Where Is Your Heart

Transcript

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Hello, and welcome to this episode of Decide on Joy, a podcast coming to you from Harmony Spiritual Center in Fort Worth, Texas. My name is Jim Alt, and my name is Reverend Dr. PJ Stanley. Welcome. Thank you for being here, and this podcast is about. Things in new thought, spirituality, and related topics. And today's episode, well, my original title for it was, where Is Your Heart? Because my assumption there was that when we speak about heart, we're not necessarily talking about the muzzle that's bumping blood, but some other. Aspect. Yeah. Something that's living in us somewhere like when we say, you know, our hearts go out to someone. That part, yes or yes. I will hold you in my heart. Yes, I will. And, and my heart hurts for you. Yeah. Where is that? What, what's going on there? Yeah. Yes, yes, yes. And I still have that question. However, in doing a bit of research, I discovered that indeed it might be the muscle that's bumping blood, that is the source of those things. Exactly. Yeah. Whole other issue. Yeah. They're just gonna explore it and just see, and then you come to your own conclusion. We don't have a conclusion for you necessarily. Yeah. We're just gonna tell you all the things we have to think, say about it and you know what? You come up with your own thing, whatever you wanna do. Of course you'll do that anyway. You don't need my permission. Yes. I mean, in, in spiritual terms. Some people would say, we're talking about the heart chakra. Pat Moore, who's been our guest on this program more than once, would definitely say that we're not going there because neither of us are chakra experts. We just simply are not, I'm not gonna go there. I don't, I'm not gonna take you down the wrong path on that idea. So, no, it may be entirely accurate or it may be a, an equally true thing. Right. And maybe we'll have her back on to explain her part, her side of it at some point, but Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But it is the heart, the, the muscle thing. The yes, yes. Actually produces an electromagnetic field and yeah. That presumably is interacting with, in concert with Yeah. Who knows the world. Yes. And, and, and your brain. I don't. New thought tends to emphasize, thought over. Emotion o over emotion. Yeah, I, I think part of the thing that we, certainly, a harmony spiritual center, and I, I can't speak for, we can't speak for new thought as a whole, but for what we try to do is a practical spirituality, which is what new thought says. It's a practical spirituality, which means we're trying to give you some, some step, some action things that you can do that consistently show up to show you how to get some things done to how to, how to take to be intentional. About your life, how you want to live, how you want things to show up. So yeah, that is what we try to do, is to talk to you about how, how things work. You know, how you draw things into your life. And so to draw things into your life is kind of an energy situation. And so yeah, so it, it would make sense to me that the heart to be a part of that, that's a large, I think part of the energy source for me as I'm thinking about and being emotional. You know about things. I'm not saying emotionally like a woman, emotionally, woman, just emotions that happen, happiness, sadness fear, all those things. It seems to, and I don't wanna say it starts in my heart, but it certainly is felt in my heart the different things that I, that I'm experiencing is felt in this heart region. So I'm gonna say, if it's in the heart region, it probably is some energetic piece of the heart. I'm, I'm gonna comfortably say that that's how, that's what I think about it. Yeah. Yeah. And related to what you were just saying, one of the things that I came across in doing a, a very tentative bit of research was the, the possibility of, of improving on and developing heart brain coherence. Okay. That you can let. Like maybe the, the way your heart functions when you're in a stressed state. Yeah. You can train it out of that. Yes. That makes sense. And hence. It will tell your brain different things. Yes. So maybe you won't get locked into the, say, obsessive thinking about possible disastrous outcomes or whatever. Whatever. Right, exactly. Whatever the brain wants to take you to. Yeah. Yes, exactly. That is in fact, according to this theory, being in part driven by what the heart is feeling. Yep. Yes, yes. And I think you can talk yourself. You can just say, no. Mm, no calm. And, and I actually say that, no, calm down. So I'm actually physically making my heart or, or attempting to make my heart beat slower. So somehow there's some speed and some, some sort of intensity about how it beats the heart. It doesn't beat when you feel yourself think about when you're fearful. Fearful, yes. Or when worried, you know? And so your heart has a particular beat, which I think your, your mind can say Slow down. Breathe. Breathing is a big thing in our Yeah. In our spirituality, breathing. Yeah. To allow that space to happen. Yes, this article mentioned, this is an article in the Psychology Today. I, okay. I I, I'm not, this is not sponsored and I'm not No. We have no sponsors and so if you'd like to spon No, well you could. I mean we sort of have Harmony Spiritual Center is true. A sponsor, but true. This article was actually titled The Heart's Electromagnetic Field is Your Superpower. Wow. Wow. And so there, there you have it. So there you have it. So it would behoove us to have some understanding of what the heart can do. Yes. And it essentially, I mean, you think about the title of the podcast, decide on Joy. Yeah. Well decide. Sounds like a mental process. Yes. But change that to, to choose. Or, or Right. I love it. You know, whatever that, if you can manage that in the emotional realm Yeah. Then it can. Get up there and drive the brain to think about different things as well. I think so too. And certainly, as you know, as a as a spiritual counselor and people generally come to you when there's a, when there's an issue, when there's a problem people don't very, I mean, they do, they do come when they're happy and excited about something. But generally, I have a lot of counseling sessions on when there's a, there's an issue, there's a. Issue within a relationship, there's an issue in your concern or fear over a, a job or money or anything like that. And so, so the beginning process for me to even to talk with someone is to get them to calm down to, and, and the calming down factor is letting go of the thought that they're on. Because there's a thought that's taking'em down a path that says disaster is imminent. And so, so we need to, to get them out of that particular state so they can feel and hear something else. So the thing we wanna do is to breathe and calm. Mm-hmm. And let that go. Let that thought go. Mm, so that something else can occur. And that, I think that also when, when they do that, the, the whole beating of the heart thing starts to slow down and it just, there's a, so there is a connection. I don't know. I'm not a, you know, a doctor and I don't know if the, how the connection works, but I, I firmly believe and know from my experiences that there is a connection between the heart and the brain. And, and I'm not even, I'm saying the heart and the brain.'cause there's like the heart and thought. So, and which is of course in the brain so that you can say, okay, I'm gonna let that go. I'm gonna breathe through that and I'm gonna bring in some other, what do I want to have happen? And when you think about what you, what you're fearful of having happen and what you actually want to have happen, it kind of changes the the, the energetic. I don't know, the energy that's within you and allows something, something good to happen, something good to occur to your mind, so that then you, you, you end up thinking, oh, okay, maybe, maybe I can let that go and maybe something good can happen and it will, because now you're starting to focus on that. So we, what we know and what we certainly believe we know is that what you focus on grows. So this is what we talk about, right? This is what we talk about. And, and there are, I, I, I don't have one right to hand to recite for you, but there are specific breathing exercises. I mean, this article mentioned one Oh, okay. That Andrew Weill or vile, I don't know how German he is, but that's a particular breathing timing. You know, so many seconds in and hold it for so many seconds. It makes sense. And, and then, you know, that thing which is specifically aimed at calming, calming down the, the heart rhythms. Absolutely. And, and you know, and this is probably the opposite extreme from, from New Thought, but I will mention it. The Abraham Hicks. Complex says that your feelings are the only things that matter. Huh. Okay. Literally says that because it does drive the other and, yeah. Yeah. I, it just, I know that's, no, no. It just, that's like the exact opposite. Well, just from my, from, just from a logicals perspective. Just from the way that my mind works, I, I don't necessarily like only and always. Mm-hmm. I don't, I don't, I don't care for those two things because, because the way that we feel from new thought is that there's choices. I. Right. And if you say only, and you know, then it's, it, it locks you into, well, that's the only way it can happen. Well then, then it locks you down from thinking that there's a possible different way, and I don't mean the particular thing you're talking about, I'm just saying in general. Mm-hmm. Using that word. Mm-hmm. Or words like that stops anything new from coming in. And I think that we have the power to, to change our mind. About something that we get to allow some new idea to float in if we, if we open ourselves to. Okay. There may be, and I love that word here, could be maybe what if. Mm-hmm. Those are all words that allow possibility. So yeah, I just wanted to go down that path a little bit, but back to your your comment about. Being calm and breathing. That is one of the big reasons why we talk about meditation. People get excited, you know, concerned. I don't know how to meditate. I can't get still. Well, that's not actually the issue. It's not about trying to get still'cause who can. You got a body that moves, you got blood flowing through, you're not gonna get still even when you sleep, you're moving around. It's all this electromagnetic stuff going on. So it's not about just sitting there and, you know, getting into some sort of death state. It's really about. Calming yourself. That's really what meditation is about. And so one of the things that we talk about a lot, and I certainly do as a leadership is to to, to guide people into the idea that, you know, just take five minutes, two minutes, whatever it is, and think about meditating is just a breath. Just we hear that all the time. Take a breath. Take a breath. Mm-hmm. That's really where meditation starts. That's where changing your mind starts. That's where calm the heart starts at. Taking a breath. I think there's something, it's not magical. There's something powerful. About your breath and that connection is clearly to your heart because if you stop breathing, heart's gonna start beating. So there's still some kind of connection between breathing and your heart. Yeah. Oh right. Certainly. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And this article I was reading, it says, if it has become the norm for the heart to feel chronic stress or anger, it is accustomed to communicating this to the brain. Mm. Okay. And the brain triggers the body's response in the form of stress hormones and constricted blood vessels and high blood pressure and inflammation and all sorts of stuff. Yeah. And it says happiness is a choice, as is sustainable joy. So yeah. Yeah. If you can train your brain, they're saying you can also train your heart. It makes sense. It, it makes sense. And I I think it's a, I I, I think part of the, the thing we don't under, we don't necessarily understand or believe or wanna believe. I'm not really sure what the, what the bottom line thing is. But I know that we, we have, we do have choice. And if we can say. To ourselves. I want whatever it's you want, I want peace and calm. That's what I want. I want joy. I want to see, I desire to see love. Good, whatever those things are. Either way we can show, we can choose what we decide to see. Because if you look at something and I look at something, we're looking at the same thing, and yet we can see totally different things. And that is based on. What our minds and our hearts tell us about that thing. Mm-hmm. Whether it's about relationships, think about what people think about, about relationships. If you and I talk about relationships, let's say with our parents, with a significant other, we would, we could come to it at a very different place because of what we've observed, seen, and, and been and experienced in a relationship. But does that mean that what we believe about a relationship is wrong or right? If they're, they're right for us. And if that's right, then I could. I, I could take on what you believe if that was working for me. If I, if I thought, oh, that's a good way to look at it, and I can actually change my mind about it or add to what I think about it. So I think we can do the same thing when it comes to the, the breathing, what our heart does, because there's so much energy around the heart and what the heart, what we've trained our heart to do, we can untrain it to do. Right. And we can say, you don't need to get excited about here. Here's a perfect example. Fear of flying. I, I've had a huge fear of flying, which is crazy. And I just said, you know what? Yeah. But in terms of how many planes have gone down and how many car wrecks, you know, it just doesn't make any sense. I'm not afraid to get in a car, right? But somehow, I don't know, crashing into something on the ground and crashing something outta the sky is a big deal. But, but I, but I've just said, I've taken, I've just said. I don't want that. And so I have made myself get on flights, long flights so that I now don't have that. I, I mean if, even if I have it, it's very small. It's so right. It's not it's not one that would terrify me and I wouldn't buy a ticket to go someplace.'cause I wanna see the world. So it was stopping me from living in the life I said I wanted to live so I can change my mind, change my heart, and it was rapidly beating whenever I was buying a ticket. Yeah. You know? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And another, as well, one of the, the common phrases that I mentioned there at the beginning was when we say our hearts go out to you. Yes. Or that what. Yeah. What does that mean? What does that mean? Yes. And how does your heart go out to someone? How does that, what does that, what is going on? So, I, I don't know. You know, from a, from a perspective of what the what the research would say, I can tell you what it means when I say it and what I say. When I say my heart goes out to you, it means a couple of things. It could mean a combination of all those things, or one or two of those things. It means I've basically been where you've been. I've, I've suffered that loss or I've suffered that. Whatever it is you're suffering. So I feel that. So my heart, my heart feels what you have. My heart has felt what you're feeling now my, my heart goes out to you in that I have not experienced that, but I am alongside of you with the suffering. Because I have suffered different things. And so my heart goes out to you in terms of wanting to raise that level of, of, and release that suffering for you or help you be with you during the suffering because somehow suffering shared feels less. Mm-hmm. And so, you know, so that's what it means to me when I say my heart goes out to you. I've either, I, I, I've been there I haven't been there, but I can understand what that might be like and wanna share that with you. So take some of the burden of it off of you. And that my heart actually feels it like there's an actual physical. Feeling in my heart, almost like a, there's several different feelings depending on what it is. I have felt, my heart feel cold and actually like a, like a feeling of coldness in it. Mm. There has been a feeling of a sharp pain in it. There has been feeling of a throbbing. So there's several different feelings and I don't know that they're relate if there's specifically related to an an energy thing that's happening or something you're telling me about. I don't know. Why it chooses? Or, or, or, or gives off a particular feeling, but it, but it does. Right. And I don't, this is, may not directly relate to that phrase we were talking about, but this article mentioned the, the heart's electromagnetic feel. Yes, I agree with that. Extends beyond the body. Yes. I think there might be debate about how far Right? Right. But certainly they talk about the fact that, and, and I think most people have had this experience. Someone can you, you can just being in the same space with mm-hmm. Certain people Mm, mm-hmm. Can elevate your Yes. Emotional state. I agree with that. I absolutely agree with that. And, and they're saying that's the mechanism that's at work. If you can, if you can get your heart in the right. Place Yeah. That you, that energy may be shareable with Yeah. People. Yeah. I think it is. I think it is. I, I think we, we've, I'm, I'm, I've used this before and I think most people can relate to it. You, you can be in a room. And someone walks in and pretty much the sun stops shining. Or you can be in a room and someone walks in and the sun gets brighter because of the energy they bring into the room because of the energy of who, of them, of their heart, of who they are. And so that whole negative energy or the whole positive energy, it affects the energy of the room Yes. Of the people that are in it. We've seen it. Yeah. We've been a part of it. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And, and it was a background in theater and Okay. And I know. That when you're in a, a show, there's some days that it, the audience is really, really live, and then there are others that the minute you walk on stage, you're like, oh, oh. Dead House. Dead House, dead house. Yeah. Dead house. They're not here with us. And that's, that's like a, a group energy thing. Yes. But it absolutely yes, is true. Yes. Never been mistaken about that. Yes. And I don't think it's just because, oh, we think it's a dead house, so we're not gonna, so we're not gonna perform performance. No, no. Nope. Nope. Your performance is the same. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I completely agree with that. Yeah. Yeah. And so, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so clearly, I mean, whether that was, I mean, I will say there was, when I was at Stage West in Fort Worth there was one couple major supporters and everything and lovely people, but anytime they were in the house, it was a dead house. I can't account for that. I know, but it was so reliable that you knew it was happening and it was gonna happen if they stepped in, right? Yes. Right. Even if you didn't know they were there. Yes. And you'll find out later and say, oh, oh yeah. Well that makes, that explains it. That explains it. Yeah. We all know these people. You know, we, we all know these people. We have them in our lives. We know'em. Yeah. Yeah. We know'em. And, and likewise, you know, it's no reason to focus on the negative there. No, no, exactly. It could certainly happened on the positive side Correct. As well. Right. I'm, I'm sure there were people that if they were in the house, it was going to be a fun night. Yeah. It's gonna be a great night. Yeah, it was gonna be a great night.'cause they, and I don't know if, and I don't know, honestly, you know,'cause I love this and I don't know if, if it's the, if it's their expectation. Like there are people there, there, there, and you speak of the, the stage west. And one of my favorite teachers was my Dr. Drama teacher. And she was drama. I mean, she was dramatic about everything, about fun, about everything. And every time she showed up, you knew something great was getting ready to happen because she was just excited about teaching us. About showing us some stuff. And we, so as soon as you saw her or knew that she was coming, the energy was all in the room.'cause you knew that she was gonna bring that. Mm-hmm. That's what she brings. And so there are people in our lives, that's who they are. They'll, they'll bring that energy. And there are people in our lives who, that's who they're not. Right. Yeah. It's the way it is. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And and so certainly if, if you can manage to train your heart to project. Yes. Joyful. Yeah. Happy energy. Yeah. Then perhaps you can become one of those Exactly. People who can influence. Yeah. Yeah. The outcomes. And I, you know, just, I know you're gonna try to sum it up, but I just wanna come back to this one thing because this is important to me. When it comes to new thought and what Harmony Spiritual Center is, it is all a decision. Everything really. Is it, I don't like using everything and nothing, but most things is a decision you can decide on Joy. Mm-hmm. That's what this podcast is about, because we believe in the power of you to change your mind and make a new decision about most things in your life and have the life you wanna live. That's what we talk about. That's what we're about. Okay. Well that's a good summing up so we can end the episode there. Thanks for being with us and we will see you next time.