Educate4Change
Link to Svava
  • Home
  • For Parents & Caregivers
  • Adult Survivors Support Groups
  • Testimonies
  • Services
    • TRE® Iceland
    • TRE®
    • Products
    • Journey to the Heart Summit
    • Summit
  • Blog

The Connection Between Your Hand and Your Heart

7/25/2016

8 Comments

 
Picture
Most of you are familiar with my personal journey from being a sexually abused child to an adult who lives wholeheartedly.  Today, when I look back, the pain and despair I used to feel is only a distant memory.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m not still learning and growing.  I am.  And any change still brings discomfort.  But I’m no longer terrified of total disaster.  

Would you like to know about the last big hurdle to my healing?  It was “love.”  Not only did I resist allowing people to love me, but I also resisted being kind and loving to myself.  Like many child abuse survivors, I felt I had no value or worth.

Through the use of several healing practices I eventually learned how to love myself.  My favorite is to place my hand over my heart.  It’s a way of gently reminding myself that I’m loved, and I’m here for myself.  It allows my heart to feel warmth from the hand of someone I’ve learned to trust completely.  Me.

Placing your hand over your heart validates your existence.  It demonstrates in the physical realm that you’re giving yourself the love and kindness you needed but never received as an abused child.

This simple practice is also quite scientific.  It activates your body’s “happiness” hormone (Oxytocin).  This is the hormone responsible for evoking feelings of contentment, calmness, and security.  It reduces stress and anxiety by increasing trust and empathy.  It’s also an anti-inflammatory hormone that speeds wound healing.

Wow!  

Now you know why at some point every day you’ll find me with my right hand on my heart.  I’m taking a few moments to feel its loving warmth, notice my breath, express gratitude to my body, and whisper assurance to my inner child.

Love is the key to your healing, too.  I know it is, because I’ve been there.  So give this a try.  Feel the warmth and love you can give to yourself with this simple practice.  It works!  

********

Is love a big hurdle for you, too?  Do you struggle to feel you have worth or value?  If so, I can help.  Just follow (this link) or call 619-889-6366 to reserve a one-hour coaching session with me.  My calendar is filling up fast, so don’t wait.  Let me help you heal your life.  Reserve your spot NOW!

Are you on my email list?  If you’d like to receive my empowering monthly newsletter and an email with a link to my weekly blog post, click here: http://www.educate4change.com/

8 Comments
yvette graham
7/26/2016 11:01:19 am

Thank you Svava, A very simple action and one that I can and will do. Anything that helps me learn to love myself is always welcome. I read your emails and saw you in different blog posts so thanks for sharing how to heal, its always comforting to see other women who are a few steps ahead of me. peace love and light Svava, yvette xx

Reply
Svava
7/30/2016 03:53:48 pm

You are welcome Yvette! Glad it is helping. Love and Light back to you. I believe in you!

Reply
Jackie Riggs
7/27/2016 08:24:28 am

Hi Svava, seems like the days fly by and then I realize it's been like forever since I had any sort of contact with you. You are an amazing woman and have touched so many lives in such a positive way! I am still going through the "healing process" both mentally and physically. I learned something very exciting, to me, the last time I was hospitalized in the psych unit. For over 2 decades I have had DBT treatment explained to me, but never was able to understand it until recently. The very first thing that is taught in that treatment is mindfulness. Without going into a bunch of detail, I just wanted to say that the "hand over your heart" exercise is a remarkable tool to use in mindfulness. Taking a few moments and feeling one's own heartbeat can most definitely bring you into the present moment, which is exactly what mindfulness is all about. I know you already know all of this, but I'm excited to finally be able to understand it and use it in my own life to help me to experience a more satisfying, meaningfully life. Thank you for all that you share! You are a beautiful person, inside and out! I am blessed to know you!
Jackie

Reply
Kristina
7/27/2016 11:47:24 am

Wow. Beautiful post, Jackie !

Reply
Svava
7/30/2016 03:59:02 pm

Hi Jackie, So good to get a note from you. I am so happy to hear you are finding mindfulness is helping you. It is only in the present moment we can make different choices. I am so happy to see this note from you and know that I feel the same way about you. You are a beautiful person, inside and out. I adore you and believe in you. Sending you love and light. <3

Reply
Kristina
7/27/2016 11:44:01 am

I love to hear that the pain and despair is a past memory !
Thank you so much for your modeling, Svava.
This is a gift.

I would not believe that your story was about not being loving to yourself, as you are the model of loving oneself for others. It seems so natural. Like an empath.
I started to think that one has to be born with self-love, and when it was taken away by abuse, it is super hard to relearn (in best case), in worst case - it has gone.

I love the practise of placing the hand over my heart (chest).
I never did before. I started with the toy (the inner girl). The hand over chest feels leven better to me.
Just yesterday, I read that the heart chakra and power chakra (elevated in me, and perhaps in all trauma survivers) cooperate..the power chakra suppresses the emotions of the heart in order to survive (keep one safe). One survives thanks to the mind/power chacra, but in a longterm, one does not feel the emotions as they are repeatedly turned off by the power chacra/mind. I personaly only feel some push, wrongness, closeness to the emotions - I guess it is emotional flash back and it is more a torture than a pleasure to go through this for hours and hours, even days. I rarely feel pure emotions that would free me within minutes.
Putting my hand over my heart truly helps me. It seem to give me some trust in me and calmness, compassion. It made me cry ( rare) and acknowledge that it is ok to be kept safe by my mind (it is an expression of love from my mind, it was a great job my mind did). Now, I can open the space around my chest little more and feel safe to feel, relax more into the feeling, at least for some moments. Maybe the mind could allow the heart to open little bit more when feeling more safe.
It feels definitely warm and beautiful. Also independent.

Svava, I would like to ask whether it is important which hand one uses and where to put them ?
I have been doing this practise just for 2 days, I use my left hand so far (it does not work that well with the right one) or I use both hands. Sometimes I need to put it on the down part of the sternum bone, almost to stomach (I feel pressured there), but I guess it is coming from the mind. The true warmth comes more from the middle chest (where I never placed my hands before).

Reply
Kristina
7/30/2016 04:14:38 pm

I am glad to hear that me sharing my journey is helping. I did not always love myself, it was been a journey my friend. I am so happy you are finding the practice helpful. Keep experimenting with the hand placement. Find what works for you and what feels comforting to your body and heart. It is not that important where you put it, more where you find it comforting to you. And you are right, you can feel the soothing and then trust from yourself to your body. It can feel like coming home. The only one that can soothe us, is us.
Yes, our physical body/brain and energy body does help us, protect us from any overwhelm and pain by repressing or dissociating. But when ready we have to release the energy somehow and often can be done through our chakras and body work. You are doing great Kristina. Keep up the good work. Much Love

Reply
Esther
7/30/2016 07:34:54 pm

Please, could you give me the scientific reference of the release of oxitocin when you put your hand on your heart? Thank you. Esther

Reply



Leave a Reply.


    Archives

    June 2019
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    April 2014
    March 2014

    Categories

    All
    365 Day Guide To Thriving
    365-Day Guide To Thriving
    60 Minutes
    Abuse Survivor
    Abuse Survivor Coach
    ACE Study
    Anxiety
    Attachment
    Believe
    Betrayal Trauma
    Body Healing
    Boundaries
    Change
    Child Abuse
    Child Abuse Prevention Month
    Child Sexual Abuse
    Child Sexual Abuse Prevention
    Child Sexual Abuse Survivor
    Coaching
    Compassion
    Coping
    Courage
    Creativity
    Darkness To Light
    Depression
    Domestic Violence
    Doubt
    Eduction
    Emotional Abuse
    Emotional Healing
    Emotional Wellness
    Emotions
    Empowerment
    Evidence Based Prevention Programs
    Fear
    Feelings
    Goals
    God
    Gratitude
    Happy
    Healing
    Healing Guide
    Healthy Habits
    Healthy Lifestyle
    Hope
    Inner Child
    Inner Critic
    JourneytotheHeart
    Journey To The Heart
    Keynote Speaker
    Kindness
    Love
    Marriage Support
    Meditation
    #MeToo
    Mindfulness
    Narcissists
    Online Group
    Online Summit
    Oprah
    Overwhelm
    Parenting
    Peace
    Peer Support
    Perfectionism
    Personal Power
    Prevention Programs
    Programs For Adults
    PTSD
    Relationships
    Releasing Your Authentic Self
    Sabotage
    Safety
    Self Acceptance
    Self-acceptance
    Self Care
    Self Compassion
    Self-Compassion
    Self Help
    Self Love
    Self-love
    Self Regulation
    Self-regulation
    Sexual Assault
    Shame
    Social Activism
    Spirituality
    Stages Of Change
    Stress
    Superpower
    Support
    Support Group
    Survivor
    Tension Patterns
    Thriving
    Trauma
    Trauma Informed
    Trauma Informed Care
    Trauma Survivors
    TRE® (Trauma Release Exercises)
    Triggers
    Trust

    RSS Feed

Svava Brooks
Educate4Change
Dedicated to Ending the Cycle of Child Sexual Abuse
Ph: 619-889-6366  
email: svava@educate4change.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/educate4change
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/svavas
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/svavabrooks