“Heart entrapment syndrome”  

The most pervasive, unnamed syndrome

Lots of people have probably heard of nerve entrapment syndromes.  Some of the more common ones are carpal tunnel, thoracic outlet or sciatica.  Essentially what happens in these syndromes is that there is compression on a nerve, which leads to pain pulses down the nerve.  This is experienced first as tingling/shooting pain, then numbness, and over time, weakness with impaired ability to use part of our arm or leg.

Just like a nerve the heart can become entrapped too, however medical science has not yet created an official diagnosis for this syndrome.  Through my personal experience I’ve seen it time and time again.  Its the most pervasive and detrimental syndrome I see among clients.

It looks like this.  We experience something that hurts and it compresses our heart.  We feel the sensation of pain.  At first is sharp and intense, and if continues, becomes numb.  Overtime and with further compression our heart becomes weak and difficult for us to use in our daily lives.

Protecting & healing the heart

Heart-spine connection

“Heart entrapment syndrome” is caused by a hurt that you experienced but weren’t able to feel completely. If a hurt feels too painful your will body mount a protective response so that you don’t feel as much.  Typically this is experienced as tension and is what entraps the heart.

In addition your body creates other distortions in order to protect you from feeling the hurt.  Your head moves forward of your spine (so your thoughts lead your life instead of your heart), your shoulders roll forward which physically protects your chest (where your heart lives), and the curves in your back move out of alignment, all to help you not feel as much by “protecting” the heart.  Its harder to breathe because your chest is compressed, and of course harder to feel, which is this energy’s purpose in the first place, to help you feel less pain.  Unfortunately you will also feel less joy and find yourself “in your head” with difficulty being in your body.

This is an intelligence response of life to protect you from pain, however it does not promote health, life or love.  To heal we must relieve the compression on our heart.  The quickest way to achieve this is by feeling that which our body has been protecting us from feeling.  When we do, the compression is lifted, sensations returns, we can feel our heart (maybe for the first time since we were a kid), function returns and living from our hearts becomes possible again.  Just like the nerve, when the compression is released the nerve heals, so to when the compression on our heart is released our heart heals.

Dr. Amanda Hessel