Year-Long Program 3-27-05

Let's think some more about the heart, and how wounds to it manefest in other arenas. I've known heart chakra wounds to trigger suicide, and a loss of willingness to live. A dear friend was raped, and within a year contracted terminal cancer--It ate her alive within months. Fear, guilt, shame and anger cripple the sex drive, as well as resentments: I know several women who completely withold their sexuality from their husbands, and several men no longer sexually active due to a lifetime of stuffed emotions. And anyone who has read this blog knows I think that people stuff negative emotions into their bodies. Rape, child abuse, fear, disappointment--all can manefest as obesity. I've had women tell me they were afraid that if they were sexually attractive, they'd cheat on their husbands. Men who say that they feel non-existent unless they are huge. Others who hide behind a wall of flesh. And of course heart wounds kill relationships:marriages, friendships, and the most critical relationship, the one with yourself. Heart wounds cripple the chakras above, as well: the ability to communicate is based on belief in self,a nd a sense that it is safe to be honestly expressive. My mother, who grew up in the lynch-happy South during the 30's, warned me that "if you show white people how smart you are, they'll kill you." Can you imagine what this does to a young man's head?
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Probably the majority of fine writing is about wounds to the heart, and the ways we cope with them, try to heal them, how they poison our lives. Or about the glory of love. As much pain as love causes us all, the only thing that makes it worth while is the fact that, when it's workin', there is just nothing better. So next time (or, real soon now) we're going to address the question of relationships--how to find one, how to nurture one, how to keep one.

Steve