February 4th was Go Red Day again (read more on www.goredforwomen.org). Even with all the campaigns and publicity in the media, many of us are just too busy multitasking to pay attention to our heart. According to statistics, about half of the female population in this country is still unaware that cardiovascular disease is the No. 1 killer of women. Many women who experience their first heart attack also die from it. In other words, this killer can creep up on you without a warning (or with a warning you don’t normally recognize). It is likely you will be caught off guard.

What has turned the heart into the #1 killer?

As an organ, the heart is built to supply blood for the rest of the entire body to ensure its proper functioning: from digesting food to making babies, from supplying oxygen for all our physical, mental and emotional activities to cleansing and renewing all the cells in the body, from the moment when we are born to the time we die. In other words, the heart exists to provide support for the rest of the entire human body-mind. It works hard day and night, even when you go to sleep. When the heart stops working, your life on earth is over.

So what has happened that turns our central support system into the No. 1 killer of women (and men)? Why would the heart that exists to support our every move turns its back to us and attacks us from inside? Why do we have to fight against our own heart?

I appreciate all the efforts in the media to raise awareness of heart disease and to help people make lifestyle changes. However, from the language we use to talk about it, we are almost waging a war against our own heart. There is the “attack,” the “danger,” the “risks;” there are also symptoms you have to “detect,” things you have to “watch out” for, and changes you have to make for “prevention…”

Do these words suggest fear or a desire to understand the core of our mind-body? If we don’t understand it, it is forever going to be a frightening thing sitting in the dark, which happens to be located right in the center of our being.

What does it take to understand your own heart?

If you have a good friend or loved one who has been your support throughout your life, no matter what you think or do or where you go, would you make an effort to understand her? “Of course, I would,” you’d probably say. Are you sure? When you’ve got a zillion things to juggle every day and hardly have enough time to rest or even sleep, would you still take a moment to understand and appreciate the friend for her support? And by the way, by not getting enough sleep you are already increasing your own risk for a heart attack.

What would you do if you want to understand a friend or loved one? Would you take the time to listen to her? Would you have the patience to see what she is really talking about even if she does not make sense at a particular moment? And this particular friend, sitting in the center of your chest, is also your vital organ without which you have no life to live.

So instead of being frightened by this monster who could jump out of nowhere to attack us and end our life for no apparent reason, does it make sense to lend an ear to our own heart and make an effort to see what it is saying to us?

When I teach this simple listening technique to my clients, there is usually an instantaneous change: their face would relax and appear more gentle, shoulders drop a little, and the neck area loosen up. Even their voice would sound less edgy. They would connect with me better. It is like they have left a noisy room and come down to a quieter place. Whoooo, that feels so good. All the conflicts are left behind; somehow they suddenly know what the most important thing is to focus on.

In a modern society, we spend most of our days in our increasingly noisy head, trying to think our way through all the problems in life and at work. But many of life’s biggest problems that we carry on from day to day cannot be solved in the head, no matter how hard or how fast we think.

The power of the heart we are yet to understand and experience

Many scientific studies, including those done in neurocardiology during the past 30 years or so, have demonstrated that the heart is much more powerful than the brain. The electro-magnetic field produced by the heart is about 5000 greater in strength than the one produced by the brain.

In the Chinese tradition, the heart is never considered as just a place for emotions or feelings or relationship issues. It is regarded as the seat of consciousness; thinking is attributed, NOT to the brain but to the heart. I remember my grandparents telling me to “use my heart” when I encountered problems with my homework.

Listening to your heart is caring for it

What I am proposing to you is very simple: spend some time everyday in your heart, listening to what it is telling you. Even if you find it hard to understand in the beginning, your heart is NEVER crazy and NEVER trying to kill you. It has a highly intelligent logic that is your responsibility to understand.

This simple practice of focusing on the heart would help prevent cardiovascular disease by giving you the earliest signals of anything going wrong there. The heart knows and tells, but most people don’t listen until it is too late. A cardiovascular disease or a heart attack, like anything else in the body, does not pop up overnight. It only appears sudden because we didn’t pick up the signals it kept sending.

More than healing the physical heart, this practice can also help you find solutions to many problems incomprehensible to the head. Less problems you carry in your head means less stress, more peace, and more happiness.