Journal

How To Relieve Stress and Anxiety

devonish hand-carved heart

Wikipedia: The heart shape is an ideograph used to express the idea of the “heart” in its metaphorical or symbolic sense as the center of emotion, including affection and love.

“Touch has a memory.” –John Keats

“Too often we underestimate the power of touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn life around.” –Leo F. Buscaglia

“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” –William Shakespeare

“Touch is fundamental to the human experience.” –The Remarkable Power of Touch, posted by Karen Young.

“Your carved hearts have comforted my 100+ year old aunt who died. When she was in hospice she would not let go of it, her daughter buried her with it. Then my brother just died, when I went to visit him 20 January, he was holding one of your hearts. Your carvings have been a deep blessing; please continue to carve.” –A repeat customer from Massachusetts.

“Your hands are blessed; I give your hearts to my patients” –A Therapist from NY.

Repeat and first time visitors purchase hearts as gifts for friends and family.

This year alone, 2019, I have carved over 200 hearts for incentive groups visiting the island on trips sponsored by their corporations.

There are thousands of owners, -children and adults- all over the world enjoying the hand-carved hearts and other touch forms by me.

Hearts has been around since the Bronze Age, introduced by the Indus Valley civilization in the Northwestern region of South Asia. One theory suggests the origin of the heart symbol can be traced back to an ancient plant called silphium, used to grow on the North African coastline near the Greek colony of Cyrene.

The modern definition of the heart shape is an ideograph used to express the idea of the heart, symbolizing love and affection but not limited to romantic love. Silphium whose seed resembles the heart shape was a plant used by the Greeks and Romans as a spice, medicine, and a form of birth control. It’s popularity may have led to its extinction by the first century AD. Other theories associate the heart shape to the ivy and water lilly leaves. Others associate it to popular parts of the human body. The heart shape once represented the heart-shaped fruit of the plant silphium.

Today, all over the world, the heart symbolizes romantic love. The first known depiction of a heart shape as a symbol of love was in the 1250s, in the novel, Romance of the Pear, but things are speculative that it could have been a pear or pine cone shaped object. There are other speculations.

The heart shape became a symbol of love because of the belief the heart is connected with emotion and pleasure. The first Valentine card appeared in 1870 and Valentine cards still uses the heart as a symbol of love and affection.

About 20 years ago, the Devonish touch forms underwent a transformation. My wife collects hearts. One day she suggested I should make some hearts. Now the sale of hearts exceed other organic shapes, 9 to 1

The Devonish hearts have added another dimension of caring, stress relief, and desire for healing.

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16 comments on “How To Relieve Stress and Anxiety

What a lovely thought to spread love and kindness – and to think that your carved hearts are now potentially all over the planet.

I like that you are using your talents for good.  Our world doesn’t have enough love, kindness and general good deeds and could always use some more.

Do you make the hearts out of anything else?

Thank you for your input 

sorry but  I only carve hearts in wood and must keep at least 1p0 in stock at all  tmes.not easy to do considering the other carvings I must create. 

Hmm! Not only that this is such an excellent post on stress and anxiety. I personally favor it because it has rigged into the history of how the love symbol came into being and I am glad I got my knowledge enriched. Meanwhile, carving such hearts to spread love is one thing I found very great of a human to do and that’s great especially being the fact that it can be used to denote a very dear thing to one and as such, holding onto the heart at moments of anxiety would really help alot to calm the nerves. I wish I can get a copy of your carving too

Thank you for your input; There are thousands of my hand carved hearts all over the world, and they do work. you can visit –devonishart.com-(fine craft gallery,) shipping is free. Hope to hear from you. Best wishes.

I love how you explained where the heart symbol came from. It’s a very popular shaped and most likable by everyone most especially the kids. It’s a good thing I learned something new today. The plant silphium may have gone out of existence but your carved hearts are of presence to give comfort, love and affection to those in need. We learn from the past histories to carry on with our present lives. Those carved hearts helped a lot in so many ways – easing the pain of the sick, giving comforts to the lonely and sad, relieving the stress and anxiety of people in need. What you bring to people is a precious art with soul that heals. It has comforted a lot of people in so many ways. I would like to see more of your beautiful creations that bring joy around the world. 

Thank you for the comforting words, believe it or not, caring those hearts is stress relieving for me as well. My work is my passion, my desire now is to hand over the gallery to some one and just create every day; you can see more of my work on devonishart.com or just Google -Courtney Devonish. Blessings.

What a lovely article, Courtney.

It’s very interesting to learn the origins of the heart shape in relation to the emotion of love and it was very warming to read the testimonials of some of your customers.

It definitely sounds like a labour of love even more than a business venture and it must bring you tremendous satisfaction.

What wood do you use to carve the hearts from?

You are right, it is a labour of love, I can work 10 to 12 hours non stop, without lunch, just water and not feel tired, my wife comes and stop me sometimes. It also makes me happy when customers appreciate my work, more so when the customer is a fellow wood worker.Thanks for visiting Richard.

I love all things wood, and was very glad to see your work.  It is very beautiful and reasonably priced.  Thank you for the history lesson on where the heart shape came from. I have often wondered about that.  I look forward to putting several of your pieces above my fireplace.

Thanks Cedric for the appreciation; wood is a very warm material, I really enjoy carving it, I also take pride in  the finishing. Keep looking.

This is a great post on stress and anxiety. I personally favor it because it has rigged into the history of how the love symbol came into being and I am glad I got my knowledge enriched. Meanwhile, carving such hearts to spread love is one thing I found very great of a human to do and that’s great especially being the fact that it can be used to denote a very dear thing to one and as such, What a lovely thought to spread love and kindness – and to think that your carved hearts are now potentially all over the planet.

Thanks for the visit; I do enjoy carving the hearts and it warms my heart to receive the showers of praise and appreciation. yes there are thousands
all over the the world, but mostly in North America and Europe. Best wishes.

Hi Courtney. Thank you. I had several years of stress and anxiety and in my journey to recovery, I tried many different tools . Some didn’t work for me but some brought me relief and calm. I learned the power of touch and still find times to get some touch in my daily life. This idea of using hearts is new to me but it seems like something I could use. Caressing my heart would be one of the tools I would like to try. Where is it sold ?

Sorry to hear about your years of stress, touch is very important, a hug, hand shake and an object that appeal to the senses. See devonishart.com  -fine craft f-one heart, there is no shipping fee and secure purchasing via PayPal

Hope all is well; Blessings

You are doing something sweet and good by carving those hearts.  Everyone has a need at times to relieve some stress and anxiety, and by creating an object designed to help folks with such problems, you become a force for good in the world,  It must be nice to know that your chosen work brings pleasure to each person who acquires one of your carved hearts.

It appears that all your hearts are about the same size.  Do you aim for a particular size, or is it determined by how the carving goes?  How long does it take you to carve one?  How do you finish them?  Is that done just with sanding?  I imagine it takes a bit of time to get a perfect finish.

I think you are contributing a meaningful thing to people — an object representing love — what could be better?

I am  happy when there are repeat customers, and it is a pleasure when you are sent imaGes of your work in the homes. The finish to my hearts are the key to their success-smooth like silk, no scratches. There are varying sizes, from small for children and necklaces and large as an art piece. The regular hearts are slightly varying to fit comfortably the size of ones hands. I try not to dwell on time, but have a production routine to save time. at least 24 at a time, rough carving, smooth carving, sanding in two stages, oiling and burnishing.They are my bread and butter items and pricing is a little lower than original carvings. I have modified some electrical tools and designed my own sanders for the smooth finish. Thanks for the visit. Best wishes.

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