5. The Heart Chakra, The Thymus & The Heart

5. The Heart Chakra, The Thymus & The Heart

katie-mcfarlandIn the fifth article of the Chakras and the Body-Mind-Soul Connection, we will be exploring what the thymus and the heart teach us about the heart chakra and how we can apply that knowledge to develop new insights about the supernatural world and its function in our lives.

The Thymus Gland

The thymus gland is with us from birth and its job is to help us develop our immune system. It protects us against auto-immune disorders. It is instrumental in the development of T-cells, the white blood cells that protect us against viruses and infections, by releasing the thymosin hormone in the body signaling the body to begin producing those cells whenever it detects an attack. After puberty, the thymus gland begins to disappear and by the time you reach old age, it is completely replaced by fatty tissues. While the gland is no longer functional, the protection it offers continues throughout life.

The Heart: Communication Center of the Body

Everyone knows that the heart is in charge of pumping blood through the body. It takes the blood that’s been drained of its oxygen and refills it up and then sends it shooting back out again. But what most people don’t think about is the fact that the hormones that are secreted due to environmental changes are sent into the blood stream and the heart collects those hormones first. Each hormone acts as a report for the brain.

The heart reads those reports and then compiles a summary report and sends it to the brain in the form of its own set of hormones. That summary advises the brain on what it thinks ought to be done about those things.

It then takes in the hormones that come from the brain which provide instructions for the rest of the organs on how to respond and distributes those directions to the rest of the body.

The Heart Has a Mind of Its Own

When scientists first began to study heart tissues, they thought it was just a muscle. It was assumed to be just a pump moving blood around the body. However, further study by neurocardiologists paints a whole new picture.

“…60 to 65% of the cells of the heart are actually neural cells… They are identical to the neural cells in the brain, operating through the same connecting links called ganglia, with the same axonal and dendritic connections that take place in the brain, as well as through the very same kinds of neurotransmitters found in the brain.” – Joseph Chilton Pearce, neurocardiology researcher, in an interview with Chris Mercogliano and Kim Debus.

The heart is essentially a brain whose work is to translate the feedback received from the rest of the body into messages that the brain can understand and act upon. It’s a bridge connecting the emotions and desires that form in the body to the thoughts and decisions that are being made in the head.

Molecular biologists have also discovered that the heart is one of the most important endocrine glands in the body, producing atriol neuriatic factor.  ANF is a powerful vasodialator, opening up the arteries and veins to allow increased blood flow.

Two Nervous System

I did a little research and I found out that not only do we have a brain in our hearts, our lungs, kidneys, liver, stomach, and intestines are all packed with neural tissue. We probably have more brains from the neck down than from the neck up. This is our second nervous system. This second nervous system communicates through blood and through (energy) fields…your brain puts out an electromagnetic field that can be detected about two inches away from the body. Your heart, every time it pounds, puts out an electromagnetic field that goes out 30 feet. Our heart is a very, very powerful part of our nervous system. – Greg Montana, founder of HeartVirtue.com.

The heart and the other glands form a unified nervous system that operates independently of the brain’s nervous system. When someone talks about your chakras being “out of alignment,” this is the meaning of it. The heart’s nervous system isn’t working toward the same goals as the brain’s nervous system and the friction between the two is causing problems in your life.

The Heart Chakra’s Dual Functionality

The heart chakra functions to put you in touch with your divine purpose. It makes you aware of what you are meant to by pointing out the things you desire and the things you don’t. The heart chakra functions as a compass, continually pointing you toward the purpose you were meant to live. The heart chakra also acts as a filter, protecting you from self-doubts and the doubts of others, so that you can confidently claim your purpose despite all the misconceptions around you.

The Heart Chakra and the Thymus: Defending You From Both Internal and External Negativity

From conception until puberty, just as happens with the Thymus, there is a divine protection over your heart chakra that helps to protect you from your own negative emotions and thoughts and from the negative thoughts and emotions of the people around you. That divine protection is there to help you build up your immunity to all of the negative things in life so that you will continue pursuing your purpose in spite of it all. However, that protection is removed around the age of puberty.

It is around puberty that many of us begin to doubt ourselves and to encounter people who cause us to believe that our purpose is not something that is meant for us to do. Our life’s struggle is to learn to listen to our heart and to get back in touch with that purpose.

A Blocked Heart Chakra Cuts off the Flow

When your heart chakra is blocked, so is the flow of information from the divine to the heart. That flow tells your heart chakra how to live out your purpose and what steps you should be taking. If you aren’t living in the flow, you’ll find everything much harder to do. Everything is a struggle because you’re not getting enough of the divine life breath in you to keep doing it.

When you aren’t living that purpose, nothing else in your life feels right. You may find material success, but you will not find the satisfaction in it that you desire. You may find romantic success, but the relationships won’t be fulfilling. In fact, nothing that you do will feel as good as you thought they would. The depression you feel is meant to point you toward finding your purpose so that you can begin to live it.

A Heart Chakra That Is Too Open Drains the Flow

Flow is good, but too much flow and you get drained out. There’s no direction to the flow. It spills out of you and never reaches its intended destination. The flow is an intensely creative place, but if it’s all flow, there’s no delivery because the projects don’t get completed.

Discovering Your Purpose

It can take years for a person to unlock their purpose on their own. As a child, you knew it instinctively. It was something you wanted to be with all of your heart. However, as you got older you were told you could never be that. You were told that you wouldn’t be able to survive if you committed yourself to that path, so you abandoned it and tried going elsewhere. The disappointment you felt hurt your heart and so your mind blocked the memory to try and protect you from danger.

Restoring Balance to the Heart Chakra

The challenge of the heart chakra is the need to align the heart and the brain together so that you are benefitting from the creative energy of the flow but are able to execute and complete the ideas so that everyone benefits. This is how balance is restored.

Next: The Throat Chakra and the Thyroid

The throat chakra and the thyroid connect the brain to the heart. In our next article, we’ll explore just what the thyroid has to tell us about the throat chakra and our relationship to the supernatural.

4. The Solar Plexus Chakra and the Pancreas

4. The Solar Plexus Chakra and the Pancreas

In the last three sessions of Chakras and the Body-Mind-Soul Connection, we’ve discussed how the body and soul work together to communicate divine truths to you, helping you see areas where you are allowing fear to get in between you and the flow of its energy and how that manifests itself in your life through your emotions and desires.

Last session, we talked about the Sacral Chakra and its role in helping you to discern what you need to absorb and where you need to let go. In this article, we’ll focus on the solar plexus chakra and the pancreas and the role those two play in helping you to understand and interpret the divine messages coming your way.

The Pancreas

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It is the job of the pancreas to take the food we’ve chewed and break it into smaller particles that make it easier to digest and absorb. It also is in charge of when that flow of energy, created during the digestive process, gets released and how quickly it is released by releasing insulin to keep the stream of energy nice and steady or glucagen when the blood sugar levels get too low.

The Solar Plexus Chakra

This is the chakra that is known as the center of your being. It is where your self-discipline, self-control, and will power originate. It is where the interior vision of who you are and what your worth is to the world begins.

What the Pancreas Tells Us about the Solar Plexus Chakra

If we look at the pancreas, we can see that it is involved in taking the energy that is found outside of our bodies and breaking it down into smaller bits of energy that we can convert to fuel our own thoughts, desires, and dreams.

We are constantly receiving a stream of this energy in the form of life experiences and information gathered, far more than we could ever use in a single lifetime, and it is the job of the Solar Plexus Chakra to pick apart that energy for us and help us break it down so we can make sense of it. It is also the job of the Solar Plexus to regulate how much of that energy is released into us and when so that we’re not overwhelmed with it but can get exactly the right amount to sustain us and keep us going.

When the Solar Plexus Chakra Is Blocked

When the Solar Plexus Chakra is blocked, we are unable to process any of the information and energy we’re receiving. We become confused and disoriented. We’re lost. We don’t know which way to turn for help or what to do. Because the Solar Plexus is blocked, the energy needed for the Sacral Chakra to fulfill its process of discernment isn’t being received and we get stuck. We don’t know which energy to use and which to discard. Because we’re confused, we have trouble trusting what we’re receiving. Every chakra down the line is impacted if this Chakra is blocked.

When the Solar Plexus Chakra Is Too Open

If the Solar Plexus Chakra is stuck in open mode, we are being bombarded with energy and information faster than we can process it. We’re so busy trying to keep up with what’s coming in that nothing gets sorted and nothing gets filtered. It breaks down our ability to defend ourselves from what’s harmful, so we just store everything for later and we become bloated with energy.

The Challenge of the Solar Plexus Chakra

Giving ourselves time away from the steady stream of information, energy, and knowledge is the key to balancing the solar plexus chakra. We need to create space in our lives for time to reflect and get back in touch with nature. We need to engage in simple tasks that require no thought so that we have time to sort through all the things we’ve received and break them down into useful tidbits we can process before getting on to the next thing.

Next: The Heart Chakra and the Thymus

In our next article in the series, we’ll examine the role of the heart chakra and the thymus in teaching us how to regulate the flow of life energy into and out of us.

TAKE THE SOUL PURPOSE QUIZ to find out your vibe. Click Here >

3. The Sacral Chakra and the Adrenal Glands

3. The Sacral Chakra and the Adrenal Glands

In this series on Chakras and the Body-Mind-Soul Connection, I have previously discussed how the chakras are the soul component of the person and the glands are the body component, and promised that we would use our minds to help us bridge the gap in understanding between the two. In this article, we will look at the natural function of the adrenal glands to help us learn about the supernatural function of the sacral chakra.

The Adrenal Glands

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The adrenal glands are located at the tops of the kidneys. They are in charge of regulating digestion, self-defense, and blood pressure. The adrenal glands produce the hormones cortisol, aldosterone, adrenaline, as well as the hormones that regulate our blood sugar and keep our body processing then nutrients we receive.

Cortisol is released in response to fear. Aldosterone regulates blood pressure, the flow of blood to and from the heart. Under stress, the blood vessels constrict in order to protect the body in case of blood loss. Adrenaline is released in order to prepare the body to run or fight. Lungs are affected by this hormone.

If the gonads are releasing panic signals, these hormones swing into action. It heightens our senses to make us aware of potential dangers and get us out of harm’s way. Long term stress leads to high blood pressure, weight gain that does not respond to dieting or exercise, frequent panic and anxiety attacks, fatigue, and difficulty sleeping.

The Sacral Chakra

The sacral chakra is located right beneath the belly button. It is in charge of digesting the information we are receiving from the world, taking the good out of it and discarding what is harmful to us. It is in charge of protecting our sense of self-worth and keeping our sense of identity from harm. It is in charge of regulating the flow of energy to and from our heart and our head. Connecting with our sacral chakra is about learning to discern between what is truly harmful to us and what is not.

When the Sacral Chakra is Blocked

When we are not able to receive the divine energy that tells us how to distinguish between what is good for us and what is not, we will be ruled and controlled by our fears. We will end up feeling unable to get enough of anything because what we truly need isn’t able to be processed or digested properly. We’ll stuff our lives full of things we don’t need in an effort to fill the hunger that never seems to go away.

When the Sacral Chakra Is Too Open

If we’re too discerning, we risk becoming too regulated and too controlled. We count every calorie in every bite of food we eat and never enjoy the richness of life. We count every dime and penny and we never enjoy the money we have earned. We block out anyone who even hints at making us unhappy and miss out on the lessons that those people have to offer us. We don’t listen to anything that doesn’t fit with what we think is right and as a result can miss out on growth opportunities. We become so focused on purging what is harmful from our lives that we fail to absorb what is good.

Balance Is the Key

The head tells us to block out everything that would hurt us. The heart tells us to trust everything. The key is to balance those two demands. We need to keep the flow of what is good coming into us and the flow of what is not good going out of us in a steady rhythm.

Next: The Solar Plexus Chakra and the Pancreas

In this coming article, we will examine the solar plexus chakra and what the pancreas tells us that can help us understand the needs of the soul better so that we can continue to improve our lives, our health, and our happiness.

TAKE THE SOUL PURPOSE QUIZ to find out your vibe. Click Here >

2. The Root Chakra – Regulating and Directing the Flow of Energy

2. The Root Chakra – Regulating and Directing the Flow of Energy

In a previous post, Chakras and the Body-Mind-Soul Connection, I related the soul to being a lot like the electricity that allows the computer to function. Without that electricity, the operating system and the parts of the computer are useless.

I also related the fact that the chakras are the soul component of the glands that are correlated to them. So for this article, we will examine what we know about the glands, what we know about the chakras, and what connection we can make between the two by examining the underlying meaning of them.

What the Glands Do

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The glands in the body can be thought of as switches in the computer. They are responsible for regulating and directing the flow of energy coming from the nervous system out into the body. The energy that powers the body is known as hormones. The glands in the body act as message delivery centers that tell the organs in the body what to do and when, and the hormones are the messengers that carry those messages to the organs.

What the Chakras Do

Like the glands, the chakras act as switches that direct the flow of energy coming from the divine into the soul. The energy that powers the soul is known as chi. The chakras act as message delivery centers that tell the operating system in the brain what to do and when, and the chi are the messengers that carry those messages to the operating system.

The Base Glands: The Gonads

The testes and ovaries secrete hormones that regulate growth and development. The gonads provide the bulk of sex hormones such as estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. While they are called sex hormones because they result in the development of secondary sexual characteristics such as breasts and chest hair, they are primarily responsible for preparing the body for reproduction and the ability to feel sexual desire.

When the Gonads are not working properly, everything stops working. The mind can’t seem to stay focused. The entire body feels drained of energy. It can feel like nothing is reaching you. Desire is suppressed or even absent. Your ability to control your emotions is decreased and you may seem more irritable than usual.

The Root Chakra

The root chakra is related to feelings of trust and security, trust in others, trust in ourselves, and security in our relationships with others and with the world. When the root chakra is blocked, we are worried, anxious, and ruled by fear. We may close in on ourselves rather than opening up and reaching out.

Reproduction, Creativity, and Trust

When we are our best selves, we are open to giving and to receiving love, and reproduction is the result. We are open to giving and receiving ideas, and creativity is the result. Trust is what allows us to be open to give and receive love. Trust is what allows us to be open to giving and receiving ideas. Trust is what allows our energy to flow naturally, effortlessly, and without having to “do” anything except be ourselves.

The Source of Self-Confidence and Security

Trust is the source of self-confidence and security. When we trust, it is because we feel safe. We feel secure. We know that nothing is meant for our harm, and all is meant for our good. This leads us to confidence in ourselves, in others, and in our world.

The Trust Hormone

Oxytocin, the hormone that regulates trust, is secreted by the gonads. It is released into the blood stream during physical touch, sexual intercourse, nursing, and childbirth. Oxytocin boosts the brain’s tendency to prioritize the needs of others ahead of our own.

Too Much Trust Is Not Healthy

Trust makes us vulnerable to those who are not working in our best interests. Sexually, too much trust leads to promiscuity which can leave us broken hearted, feeling used, and even being abused. Creatively, too much trust can result in us giving everything away without opening ourselves up to receiving in return, and that can lead us to feeling used, abused, and misunderstood. This is why balance is the key.

The Other Chakras

The role of the other chakras is to protect the Root Chakra’s natural tendency to be open, vulnerable, trusting, and giving by guiding and directing its energies in an appropriate manner.

Next: The Sacral Chakra and the Adrenal Glands

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1. Chakras and the Body-Mind-Soul Connection

1. Chakras and the Body-Mind-Soul Connection

You’ve probably heard the word chakras before this point. It’s a concept closely associated with New Age practices, and is a Sanskrit word meaning “wheel”. It refers to the seven primary energy centers of the body. Until recently, Western science largely dismissed the relevance of the chakras and relegated it to superstition. However, as we learn more about the glands that are located in the body, it becomes easy to spot the correlation between where the chakras are located and where those glands are located.

Chakras and the Hormone Factories of the Body

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Chakras correlate to the 7 hormone centers of the body that regulate everything from sleep and reproduction to brain function and mental awareness. The idea that ancient people might have been able to observe and recognize that something special was happening at these particular places of the body shouldn’t surprise anybody. Our ancestors weren’t stupid even if they didn’t have all the pieces of the information puzzle put together.

The Reason for the Conflicting Information

Out there on the internet, you will find a ton of conflicting information about the chakras and their connection to the glands located in the body. This is to be expected. To be perfectly honest, most of us are still trying to connect the dots. We’re still trying to figure out how what our ancestors observed to be true about Chakras corresponds to what Western Science tells us is true about the way hormones regulate the body. The picture is still coming into focus, so the answers aren’t clear yet. But I think this is largely because we’re looking at things from the wrong perspective.

The Competing Theories

The prevailing theory in Western science is that there is no soul. The body and the mind are all that there is and all that we need to focus our attention on taking care of for optimal health. The emotions are considered to be a byproduct of the body’s attempt to survive. They are useful only in terms of helping the human body to survive.

The prevailing theory in Eastern thought is that there is no body. The body and mind are there simply to help us learn about the soul and once the body and mind have fulfilled their intended purpose, we will discard them and move on to another plane. Desires are considered a byproduct of the body’s existence. They are to be ignored or fought.

A New Approach Is Needed

Western science likes to treat the body as if it were just a collection of parts with no soul to it. Rather than treating the body as an integrated union of parts working together, which is what it was designed to do, it treats each part as if it were separate and distinct from the rest. What Western science does not understand and cannot see it likes to discard and treat as irrelevant.

Eastern thought compartmentalizes things in a different way. It treats the body as if it were a means to an end, useful in gaining insight into the workings of the soul but otherwise to be discarded once what is needed has been gained. The body’s desires are treated with disdain and the ultimate goal of the Eastern practice is to rid oneself of the connection to the body altogether. To become so “enlightened” that the body’s information is no longer needed.

However, human beings are more than just a body. They are more than just a mind. And they are far more than just a soul. They are designed to be an integrated whole.

Understanding Body, Mind, and Soul

When you want to build a computer, you have all of these parts that you must assemble. The parts are not the computer. Without an operating system and power the computer is useless. Once you build that computer, you must install an operating system in order to be able to interact with it. The operating system is not the computer. Without the rest of the parts of the computer, the operating system is useless. Finally, you must direct energy into the computer’s parts in order for those parts and the operating system to function. This is the soul. The soul is the energy that makes everything else work. The soul by itself can do nothing. It has no way to focus that energy.

The Body-Mind-Soul Connection

The soul is not a separate entity from the body. The body is not isolated from the soul. The mind is not a separate entity from the body. When we live in body-mind-soul integration, this is when we find true fulfillment and peace in our lives. Everything about the body tells us something about the soul that is connected to it. The mind is there to act as a bridge between the physical body and the soul. It allows you to interact with, ask questions of, and get answers from the soul by observing the emotions, desires, and responses of the body.

Everything About the Body Has a Soul Component To It

Science talks about the glands, Eastern thought talks about the chakras. The two things are not the same. If you look at the function of the glands, it does not directly correspond to what is being said about the function of the chakra it correlates to. This is the cause of the confusion between the two. It doesn’t exactly match. However, the reason for this is simple: the Chakras refer to the soul component, the science is referring to the body component, and what is needed is the mind’s help to make the translation between the two.

The Soul Speaks In Symbols

The subconscious mind is the part of our mind that has a direct connection to the divine. The subconscious is our soul speaking to us. It is the creative, intuitive side of us and its native language is symbols and emotions. In our dreams, the subconscious mind communicates to us and helps us to make sense of the situations that we’ve encountered. Most of us aren’t trained to understand that language, so we ignore our dreams or dismiss them as crazy because they don’t make sense to us.

For example, when we dream of a house, most of us just look at the house as a house. It’s a physical object. We don’t look at what a house really means. A house is a place where we live, a space where our things are stored, a place that is supposed to be of safety and security. If we look at a house in that light, it’s easy to see that when we dream about a house, it’s a dream about our comfort zone, our personal space, our personal identity.

Dreaming about a house that is isolated often means you are feeling all alone. Dreaming about a house that’s been abandoned – you guessed it – often means you’re feeling abandoned. If the house is falling apart, it can mean we feel our lives are falling apart.

The Physical Body Is a Symbol

Your physical body is one giant symbol. Everything about it is a reflection of what is taking place in the spiritual world. You must learn to look beyond the surface to find the meaning of the symbol.  So, if you want to understand the correct correlation between the chakras and the soul, you have to look beyond the surface of what the gland is and does to what that really means.

Next: Chakras: Regulating and Directing the Flow of Energy

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