| Our hearts want to find greater love. As a cardiologist, | | | | of unbearable chest pain that wouldn't go away. It |
| with a special interest in heart disease prevention, I | | | | made her very fearful and extremely anxious. |
| have witnessed this time and again. Much of what ails | | | | After a careful cardiac evaluation, I determined that |
| people- physical illness, relationship issues, and even the | | | | she didn't have actual physical heart disease. What |
| inner crying of the soul begins in the heart. | | | | became clear over the next few visits was that the |
| In the past twenty years medical science has been | | | | deep sadness she carried over her husband's recent |
| documented that when people begin to learn to live | | | | death was playing a major role in her chest pain. She |
| with an "Open Heart," it can have a profound affect on | | | | had the feeling that she would never know love again. |
| their health. What do we mean by having an "open | | | | Hopelessness and deep grief I felt was causing her |
| heart?" | | | | pain. |
| When our hearts are "open" we are willing to give and | | | | One treatment for this type of emotional "heart ache" |
| receive love. We give ourselves permission to get | | | | can be prayer or what can be called spiritual healing. |
| close to people, to become intimate. In addition we | | | | Jane needed to flood her heart with love and allow it |
| allow ourselves to feel, all of our emotions- pain, | | | | to wash away her fear and sadness. |
| sadness, joy- everything. In a sense "Learning Open | | | | One process for turning deeper to love is a meditative |
| Heartedness" lets us learn to be ourselves. It gets us in | | | | technique called, Practicing Remembrance. It is the |
| touch with what is rolling beneath the surface of the | | | | process of using sound and breath with a sacred |
| ocean of our heart. As we begin to touch and open | | | | name for God to open the heart to love. |
| and bring love to this deeper part of ourselves then | | | | Over the course of a few months as she began |
| the healing can begin. Not just emotional healing, but | | | | Practicing Remembrance, her symptoms began to |
| even true physical healing can occur when we begin | | | | improve. Amazingly, her chest pain completely |
| to live with an open heart. | | | | resolved. Much of her sadness lifted, and she had a |
| The respected cardiologist, Dean Ornish, M.D. has | | | | heightened sense of becoming alive. She was healed. |
| shown this quite clearly. In his book, "Love and Survival," | | | | Her story is not unique. Many, many people who use |
| Dr. Ornish has shown that a direct relationship exists | | | | spiritual healing techniques find that they get better. If |
| between a person's contact with friends, relatives, | | | | they aren't completely well physically, they gain inner |
| marriage, and community membership and how long | | | | peace and contentment. |
| they live. | | | | "Learning Open Heartedness" is more than an idea. It is |
| Amazingly, such interactions of the heart were more | | | | in many ways a door- a door to the deeper parts of |
| powerful predictors of how long a person would live | | | | our heart that contains the peace and hope that we |
| than many of the things we normally think of as being | | | | need. |
| important. | | | | Is your heart crying? Do you have an illness or an |
| An example of this can be seen in one of my own | | | | ailment of the heart? Know that you can be helped. |
| patients. I saw a woman a few months back who | | | | You can be healed. The medicine is an open heart. |
| was in her early sixties. Jane came to me complaining | | | | |