Heart and Brain Coherence
According to researches; The coherence of the heart and brain is a state in which the heart, mind and emotions are in energetic harmony and cooperation, enabling us to be resilient. Out of synchronization of the parasympathetic and sympathetic systems due to negative emotions such as anger, anxiety or disappointment causes an irregular heart rhythm. The brain receives this input which affects whether higher cognitive functions can be accessed to self-regulate. When it can’t be fixed and this situation repeats constantly, it gets normalize and the brain continues on its way without going into alarm mode. Then we become unhappy, restless people who don’t make much of an effort to fix it. Is it familiar?
Positive emotions such as compassion and love generate a harmonious pattern in the heart’s rhythm, leading to coherence and greater emotional regulation. The harmonious interaction of our body systems with each other is called physiological consistency. As this increases, so does the brain’s alpha activity which supports stress relief and creativity. This calmer yet focused state improves:
- Learning
- Make better choices
- Realize more options
- Reduction in stress
- Adaptability to change
- Psychosocial well-being
- Higher cognitive capacity
- Performance improvement
- Resilience/Problem solving
- Mental Clarity/Emotional stability
- Access to intuition and creativity
- Regenerative process/Anti-aging
How Can We Increase Heart Coherence?
As the brain is able to be re-trained through neuroplasticity, so can the heart. Whatever the heart informs the brain, the brain responds accordingly. It takes changing what we have hard-wired in the communication exchange between the heart and the brain, and between the neurons in the heart, just like rewiring the communication between neurons in the brain.
If it has become the “norm” for the heart to feel chronic stress or anger, it is accustomed to communicating this to the brain. The brain triggers the body’s response in the form of stress hormones, constricted blood vessels, increased blood pressure, chronic inflammation, and basically makes the heart work harder. Putting the heart through constant emotional distress disrupts the body’s balance and can lead to physical disease. As many have said, “happiness is a choice” and so is sustainable joy.
In order for the brain to more consistently release chemicals that promote healing and well-being, we need to ensure that the data that goes to it from the heart are in that direction. It is not true that the brain says I am fine when the heart feels bad, and it can be a great example of inconsistency. So just as we get our brains to think the right things, we can teach our heart, which is the main command center, to feel good emotions, to absorb the positive, and to avoid the negative. By increasing awareness of what we are “feeding” the command center, we can be intentional about what we allow in, what we give permission to spread to the rest of the body, and even how we inspire others to feel around us.
Following are steps to stimulate positive emotions for greater heart-brain coherence:
- 1. Bring focused attention to your heart. You can also place your hand(s) over it for a physical connection.
2. Use Relaxing Breath Techniques. Breathe in for four seconds, hold for seven seconds, exhale slowly with a wooshing sound for eight seconds. Repeat four times. This lowers the heart rate.
3. Bring to mind something that makes you feel love, joy, or thankfulness. You can visualize spending time with a child or a pet, or a place that gives you peace of mind, or you can try to be in that feeling spiritually.
4. Amplify positive emotions that come forth such as amusement, hope, or inspiration. You can even give them happy or soothing colors. Allow a smile to form as you savor the moment. 😊
5. Visualize sending these feelings (input) from your heart to your brain. Be as creative as you’d like, such as picturing them as healing light energy or shooting stars as your brain tingles. There is no limit to creativity…
6. Expand to other areas of your body including cells and organs. Notice how they respond. Perhaps your cells are now vibrating with the energy of joy. I see my cells dancing!😊
Studies show that a prayer of gratitude or “heartfelt love” also increases cardiac coherence. These are easy to execute interventions one can do any time anywhere. I don’t want you to try it once, but to make it a part of your life.
We can do the same for these practices, just as we reinforce it with repetition while developing a new habit cognitively. Doing any variation of these exercises right before bedtime can lead to deeply restful and restorative sleep as it clears out concerns. Be purposeful about what your final thoughts are before you hit the sack as they will flow right into sleep.
Heart and Brain Coherence in other Areas
Heart coherence training has permeated multiple industries from medical and corporate to law enforcement and educational environments. Coherency enables the ability to pick up data in another’s heart, beyond what the person has shared verbally. For example, a patient may be holding back fears. When the physician’s heart is already in a state of tranquility, this enables the doctor to be present and viscerally connected to respond with patient-centered insights.
The patient’s heart can be also be influenced to feel calm just by this transfer of energy which can trigger an alpha state supporting resilience, optimism, and the ability to see options. When patients feel understood by a doctor’s intuition, stemming from the heart-brain, innately the patient’s level of trust and comfort increases, induced by oxytocin (the love hormone) released by the head-brain.
Can a Person’s Negative Heart Energy Affect Mine?
When we are in a highly coherent state, we are less likely to be affected by another’s negativity. We are able to remain emotionally composed and adaptable to whatever is going on in the external world. In fact, we can disrupt the incoherence in another person, who is much more susceptible to external influences. We can even enter a room and sway the hearts and brain waves around us.
When you feel light and joyful, take notice of how you got there. If you are in the company of another, allow yourself to wonder if it is your heart or theirs who caused that to happen? The next time you encounter others, practice using your heart’s electromagnetic energy field to redirect their emotions to the upside. In what ways can you put to good use your most powerfully attracting organ? 😊
Expanding Electromagnetic Field of the Heart
It is human nature to let ourselves become fixed in certain patterns that can hold us back by constricting the heart, limiting what we are able or willing to feel and know. It is by changing these patterns that you can allow your heart to express fully and to give light and love to yourself and then out into the world.
Our tendency is to seek out patterns of safety and comfort and security, but in truth these are transient and fleeting, often mere shadows of what we had imagined they could offer to us. Their effect does not last long, for our restlessness surfaces eventually.
Why the restlessness? Part of the reason is that we are not made to remain static or unchanging. We are wired to be curious, to move beyond what we are. Each of us has an unquenchable passion to find answers, experience life, and unlock our true potential.
Heart Awareness
You experience this electromagnetic field of the heart every day, every moment. It apprises you of the presence of others. Through it you intersect at the energy level, the electromagnetic level, and sense your connection with other human beings.
The thought of changing our ways and beliefs — our fixed patterns — can frighten us, and some of us would do anything to prevent whatever we think that change means or could bring. We feel threatened by it. Yet if we yield to that fear we begin to close down the heart and attempt to shut down its expanded field, to retreat from connection and communication with others who do not share our “safe” patterns.
Yet even that does not really work. Eventually, all things change. And that is the conundrum — as humans we seek security and predictability, but as humans, it is the last thing we are capable of sustaining.
We are always, in the present moment, in the midst of change that appears in the next moment, and the next, and the next. This is how life flows. This is the heartbeat of life. Making peace with this consciousness is the most appropriate way. 😊
The heart seeks love. The heart IS love. This gives it immense power.
With Love…
