Traffic Congestion: Congestive Heart Failure

Quite the title isn’t it?  Where am I going with this you might ask?  Well, once again, on the drive into work I noticed how smoothly the traffic was flowing.  Up ahead was a traffic light.  It was green and the traffic flowed smoothly in both directions without hesitation.

The light changed to amber and the traffic began to slow down.  I noticed one vehicle travelling towards me at quite a clip compared to the other vehicles and as it approached the intersection where the light had changed to amber, because it was travelling at rather a fast pace, the driver had to slam on his brakes when the light turned to red to avoid a collision.  Just the reaction of that one person almost caused an accident.

Congestive heart failure; what happens and what is congestive heart failure?

Likening the flow of blood in the veins to the flow of traffic, I see how it flows naturally, smoothly and rhythmically at an even pace.  I’ve taken to visualizing my thoughts as being particles floating on top of the life force that flows through this body.  If I do not stop the thought process in order to grab hold of a thought, to take it up and examine it at great length, trying to figure out the whys and wherefores of yesterday or tomorrow, it just “floats on by,” not interrupting the natural flow of my life force.  I can take that life force flowing through me and substitute the live giving blood that flows through every human’s veins.

What happens if that life flow of blood gets interrupted; is brought to a halt?  We have “traffic congestion” and the life giving blood that our heart needs, is brought to a standstill and can’t flow through our veins bringing the required oxygen to our cells, our brains.  We have major congestion and ultimately our heart fails because of the traffic jam.

What causes the traffic jam in our hearts?  Think about your body when you become tense – caused by “thoughts” of anger, fear, hatred.  I know that if I take a moment to self-examine I will find the following conditions:

fists are clenched

teeth are grinding together

I’ve forgotten to breathe (ergo no oxygen getting in)

My face is wrinkled and frowned

The muscles in my neck and other parts of my body feel like they are “tied up in knots”

Head to toe, it’s like I’ve simply “stopped”; I’ve tied up everything and my whole body is so tense that if some one were to strike me, I’d likely shatter!

I then imagine what’s going on inside my body.  With all of my muscles tied tensely, fingers and toes and teeth clenched, how in heaven’s name can anything get through me to the heart to allow the needed oxygen to nourish the heart, cells, lungs?  Heck, looking more closely, I see that I am not even breathing!

My heart fails because I’ve brought my life to a complete stop at the red traffic like of negativity:  anger, hatred, vengeance, jealousy.

My heart will begin to function again once it receives the necessary blood flow with the life giving oxygen.  In order for that to happen, I need to stop stopping my life flow by “holding on “ to the anger, the negativity of thoughts that are floating on the surface.  Thoughts will come and go, but that they must do; come and go.  I must not keep on stopping to re-examine yesterday’s thoughts or tomorrow’s possibilities.  Then and only then will my life force, my much needed blood supply, continue to flow naturally and easily, doing what needs to be done.

Traffic congestion and heart congestion, so similar and both controlled by a single action.  It’s my choice.  Do I allow the green light of life to stay on, or do I cause the red light to turn on (think about it, when you get angry, you get “red hot”) and stop the flow?