Heart Ache

At some point in our lives we have all experienced the pain of heart ache. In today’s culture this often ends in Cheesy movies, Chocolate, red wine, and late nights on the town trying to drive the pain from mind. All cultures have methods for dealing with heartache whether it be due to a breakup or death. Yet all still equate heartache to physical pain. According to Naomi Eisenberger your mind actually sends signals to your body physically making your heart hurt. When we are in love our system is filled with dopamine and oxytocin which fill us with pleasure and contentment. However after a break up these chemicals are replaced by epinephrine and cortisol which are stress hormones. Our bodies begin to feel the physical results of extended periods of stress and literally begin to hurt. Heart ache and loss seem to have a significant role in the human experience. Just look at literature or music. We have songs like “Heart Break Hotel,” and “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.” We have novels and self-help books like “Fault in our Stars,” and “Six Words on Love and Heart Ache.” It is such a strong part of the human experience we find ways to share it. We write about it because it is painful in every way possible and yet it is a place to grow from. Sylvia Plath puts it beautifully when she writes: “Perhaps someday I’ll crawl back home, beaten, and defeated. But not as long as I can make stories out of my heartbreak, Beauty out of sorrow.”