In Relationship with Your Golden Heart

The pearl of "show off your golden heart" has come back to me time and again recently, particularly during the Ride song called "Shine."  The Arabic word habibi is the centerpiece of the song's refrain, and it means "dearest one" or "my darling" or, yes, "sweet heart." It's a term of endearment.  But it also speaks to the central energy of the heart, that most essential part of our body's machinery. Our hearts love to be loved, and to connect with other hearts.

As I wrote before for our NiaSeattle blog, the heart as a muscle. But it’s actually more neuron than muscle tissue -- around 65% of it consists of neurons, in fact. This is part of the reason that the heart is a guiding, driving force, the centerpiece of passion. We “know in our hearts” when something is right for us, or wrong, and a happy heart can transform the world around us.

This is not merely a psychosomatic coincidence.

As stated in an article posted on NiaNow.com, “[the] heart field is 60 times greater in amplitude than brain waves. It can be detected and measured several feet away, in a circle above and around us, and blends between two individuals in close proximity. The heart connects everything around us, and can trigger our deepest yearnings, which is why it is often said that we should follow our hearts’ desires.”

The energy generated by our heart's electromagnetic field is truly extraordinary. Did you know that if you place living heart cells from two different people near one another in a Petri dish, that after a while they will synchronize their pulses?  "Some scientists speculate that this method of communication may be able to cross great distances and may explain how social animals bond, or how pets seem to sense when their masters are coming home," says author Pete Nelson, "or even how people fall in love, one heart calling to another.”

This also explains why our sense of community can feel so potent and nourishing to our heart connection, which is central to the mind-body-emotion-spirit aspect of our Nia practice.

“The world today is chaotic -- you know this," wrote Aikido sensei Linda Holiday.  "But the age of the heart will come. ”

So this week, let's focus on the heart with the intent of cherishing its role in connecting with others, and to our sense of self-love and well-being. Open your heart, whether with shimmies or chest isolations, or simply by showing it to the world through your smile, habibi. -- Melanie