Pay Attention

Hearts keep a beat - most of the time.
Until they don't.

"Hearts" skip beats when we are in love, happy, dancing down the street, or when something is amiss.  "Hearts" sing when we are in love.  We say our hearts are breaking when we are in deep emotional pain.  But we don't mean our physical hearts, do we?

Physical hearts are pretty much ignored until they slam you in the chest.  Then we pay attention - sometimes.  As women we just might call it something else ... or ... think we need to finish our shopping  ... finish taking care of business ....  Yeah ... that's called ignoring the heart, the one thing that means we stay on this side of the grass. You could almost call it a boss. 

So what happens when we ignore the boss?  The boss lets us know about it.  For the heart, that means sending out a pain signal.  And it sends pain in the oddest places, not always in area the heart resides.  Sometimes the pain is a mule kick dead center of the chest; sometimes it is a wormy felling somewhere in the chest cavity (the $25 word would be peristaltic); or a small squeeze, just to let us know the heart still matters. That pain may manifest on the left side, the right side, an arm, a shoulder or even in the back.  Hell, it might add a bit of spice and bring in allies, like the stomach or lungs.  All or any of it is a reminder the heart is being ignored. 

Love yourself is a common refrain.  It is a good one.  Love yourself enough to pay attention to pain not normally there. Don't ignore it.  And don't let the anyone else tell you, "it's nothing, here's an antacid."

Love yourself enough to care for that heart - "feed" it properly, exercise it, treat it with the respect it deserves. And sometimes, you just gotta be tough with it.  Sometimes you get to go on  a safari for a doctor that will listen and believe.

The heart needs love too.  Or ....  There is that alternative of being on the underside of the grass........ before you really need to be.