- Apr 8, 2019
- 4 min read

How Do You Describe The Heart? Love? Life's Meaning

How do you describe the heart? Love? Life's Meaning

An organ that beats and pumps blood that is needed throughout your physical body. But we have always associated heart with emotions and feelings and desires and Love. Why?

Any change in your physical or mental state seems to have a direct impact on the behavior of the heart. Somewhere along human history, the heart became a symbol.

Now, what about the brain?

Yes, that's where most of the scientific magic happens. I am not knowledgable enough to go deep into it. Let me bring you back to us, human beings. We are social animals. We are supposed to bond. And the hormones and chemicals created in our body helps us bond to mate and reproduce as well as to survive.

There is a bigger picture and the existential question. Why are we here? What is the purpose of life? We are not incomplete. We are driven to connect and collectively improve our social existence. everything else we see came after this. Including religion to search for the purpose of life.

In his book, Man's search for meaning Viktor Frankl discusses not just meaning to life, but a “super-meaning” that transcends human logic. Frankl proposes that it is not the meaninglessness of life we must accept, but the existence of an unconditional meaning to life that cannot be understood in rational terms.

He goes on saying that we can discover the meaning in our lives in three different ways: through work, deeds, or achievements; through experiencing something (nature, culture, art, beauty, goodness) or loving someone; and through—if necessary—bearing suffering with dignity and courage.

People are more than a result of their environment or conditions. We all can choose, under any circumstances, what we can be mentally and spiritually.

What kind of a human being you are, we are, is an inner conscious decision than something that is thrust upon you by the situation.

The real spiritual freedom does not lie in trying to avoid pain and suffering of this world, rather, bearing the suffering and holding the pain with dignity. This will make life much much meaningful and personal.

Unfortunately, the heart doesn't create love. It does express it by responding to the chemicals, and hormones that will be released into your body. Since we can feel the heart's response we associate it with love. The heart is not unstable, it is not incomplete or desperate to bond. All of those are hard-wired needs to survive as a species.

Now, that is the logical and rational part of myself writing about love and connection and bonding and our innate search for the meaning of life.

As a writer, I am writing this because my heart is broken from seeing a passage. When I read it, my heart beat faster, it sank a little, I felt a little uncomfortable ache. I call that as my heart is broken.

Our need to bond with another human being is hardwired, we are born with it and we will die with it. In between, we can define what kind of bond we want. Love is a conscious choice after the fireworks are over. we often don't think about it because we take people in our lives who make those everyday little choices that contribute to love for granted. If you are looking for completion or perfect union, I can say to you right now that you will fail. You will be disappointed, angry and bitter. You will blame anything and everything including your heart.

We are told that the only goal of life is to push ourselves to find spiritual meaning. I do not know it's true or not. But I do know that you can find meaning for life and spirituality in everything you do. And the way to all of it is through love.

I believe it all starts with love. Not lust. Not "you no longer fit into my little box and hence I do not love you". But the acceptance that we are all flawed, we all want to be loved, understood, valued and cherished. And the practice of it.

We say let your heart lead. But those are the writer's words. You should follow intuition combined with your rationality. Life is not a tragedy. Life is beautiful as it is and it waits for no one. You can walk through it with head held high and with dignity or you can find reasons to be miserable and complain and be stuck.

Selfishness never brings you peace or self-discovery. You will never know who you are, because who we are changes every moment. Who I was when I started writing this is not who I am right now. Knowing, acknowledging accepting is where your peace begins.

When I read the passage I felt sad. It is from someone I love very deeply knowing that love is not returned. But I do not expect it to be returned. I love my children without expecting them to return it. I do say a little prayer every now and then that "God, with loving kindness, please let them choose to pay it to forward the love they receive."

If I could, I would hold him tightly and tell him to let go of what his intellect knows and tries to comprehend about self-discovery and personal growth and spirituality. And then just be. Look up and see the sky, look down and see the earth, look around and see the nature, close your eyes and feel the wind, take a deep breath and inhale the scent of your surroundings. Then let your mind accept the unknown.

I was told yesterday "Go back to the place where you belong!"

I asked the person if he knows where do I belong? Because I do not. And I am ok with that. I am ok with the very little knowledge and living in this moment with that.

How do you describe the heart? Love? Life's Meaning? It is as unique as each of us.