feelings and triggers can further validate the trauma-exposed patient’s behaviors and feelings. Trauma triggers can be navigated when the patient knows what to watch for and practices recentering in the inner heart.
Once you have conducted a thematic analysis of the “told story,” many times the patterns that rise out of the narrative. The themes reveal both the trauma triggers and the effects of lived experience description, a source for uncovering thematic aspects of the phenomenon itself. HeartPath guided imagery addresses the themes and patterns that have caused ongoing fear, anxiety, and depression.
Guided imagery is a prelude to HeartPath interventions, helping the patient learn to just “be” rather than to “do.” Once our heart is open, we are a “receptacle” ready to accept being connected to “the Divine Source” – a love energy connected directly to the inner heart. Now the path becomes clear and, being a vessel; we know that we are a spark of the Divine. Being an instrument or a “spark” of the Creator brings a sense of value. The value is connected to a sense of meaning and purpose, and all of life has meaning and purpose.
HeartPath considers the importance of healthcare providers with the ability to see the divine in everyone. The spiritual path of compassion opens up the “transformation from the suffering of illness into the grace of healing (Wilber, K., 2007).”
References
McFeature, B., & Herron-McFeature, C. (2017). Integrated health – HeartPath practitioner assessment and intervention for the trauma-exposed patient. Melbourne, FL: Motivational Press.
Wilber, K. (2007). The integral vision: A very short introduction to the revolutionary integral approach to life, god, the universe and everything. Boston, MA: Shambhala.
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