I met Ellen in the hospital Emergency Center, where it had been believed that she suffered a Myocardial Infarction ( heart attack). Ellen had presented with chest pain and shortness of breath. At the time of her cardiology evaluation, her EKG showed changes consistent with a Myocardial infarction, her heart scan showed an enlarged heart, and her cardiac enzymes were elevated. She was rushed to the cardiac catheterization lab, where it was expected that blockage in the arteries that supply the heart with blood ( coronary arteries) would be blocked. It was a shock when the catheterization showed completely clear coronary arteries -no blockages and no heart attack. What then caused her symptoms? Ellen`s symptoms were the result of a condition called Broken Heart Syndrome, where the body`s response to overwhelming

stress is to mimic a heart attack. In talking with Ellen in the days following her hospital admission, it was clear that Ellen was overwhelmed with emotions. Recently divorced, Ellen, a dental hygienist, was terminated from her job because of financial cutbacks. She owed a mortgage on a townhouse she bought after her divorce and worried about the impact losing her job would create. Additionally, if that were not enough, her dog died suddenly. I started working with Ellen on recognizing and managing stress in her life. I taught her how to connect with her heart physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Connecting to her heart connected her to herself and she began the process of not only taking in and processing emotions first with her heart and then aligning her heart and brain to work together to prevent the release of the detrimental stress hormones. Lastly, Ellen needed to change her perception of herself. She saw herself as a victim, unable to control what happened to her. She saw her environment and the world around her as difficult and unforgiving. She viewed her interactions as negative, and she berated herself for what had happened. With my help, Ellen learned to change her perspective, which changed her perception. As she began to see the positive things and the successes in her life, she began to focus on the positive and surrender to the situations that she had no control over. Learning to process her emotions first with her heart, then with her brain, recognizing and managing stressors in her life, and the realization ( shift in perception) that things happen for you, not to you, switch in perspective, which changed her perception to one of contentment and abundance. This put her in control of her life- she became self-empowered.