WYSIWYG

What You See Is What You Get. This is a journal blog, an explore-blog, a bit of this and that blog. Sharing where the mood takes me. Perhaps it will take you too.

MenoSundays; Life Lived Lovingly

The human heart is a sturdy organ. It thumps and pumps the life-sustaining fluid of blood through our bodies. In doing this it also ensures the circulation of secondary fluids and the filtration of necessary gasses. It is a piece of biological equipment that many living critters have - though not all. Jellyfish don't have, micro-organisms don't have. Then there are those which have 'spares'.

What the heart does not do, is love.

Was that a collective gasp I heard? A pause, as the grey cells shunted? Dear ones, it's a simple matter of logic. Physical matter has no conceptual ability. Love is a concept. The higher up the intellectual ladder a critter is, the more it can conceive of a connection which is not merely biological.

The only critter which can formulate and elaborate on Love as a concept is the Human Being. It is an intellectual exercise.

"Oh! But what is it that makes my heart thump at the sight of the beloved? Why does it shrivel at the loss?"

All critters which understand connection beyond the mating imperative, have 'feelings'. Emotions are highly complex reactions to a range of external stimuli. Whilst there are chemical cascades which can tumble through us, it is the cognition which does the triggering. Recognition of a situation and the need to respond to it. This can be so spontaneous at times that we simply do not understand that thought took place before the onrush of physical characteristics which can be aroused, be that laughter, or tears, or all which is in between.

Due to this confusion over feeling and cognition, we can tend to think that love is purely a biological thing. Particularly that which is desireful. We can lose ourselves in it, claiming we can do nothing about it - but that is a choice we make, a cognitive decision!

Love of the capital 'ell' variety is very much a process of intellectual analysis, the 'feeling' part of it is a process of the flowing mind, the expression of it is the function of the ego. To have emotions fitting to an occasion, but to not be overwhelmed or driven by them, requires practice and a level of maturity.

The less caught up we are in our own emotion, the more able we are to embrace others who are affected by the occasion, to support or celebrate as required. We can then share and care more thoroughly, more deeply, more meaningfully. Thus, part of growing in the art of Love is to understand our own responses, analyse our own emotional requirements and develop the skills to quell the throbbing heart.


7 comments:

  1. YaYa you always make the old gray mares, gray matter think and she LOVES it.
    I'm enjoying the beating hearts in technicolor too
    Happy Nurturing day to you for you are truly one who nurtures.
    Hugs HiC

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  2. Not an easy thing to do, head ruling heart. In Ancient Egypt the heart was thought to be the seat of emotion and reason, wonder if that's how we still associate emotions with that organ...

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  3. i have always known the love comes from the brain and emotions, not an organ. i agree with what you said here and wonder if the reason love is connected to the heart because when love hurts it makes us feel like the heart doesn't beat correctly and when we love it makes the heart race faster... the love in our emotions steers the beating of the heart. or perhaps the simple answer is HALLMARK did the heart thing....

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    1. Hari OM
      Yes Sandra. If you see Nilanjana's response re the Egyptian thinking; that was because they attributed everything to the physical in terms of our responses. You are so correct that it is the physiological response which traps us into thinking that it is the heart itself which is being affected by things. The effects on the organ itself are purely 'flight or fright' parasympathetic reactions to the thoughts which trigger the relevant chemical cascades. Due to most folk not necessarily wanting to come out of their emotional sensations, in fact, desiring to 'feel' all the time, companies such as Hallmark and Mills&Boon make a fortune! Yxx

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  4. Hummm. Now there you go again making me think. Yes, head not heart. Gaining control of one's emotions is a a life long task when raised in a home where the mother was all emotions. Growing up in a drama house left me having too much unnecessary emotional upheaval. Was like being set free when a close friend helped me recognize the useless emotions. Thanks for the words of wisdom. namaste, janice xx

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    1. Hari OM
      I was fortunate not to have that situation in my own immediate family, but elsewhere it was evident and I had friends with parents like this. I have also had 'friends' like this! It is important to understand that emotions as such are not useless - they serve a purpose in the biological survival mechanism; but the human critter, with it's 'vast intellect' has actually adapted to the point where there are some who learn they can manipulate and control others by being excessively emotional... and, of course, it is this mechanism which advertising and the modern artificial intelligence algorithms tap into to 'herd' society! None of us is completely immune or can completely escape this. Yxx

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