Brain Mapping, Heart Math-ing and Starlight: My Journey from Head to Heart
While the White House embarks on the next $100 M great American Project to study “that matter between our ears,” corporations such as Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, and all four branches of the U.S. Military, are using HeartMath techniques to study the electromagnetism of the human heart and teach employees how to become more emotionally and mentally balanced and provide for individual and organizational transformation.
With my dear friends Sarah and Rachel who are all heart
This mathing and mapping of the active human brain and heart is going to give us incredible insights into not only our conscious mind, but also our subconscious mind. Our subconscious minds are very active. Our subconscious is always working things out, even when we’re doing conscious activities like talking or eating or riding a bike. Having new knowledge of the active subconscious mind, along with the conscious mind, can lead to amazing insights that have yet to be defined.
I love brain research and am mesmerized by the quest for the transformative knowledge of the human spirit. And it’s fun to watch some of the most powerful entities in the world try to tap into the age old mystery of human understanding by brain initiatives and heart research (as if the seat of consciousness might be found there :-).
My own journey into universal inquiry had nothing to do with neuroscience and began when I was in third grade. Knowing I was captivated by the brilliance of the sun, moon & stars, my parents gave me a telescope for Christmas. I would beg Mom & Dad to let me stay out late into the evening to gaze at the radiant star clusters and glowing planets. This went on for years.
I remember one day having a breakthrough in my thinking, I’m not in the Cosmos, the Cosmos is in me! I’m made of starlight, and human beings are a reflection the galaxies I’m seeing in the sky.
This was a pretty big idea for a kid from the hills of Eastern Kentucky. When I told my Mother about my epiphany, she whispered something to me I will never forget, “Jeanna, you need to learn to listen to your heart, and stop trying to think with your head. What you’ve just discovered is that God is love, and love is what the stars are made of. And we’re all made of the same stuff—spirit, energy, love.”
It took years for that message to really sink in. My eyes and mind were opening to the heavens.
Later in life, my interest in astronomy gradually shifted to an interest in astrology–Vedic Astrology in particular. If you’re familiar with Vedic astrology, you know it’s a Sidereal system whereas Western Astrology is Tropical. Basically this means that up in the sky there are stars which make up the various constellations of the Zodiac such as Virgo, Aquarius, etc. Vedic Astrology is based upon the actual stellar constellations (sidereal) whereas Western Astrology is based on a zodiac that slowly moves backwards in space as a function of time (tropical).
Star Trails
This past week, April 14, 2013, was the beginning of the Vedic New Year. The Sun moves into Aries. This marks the first full year of the “Golden Age” named “Vijaya” which means “Victory.” This is a time for new beginnings, and the renewal of the energy of the world. And even better, the sun is exhaulted in Aries. In Vedic astrology, when a planet is exhaulted, it indicates that the planet is very strong and the results produced by this planet are going to be very significant ones.
As organizations and humans ponder the matter between our ears and the electromagnetism and neurons and “the little brain in the heart,” my own spiritual journey deepens, and I feel my own heart shooting stars. As I enter this new Vedic year, I ponder how I can live more fully from my heart as my Mother recommended. (If you haven’t seen Jill Bolte Taylor’s TED talk on her “Stroke of Insight,” I highly recommend it).
I leave you with a few of my favorite questions and quotes as we enter this time of new beginnings and a breaking away from the status quo and mediocrity of our lives into a fuller expression of ourselves as the light of the world.
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” Mary Oliver
Soul Questions from Deepak Chopra
1. Who am I?
2. What do I really, really, want? What is my heart’s desire?
3. How can I serve myself, others and the world with my unique talents and gifts?
“I don’t believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.”
Joseph Campbell
Journey well,
Jeanna