Emotional Issues May Impact Heart Health + How To Help, According To An Integrative Cardiologist

As an integrative cardiologist, my main job is to see people with heart disease and to counsel them on treatment and prevention. What many people don't realize, however, is that there's an intimate connection between emotional health and heart disease. In my practice, I've also learned that patients of cardiovascular illness often have deep-seated psychosocial issues that have never been addressed.

Despite these data however, while almost every cardiologist understands the importance of lifestyle changes (exercising, quitting smoking, and following a heart-healthy diet), very few of us address an essential component for heart health, which entails healing the emotional heart.

In Ayurvedic teachings, the physical heart lies in the vicinity of the heart chakra (also called the anahata, which means "unstuck sound"), an important area worked on in yoga and most spiritual traditions. Chakras are energy centers that are said to resemble wheels; there are innumerable chakras throughout the body, seven of which are best known.

Each of these chakras is thought to correspond loosely to a nerve network that supplies vital organs. The heart chakra, corresponding to the cardiac network, is considered to be the seat of emotions. The accumulation of guilt, shame, resentment, hatred, anger, hostility, anxiety and similar qualities results in "closing off" of the anahata, a constriction of energy flow and resulting in heartache—both emotionally as well as in the form of heart disease.

An extreme example of this intimate heart-anahata connection is often referred to as "broken heart syndrome," caused by sudden, extreme stress in the form of shock, grief, or sadness that results in a sick heart. These patients present with symptoms and signs of a typical heart attack, but have no "physical" cause (say, blocked coronary arteries) to explain them.

Although most of us would agree that hanging on to non-serving emotional patterns is undesirable, most of us never learn how to effectively let go of them—this must occur at the heart level and not the mind. It's not enough to reason away these patterns, since they reside at deeper energetic levels.

As with all other lifestyle changes, in my experience with integrative medicine, this process takes willingness, commitment, consistent effort, and practice, and broadly involves the following:

In order to notice our behavioral and emotional patterns, it is essential to "step out" of the mind. Inner silence provides this much-needed space and distance, and is cultivated via a regular meditation practice.

Inquiry into the nature of our psyche throws much-needed light upon our deeply embedded issues. We can begin the process of inquiry by asking, Where in my body is this feeling? In the response, we can begin to notice that there are three parts:

Once this ability to detect is developed through practice, we can then ignore the stories and labels and focus entirely on the felt-sense.

This all-important step is developed simultaneously with inquiry. Without cultivating effective ways to let go, inquiry can remain incomplete, resulting in further confusion and pain. With further cultivation of inner silence, we can ease into the next phase of inquiry by asking, Where in time is this event that causes this?

In the response, we will be transported back to the time of the original event. The next step is crucial, and involves asking, Where is it now?

In the response, it becomes clear that the past does not exist any “where.”

We then ask, How does it exist now? In this response, we see that it exists merely as a thought/memory.

When this is clearly seen through, the issue, along with the physical feeling, the story and the label dissolves. Once we're no longer caught up in the mind as the thought, the thought loses its power over us.

As non-serving emotional patterns drop away, the anahata finally begins to “open.” Rushing to replace the dissolving negativity are qualities of love, peace, harmony and equanimity. The past is forgiven and we become joyfully rooted in the present, with no anxiety about the future. Healing of the heart finally begins in earnest—from the inside out.