50 Reasons to Keep Your Heart Beating
Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much a heart can hold. – Zelda Fitzgerald
Article written by Alex Blackwell. Connect with me on Facebook.
Most poets, spiritualists, and even some medical doctors believe there is a mind-body-soul connection. Our hearts provide the source of power necessary for this connection. What’s in our hearts, the condition of our hearts and the size of our hearts determine how strong this connection can be and how long it may last.
On a functional level, we need our hearts to distribute blood throughout our bodies. On a spiritual level, we depend on our hearts to give nourishment to our souls. But, it’s an ebb and flow. Meaning, we need to give our hearts a reason to beat or they will stop.
Becoming isolated from others, feeling discouraged and losing hope can shut down our hearts in the metaphorical sense. Left unattended for long, our minds, bodies and souls will soon begin to shut down in the physical sense as well.
During times when I feel my heart is shutting down I rely on these reasons to keep it beating:
- Living simply and remembering there is power in less; not more.
- Seeing love in my children’s eyes.
- Keeping hate from entering my heart.
- Asking, “What do I want?” And then listening for the answer.
- Erasing the self-limiting tapes that play in my head.
- Expecting little and giving much.
- Forgiving.
- Watching my older son become a man.
- Knowing He is not done with me yet.
- Remembering to play like a child.
- Feeling an ounce of resurgence after a setback.
- Enjoying a summer night, a cold beer and a baseball game, all at the same time.
- Going to bed knowing I didn’t take any shortcuts.
- Receiving an unexpected kiss from Mary Beth.
- Savoring the first sip of coffee in the morning.
- Remembering the depth of my faith when my soul feels raw.
- Waiting for the good to rise out of the bad. It always does.
- Realizing I get to choose who I share my heart with.
- Taking one step forward as a reminder I do have the ability to keep moving.
- Acknowledging my reality so I can change it if it’s not working.
- Laughing when a circumstance goes from the absurd to the surreal.
- Exercising on days when I really don’t feel like it.
- Understanding my older daughter’s passion to help others is beautiful.
- Dreaming of what’s next.
- Appreciating the abundance in my life.
- Learning to replace my anxiety with peace.
- Surrendering my plan for His.
- Falling to sleep with my wife next to me.
- Tasting a fresh-cut watermelon.
- Embracing the fact my life has an expiration date.
- Understanding it’s not failure I sometimes fear, but happiness.
- Standing tall in the face of truth – even the uncomfortable truths about myself.
- Remembering what’s right in my life.
- Saying, “Yes” to things I want for myself.
- Experiencing the confidence my younger son possesses in everything he does.
- Slowing down and doing nothing.
- Asking for help and then feeling worthy to receive it.
- Trusting the process six years ago.
- Giving myself grace.
- Allowing good things to happen.
- Realizing I am more than enough.
- Healing the child within.
- Listening to my younger daughter sing happily throughout the house.
- Having a second chance to be a better son and brother.
- Hoping the Royals will win one more World Series in my lifetime.
- Knowing the pain I have experienced does indeed have a purpose.
- Beginning to love myself more.
- Realizing life is about doing, not just being.
- Discovering the unexpected.
- Living from my heart everyday.
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Comments
6 Responses to “50 Reasons to Keep Your Heart Beating”
What do you think?
Thank you for this list, it’s short and sweet and yet touching.
“Life is about doing, not just being”
Very true. Further, one could say that one has attained enlightenment when one realizes Being in Doing.
Great list; thank you!
@ Albert: Thanks for reading, my friend.
@ Karthik: Being in Doing would indeed be one more level of enlightenment. Thank you for this.
Great post! Certainly deserves a thumbs up and a stumble
50 Reasons to Keep My Heart Beating:
1. Mastering the hard lessons of Christ with the same sense of wonder I see in my three year old granddaughter, when she “gets it!”
2. Kisses from my grandchildren
3. To turn away from some things, and toward others
4. Loving others without strings
5. Leaning on Him for everything
6. Hearing myself laugh again
7. Being satisfied with “what is”
8. To understand what it means to live in the moment
9. Sharing a favorite memory, book, or movie
10. Living with joy
11. Having a peaceful spirit
12. Knowing who I belong to.
13. Owing no man, anything
14. Forgiveness
15. Innocent Spontaneity followed by giggles
16. A warm shower
17. Gratefulness
18. A sense of purpose
19. Home and hearth, knowing I am never truly alone
20. To snuggle babies, still
21. To mentor a lost child with patience, giving back what I once had
22. The expectation of His return
23. Listening more than talking
24. The literal belief (faith) of a child
25. Aging well, attaining wisdom
26. Road trips I haven’t made yet
27. Hands that help, and for entertaining angels
28. A second chance at love
29. Healing and pressing on
30. A Peaceful and humble heart
31. Being a Barnabas to someone’s Paul
32. A simple life, and letting go of things
33. To know the perfect spring morning of the South, again
34. To say what needs to be said, no matter how hard
35. Treasuring time, instead of wasting it
36. To know what the wonderful things in life really are
37. Appreciate, and pass on, what was passed on to me
38. Being happy in my own skin
39. Wanting His plan more than my own
40. For the “Golden Hour” which is yet to come
41. To touch a heart, deeply
42. Thankfulness that moves me to tears
43. Little miracles that overwhelm
44. To pin down my dreams
45. For hope
46. Planting seeds, and harvest, that remind me of the seasons of my life
47. Beautiful things that I love, but hold loosely
48. Learning to pray and be still
49. Truth
50. That every blessing, every thing, every gift, that God has given to me, would be spent before I leave.
Thanks a lot alex for the list. It made me feel alot better. u just don’t know how much u touched my life. God bless!