Heart Shock is the term used for traumas that rises to the level of creating mental-emotional and/or physical instability.  These traumas affect the vast majority of people, and are often caused early in life, even during gestation, in utero, or the first few years of life.  They are significant because they set the stage for altered and distorted perceptions, and the creation of lenses or filters in which we see and interact with the world (and ourselves).  Our habits, conditioning, and personas/personalities develop in particular ways as defensive and adaptive mechanisms to assure our ego’s survival, to create certainty and stability in our lives.  As such they are important ecological maneuvers to allow continuity of the self.  These aspects of conditioning and personas are often deeply embedded in the shadows, dictating our behaviors, actions, thoughts and ideas without our conscious involvement.  In our spiritual practices, these underlying root mechanisms must be brought to light, understood, worked with and eventually transcended.  The importance of getting to the bottom of Heart Shock cannot be overstated in spiritual practice.