The Heart - and why putting barbwire around it is not a good idea....

 

Metaphorically speaking, the heart is commonly used to symbolise the centre of emotion, love, affection, and romantic love. The Egyptians believed that the heart was the source of the soul, memory, emotions and personality. Aristotle said that the heart was the source of intelligence, motion, and sensation. During the Renaissance, however, that view changed and the heart became a mere organ that pumps blood.

Before the heart became a mere pump, a great number of influential and much revered and loved literature had been written, and this may help explain why the notion of the heart as a metaphor for emotions and the soul has persisted. Perhaps another contributing aspect may be that we "feel" things in the heart as in: when we get excited it beats faster.

Knowing that physically speaking the heart is a pump, does not seem to prevent us from using it metaphorically. Some examples: "the heart of the matter is..., he was heartbroken, you need to stay in touch with your heart, she was tugging at his heart strings, she was singing the song without any heart in it, put some heart into it, his heart was crushed, they acted without heart, that was a heartless action, etc.etc.".

"Wherever you go, go with all your heart". (Confucius)

I would like to hazard a suggestion that most of us have experienced what we would call a "heartbreak" of some sort. A break-up, loss, rejection, betrayal, indifference, disappointment, and so on, but no matter why, .....it hurts. In order to protect ourselves from being hurt again, many of us "padlock" our hearts, put barbwire around it, build walls, conjure up any number of different methods to keep our hearts safe from being hurt again. There can be a problem with doing so however, because preventing our hearts from being accessed from the "outside", can "harden" our hearts towards ourselves as well as others. "Well, that's it, I'm never going to open my heart to anyone again, ....in the end it just leads to pain" is an understandable response after a break-up, disappointment, and/or a rejection, problem is...... when we decide to "close" our hearts, it affects most aspects of our lives.

(As a temporary healing method, this may be helpful, but as a long term solution to get over heartbreak, in my view,....not so much.) Wrapping barbwire (metaphorically speaking) around our hearts may prevent others from trying to get close to us (and prevent us from being hurt), but the spikes cuts both ways. In our attempt to protect ourselves from pain, we inflict pain on ourselves by not allowing our hearts to expand, to reach out, and to love freely.

Life is risky business; it includes experiences of disappointment, suffering, pain, rejection, broken hearts and broken promises, etc., but it also includes experiences of; joy, fulfilment, friendship, happiness, affection, love, plus a whole lot more.

Having an "open" heart (no walls, barbwire etc.), in my view does not mean "loving" everyone and everything all the time, rather, it is an attitude of setting aside fears and/or hasty judgements, and inspite of perceived risks invest some of the treasures of the heart: compassion, understanding, tolerance, empathy, forgiveness, acceptance, and love; in others, as well as ourselves.

 

“I have worn my heart on my sleeve because it is too painful to carry it inside my chest.
When I carry it on my sleeve, it has the freedom to exist, to beat in rhythm with the Universe.
I feel like I'm more alive and yes, there are those who out of curiosity will say or do things that can cause its delicate existence to feel pain and sorrow.
I would rather deal with that, than to put it back in its little cage where it knows nothing else but the rhythm of my body and my Ego.
My heart was never meant to be part of my Ego.
My heart was meant to experience the Soul.”   (C.C. Campbell)