Why is the Love Heart the Symbol of Love?
Have you ever looked at a diagram of a heart and wondered why it isn’t love heart shaped? What does the heart have to do with love anyway? Why do we use the Love Heart to symbolize love? The heart might beat more rapidly when you see the one you love, but it’s only really a pump.
Medical origins of the Love Heart
The glands of the endocrine system are more closely connected to the emotions because they create and control the hormones. And there happens to be an almost heart shaped one, called the thymus, in the middle of the rib cage, right where some people think their heart is. In most adults it’s pretty shrivelled up, so its role is still not fully understood by modern science, but maybe the knowledge is being rediscovered, rather than learnt for the first time.
Ancient origins of the Love Heart?
In ancient times, esoteric knowledge was deliberately shrouded in mystery or encoded in such a way that only the initiated would understand the true meaning of what was being revealed. Perhaps people misunderstood and the small, neglected, pinkish-gray thymus is more significant than we realise.
The Greek word thymos apparently referred to life force, feelings, consciousness and rising into flame.
Modern Day Love Heart
Today the Love Heart is as strong a symbol of love as ever. Nothing expresses love like a Love Heart neckless. It both symbolises and lies close to the heart.
Give a Love Heart
Why not give this Ribbon Heart Pendant. It has this wonderful inscription:
“Learn From Yesterday, Love for Today, Hope for Tomorrow, Laugh As Much As You Breathe, Love As Long As You Live. Live Laugh Love.”
Love Heart for Someone Really Special
Diamonds really say that your love is forever. The combination of diamonds the love heart symbol is about as romantic as you can get. See below for ideas to share your love.
14k White Gold Heart Natural Diamond Necklace
Cut Diamond Heart Necklace in 14k Yellow Gold
Cut Diamond Heart Necklace in 14k White Gold
With Love
Catherine
Filed under Blog by Catherine Chalice
In an anatomy class I attended with Alexander Technique students we were asked where we thought the weight of our body reached our foot when standing.
Most of the class imagined the weight was balanced right at the back of the ankle. Yet, if you look at this picture you’ll see a large bone extends back from the ankle joint.
The ankle is actually on top of an arch, which spreads the weight both forwards and backwards. This is more balanced than most of us imagined.
Now Ted.com has released a video showing that the human foot has a spring mechanism that helps it bounce, just like the foot of a kangaroo. There is a ligament, called the plantar fascia that starts at your heel and goes along the bottom of your foot attaching to each of the bones that form the ball of your foot. It works like a rubber band to create the arch shape that readily absorbs shock when it is pressed down and springs back unless our habits prevent it from doing its job.
I found that a muscle, called the tibialis anterior, that stretches from the top of my big toe, to just under my knee, wasn’t as active as it could be, so I was tending to drop my arches. I drew the line of the muscle on my leg with a washable marker to get a sense of it and saw that when I drop my arches the muscle loses its straight shape. Neither the muscle, nor the ligament can function properly like that.
It reminded me to put more weight on the outside of my foot when walking, which has helped put the spring back into my step.
Filed under Blog by Catherine Chalice
