Regular exercises, physical fitness, and general health awareness were not my cup of tea until the beginning of 2012 when I became conscious of my weight, the need to eat healthy, and exercise regularly to keep fit. You would think being married to a nurse would have robbed off on me. Guess my African background still has a strong hold on my disposition to life. We generally believe, ‘It’s not broken as long as its working’ – you only pay attention when things start to malfunction or stop working. Ask any home-groomed African!

 

Another health awareness wake up call for me was in March 2012 when Fabrice Muamba, former Bolton Football Club and England player suffered a cardiac arrest and collapsed during the first half of an FA cup quarter final match between Bolton and Tottenham at White Hart Lane. The incident prompted me to study and understand more about the dynamics of the heart. Apparently, an average adult human heart beats around 70 times every minute and pumps about 70 millilitres of blood around the body with each beat, 5 litres of blood pumped per minute.

 

The heart is an incredible, small machine that requires protection from assault of any kind – physical or emotional. Even nature protects the heart – it is enclosed in a sac called the pericardium that protects it and anchors it to the surrounding structures. Largely, we take precaution and care for our hearts physically, but not so much from emotional assaults. There are daily emotional assaults on our hearts. One channel of daily attack on our hearts is words – words we read and hear, and many of us are defenseless, with no clue as to how to protect our hearts and lives from words that can potentially affect it negatively. The heart is critical to our wellbeing; nothing affects or changes you until it affects or changes your heart.

One of the wisest men that ever lived, King Solomon of ancient Israel, in one of his commentaries gave profound advice to leaders, but I believe everyone at every level can relate to the advice. He said, “Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you.” The advice reflects the power of words. I consider words one of the greatest weapons you have to either make your life’s journey the greatest adventure or misery. Just the way the heart filters and pumps blood to every part of the body, so does it filter every word you read and hear. The output will depend largely on the condition of your heart. That’s why its possible for two people to read or hear the same words and their interpretations be miles apart.

 

Figuratively and literally speaking, are you aware of the condition of your heart? You may want to ponder on that a little. What’s the condition of your heart after the last assault? After the disappointment, heartbreak and humiliation? I appreciate that life must continue and you may not have time to lick your wounds or throw a pity party, and this of course is not a call for that. Rather, it is a call to slow down and see what you need to mend your heart from the series of assaults and attacks. A heart condition can remix a situation to make it look like what it’s not, giving a distorted perspective which may result in distorted responses.

Being attacked and not being aware of it can be the most vulnerable position to be in. One of my favourite actors in the American crime drama, Blacklist, is James Spader, who plays Raymond Reddington; his style of attack is always relational, friendly but deadly. The subtle, unnoticed emotional attacks on our hearts are the most deadly.

 

It’s amazing what you can insure in today’s commodity-driven economy, as opposed to many years ago when there were limited insurance options available for personal assets like houses, cars, life and income protection. Now you can insure anything you consider valuable to you. Footballers can insure their legs, celebrities their faces, breasts, smiles, and all sorts. Celebrities like everyone will invest in security to protect what they consider their valuable assets. In my own assessment, I consider our heart to be our greatest valuable asset.

 

The asset that needs the most protection is your heart! The heart is the centre of the human person; it determines your beliefs, your actions, and the course of your life! You can be heavily protected physically, but still be hurt by words thrown at you. There are two entry gates into your heart; your eyes and your ears. Your heart can be reached when you read or hear things. What kinds of images do you expose yourself to? Words turn into images in our minds, and those images are the ones that stay with us. Jentezen Franklin once observed, “Your life will always move in the direction of the dominant images that you allow to reside in your mind.” What kind of music do you listen to? What kind of books or even newspapers do you read? What sort of stories do you look out for in the news? Disasters, injustice and reasons for despair abound in the news, and although these are occurrences in the world we live in, it can’t be healthy consuming that amount of hopelessness for long periods. One may become fearful, suspicious and cynical, thinking that the world has no good to offer.

 

How Can You Protect Your Heart?

 

You don’t need to see or hear everything

As simple as this may sound, it is one of the greatest ways to protect your heart. You don’t need to see everything or hear everything. Be selective in what you hear or see.

 

Be careful who has access to you

You can protect your heart by selecting the things and/or persons who have access to it. Words can mend, break, or ache your heart. Protect your heart from discouraging words.

 

Be cautious what you say to people

Be careful what you say to and of others. Your words can either be seeds of poison or grace to someone’s heart, so choose them carefully. Words thrown around in anger or in the heat of the moment can do more damage than you may know. No matter how many times you say “I take it back”, you really cannot take back your words. The other side is that speaking poisonous words is a heart matter. What you say about others tells more about you than it does of them.

 

Decide what you want to ponder on

Averagely, we have between 50,000-70,000 thoughts per day, that’s around 35-48 thoughts per minutes As you know, we ponder on less than these figures per day, meaning you have control on what you ponder on. Like the popular African proverb, ‘You can’t stop birds from flying over your head but you can stop them from nesting on your head.

 

Catch and rebuke yourself in any act of self indulgence

Often, we indulge in some things, including thoughts, that we know will harm us. Catch yourself when you are drifting into this habit