Last Updated on July 30, 2021
Recently, the world is shocked and saddened by the death of actress Brittany Murphy over the apparent cardiac arrest. Months before it was Michael Jackson, the King of Pop. Both of these stars had died from cardiac arrest.
I am not a qualified cardiologist or a doctor. But the purpose of this article is to open your mind to the possibility that the physical heart problems- irregular beats, blocked arteries could be more than just a physical issue. So that if you or your loved ones suffer from heart problems, you will and must seek medical and professional help to cure the condition, AND explore areas like your inner peace, stress levels, and the fact if you are really living the life that you want. With that, treatment will then be effective.
Still some heart ailments are related to genetics and in fact is inherited from one or both parents. When a child is born with such condition, we cannot talk about ‘reason of living’ as the cause. But like all people, if the reason to live is strong enough and if appreciation of life is really there, there is a much bigger chance of making it.
There’s the physical heart- and the invisible aspect on emotional and spiritual. Often, these equally important aspects are ignored. And these factors have a huge effect on the well-being of the physical heart.
When we hold on to hostility and anger, not being true to ourselves, or unable to let go worry and grief, the one that’s being harmed is ourselves. In the end, these suppressed symptoms can eventually manifest into a physical condition. The heart is tired and so it stopped beating- pure and simple. Of course, long before that, an unhappy person would have set things in motion by taking drugs, drinking, eating high fat diets, chain smoking to drown or forget their sorrows.
Our real heart would always know our core values and things that truly mattered to us in life. But it all gets lost with the ‘noise’ outside- movies, infomercials, MTVs, people around us, books- everywhere we turn, look, hear or visit- we are being fed with ideas of what success means to society. What success means to a whole lot of others may not mean the same to each one of us. We would always need to separate out the noise- from the voices in our hearts. Failing to do so, the confusion and unhappiness would have us seeking external things in a desperate attempt fill that constant emptiness or numb that inner voice through destructive addictions that we are unable to quit, low energy levels, substance abuse (liquor, drugs, cigarettes, food), destructive relationships and habits.
If you find that it does not make sense, have you experienced the following?
- You feel your heart soar and sing with happiness when accomplishing something
- Your chest area feels congested and restricted when you are ‘overwhelmed’.
- Sometimes, when someone let you down badly, you can actually feel your heart literally drop or skip a beat
- When expressing sadness, sometimes the tears felt that they came from a broken heart and not just from the tear ducts.
- You can literally feel that your heart has no strength when there is no motivation gearing you forward.
An indication if we are truly happy is that do we feel the urge to bounce up in the morning or do we try to sleep in as much as we can. Is there a lot of energy in our movement and waking life or do we need to artificially make our system awake through heavy doses of coffee.
Or do we have recurring nightmares of running away from something or being chased after by something (human, ghost, animal, monster, whatever)? These nightmares could indicate that there is something in our daily life that we are not really facing up to. When we learn to confront our fears and overcome them, it brings us to the next level and you will be surprised, these nightmares would disappear.
Letting go, forgiveness of our own faults and those of others and having positive thoughts can really help to improve the quality of our lives and give us strength on the inside. No doubt, unfavorable things may happen- hearts being broken, ill health, financial problems, bad people doing bad things to us… but we can overcome these adversities if we have learnt to build a strong foundation in us. We create and live our own realities- as many self-improvement authors say. This is something I sincerely believe in too.
If you feel desperately unhappy and at the same time indulging in a destructive habit, I sincerely hope that you would try to seek an avenue out of it… not escapism, but a way to overcome or lighten the burden that you are carrying in your heart. Facing life and tackling fears, overcoming negative emotions are always ongoing- sometimes, if we are unable to overcome it alone, we can consider seeking professional help.
If we are able to, we can consider taking a break to travel or settling to a less demanding pace of life if things just get too stressful. This can help us regain perspective in life and eventually, we can bounce back with more vigor and with better focus and understanding, we can slowly but surely carve out the life that we want.
I wish you all the best, and please take care.
