The Beauty of Our Cardiac Cycle

High pressure situations often make us sweaty and tensed, but what if we realize that the solution lies within us?

There is so much to learn from nature, one of them being our own cardiac cycle that will sail us through thick and thin!

The majority of my medical colleagues would already be aware, but for the orientation of non-medical readers — the heart (cardia) has four chambers (two each of atria and ventricles) and works 24 x 7. The heart dilates or relaxes to receive deoxygenated blood from the periphery and contracts/ pumps oxygenated blood from the lungs to the body.  Pumping of the cardia is termed as systole and the phase of relaxation is called diastole.

Let’s do a little mathematics; the heart takes 0.8 sec to complete one cycle for the process.

For majority of the population, the normal duration of atrial systole is 0.1 seconds and diastole is 0.7 seconds. Similarly, the duration of ventricular systole is 0.3 seconds and diastole is 0.5 seconds.

What if, we apply the same to our routine?

Increasing the work efficiency will have more impact in less duration, gratifying us with productive outcomes.

Relaxing your mind, lifestyle and body is important in order to adjust or prepare for the deoxygenated things that are going to happen in life.

Introspecting on things that nature has created yields so much knowledge and changes our perspective towards better living.

In a situation of crisis or overwhelming stressors let’s remember the physiology of the cardiac cycle as it clearly conveys that difficult times are short-lived and if you are competent enough, you will flourish.