RITA A. SCHULTE, MA., LPC

I’m passionate about matters of the heart. In fact, I’ve written a book about it called Sifted As Wheat: Finding Hope and Healing through the Losses of Life. It’s about how the losses of life affect us at the heart level. The book is currently in the publishing process, so until its release, I’d like to check the pulse on YOUR heart by challenging you to consider how the losses of life have impacted you.

There’s so much talk today about taking care of our hearts on a physical level. We’re told to watch what we eat—- don’t eat too much of this, eat more of that; make sure you work out, lower your stress level, and whatever you do—don’t gain weight. The doctor is constantly checking our pulse to see if we’re healthy. And if we do all the right things, he promises we’ll keep our hearts alive and well. But few people tell us to pay attention to the internal music of our hearts. Few ask us to check the pulse on the inner man. So we learn to put aside our feelings about the losses of our lives and keep on going.

Interestingly enough, most of us equate loss primarily with death, so we may fail to notice that abstract losses like shattered dreams, unmet expectations, loss of hope, trust, even the loss of faith, can have serious long-range consequences on the heart. The losses in our lives have shaped who we are today— and most importantly, what we believe about ourselves, God and the world around us.

How about you –have you experienced a loss that’s shattered your heart? Perhaps you, like many other people, didn’t realize what you experienced was loss. Or if you did, maybe you never stopped to notice how it affected your heart. Maybe you never put words to your pain, maybe you denied it altogether. If that’s the case, there’s no better time than now to start talking—and I’d like to help you do so by answering questions or talking about your problems. My specialty areas are depression, anxiety, eating disorders and loss issues. You only have one heart–keep it alive by checking your “other” pulse. And let me know if any of these issues are affecting YOUR heart.