The Heart, From the Inside Out

A February reflection on anatomy, osteopathy, and what the heart holds

February tends to shout about the heart. Red everywhere. Big gestures. Loud love.

But the real heart? It works quietly. Rhythmically. Faithfully.

From an osteopathic perspective, the heart is not just a pump moving blood through vessels. It is a responsive, intelligent organ and one that lives in constant relationship with breath, posture, nervous system tone, and the tissues that surround it.

Heart Month feels like an invitation to slow down and listen more closely.

The Heart Lives in Relationship

The heart sits slightly left of center in the chest, nestled between the lungs, protected by the rib cage, and anchored by the pericardium; a fascial sac that stabilizes the heart while allowing it to move with every breath.

This relationship matters.

The heart does not function in isolation. It responds to the rise and fall of the diaphragm. It adapts to spinal mobility, rib motion, and nervous system input.

When the ribs are restricted, the diaphragm tense, or the thoracic spine held in long-standing patterns of stress, the heart subtly compensates. Not dramatically but consistently. Over time.

In osteopathy, we pay attention to these quieter adaptations; the places where the body has learned to “hold” instead of move freely.

Osteopathy & the Heart: Supporting the Terrain

Osteopathy doesn’t treat the heart in the way cardiology does and that distinction is important.

Rather than focusing on the organ itself, osteopathic care supports the environment the heart lives in: rib mobility, diaphragmatic motion, spinal alignment, fascial balance, and nervous system regulation.

When these systems move with more ease, circulation improves, breath deepens, and the heart often finds a softer, more efficient rhythm.

This work isn’t about forcing change. It’s about creating space and trusting the body’s inherent ability to self-regulate and heal.

The Heart, the Nervous System & Emotion

The heart is deeply connected to the autonomic nervous system, particularly through the vagus nerve. This is why emotional stress, grief, or prolonged overwhelm can be felt so clearly in the chest as tightness, pressure, fluttering, or a sense of holding.

From a German New Medicine (GNM) lens, the heart is often associated with themes of protection, territory, loss, and emotional shock. Whether or not one fully resonates with this framework, many people notice that heart-related symptoms tend to appear during periods of sustained emotional load and really when someone has been “holding it all together” for too long.

The heart remembers. Not as a story but as tone, rhythm, and tension.

When the nervous system is supported, the heart no longer needs to work in overdrive.

Simple, Daily Ways to Support the Heart

Caring for the heart doesn’t need to be elaborate.

Slow, coherent breathing is inhaling for five seconds and exhaling for five. This way you can quickly influence heart rate variability and vagal tone, gently guiding the nervous system toward regulation.

Gentle chest-opening movements help maintain rib and thoracic mobility, creating more room for breath and circulation.

And sometimes, the most powerful practice is the simplest: placing one hand over the heart and one over the belly, pausing long enough to ask, “What do you need right now?” No fixing. Just listening.

Acupressure for Heart Support

A few accessible acupressure points that support both the physical and emotional heart:

• PC6 (Neiguan): located on the inner forearm, about three finger-widths below the wrist crease, between two tendons. Often used for palpitations, anxiety, chest tightness, and emotional overwhelm.

• HT7 (Shenmen): found at the wrist crease on the pinky side. Traditionally associated with calming the mind, supporting sleep, and emotional regulation.

• CV17 (Heart Center): located at the center of the chest. Commonly used for breath expansion, emotional release, and heart–lung connection.

  
  

Hold each point gently for 60–90 seconds while breathing slowly. Let the experience be soft. Let it be enough.

A Valentine’s Day Reframe

This Valentine’s Day, consider love not as something to give away but something to circulate.

Like blood flow, love needs rhythm. It needs space. It needs periods of rest as much as effort.

When the heart is supported "structurally, neurologically, emotionally", everything downstream benefits. Breath softens. The nervous system settles. The body remembers how to move with ease.

Caring for your heart is not indulgent. It’s foundational.

Sometimes the most meaningful and most powerful act of love is simply allowing the heart to soften, move freely, and be supported.

And that kind of love? It circulates far beyond February. 💗

-- Vero Osteo