Guarding The Heart

 I have been teased quite a bit about trying to be genius, however it hasn't prevented me yet from "deep thinking". Ha ha! I still want to develop a complete understanding of the body and the mind. One of my new staunch beliefs is that most people underestimate how important stress is on the body, and definitely do not value rest enough. Both are downplayed, and folks are simply eating very strict diets and insist on testing their limits for the sake of health. I think that it will be a wash in the end if you push yourself to hard, and I, who've always been a big believer in exercising, am finding runners and bikers a little batty. Especially in the winter rain.

Well, I located my notes for this bit here, stuff about how to rewire our brains for health. I read all about brain health in regards to the amygdala years ago when suffering from anxiety.  I could read that Tickle Your Amygdala book, I thought the other night, after reading an entire special edition magazine which headlined "Eating for the mind". Tickle Your Amygdala teaches exercises in awareness that help aid in its recovery. Things like eating slowly and trying to really enjoy every bite. The article, on the other hand, was especially trying to teach how to help create pathways in the brain through eating healthy foods and taking vitamin supplements. It stated some scientists believe in or would really like to believe in creating new brain cells, called neurogenesis, and apparently its not clear if that is possible. But after reading about the amygdala it seemed the creation of some pathways may be problematic. An unhealthy amygdala, for instance, opens too many pathways, allows emotions to be connected to inappropriate situations, and increases bad behaviors. It appears it could be bad to gain pathways and it appears it is also good, and that has me wondering. I was reading about antidepressants and wondered what the serotonin reuptake inhibitors are called inhibitors for? The brain food magazine also mentioned dopamine fasts where you unplug from all your favorite activities; music, social media, news etc. This helps keep us from addictive use of our enjoyed activities. 

But the heart! Another amazing article I read about the heart said it had 100 times the electromagnetic force of the brain, mentioned the emerging field of nuerocardiology (and I tried typing that into the Google search bar but it was impossible to click on and edit without being forced into another spelling of a more recognizable field to search), it says the heart has a mind of its own, that it syncs with hearts and minds around itself and this repels or draws people together. This is amazing. I started to consider the heart a primeval alarm system. Its role changed drastically for me. The instinctive role it played in all animals became clear. 

The article was featured in a freebie magazine at the health food store, titled "The Heart-Mind connection". All of those fascinating things were meant to help guide you into realizing the importance of a healthy heart, not just by exercising, which seems all the more important,  but also because we take for granted the emotional aspects of living. And it really begins within the heart sometimes. 

I've had a rough start to 2022. Perhaps I may use this knowledge to gain some solid footing instead of viewing things the other way around.