Whole-heart Aware-apy (TM)

To get the benefits of Whole-Heart Aware-apy, one must first understand the power of the heart and then practice aligning with and impacting one's physiology. Below is a brief article on the power of the heart and a brief explanation of the exercises you can do to begin aligning with the energy of the heart.

It is the function of love to unite all things unto itself and to hold all things together by extending its wholeness. ~A Course in Miracles

Effects of Positive Emotions

How does positive emotion affect physical, mental and emotional wellbeing of the body? Institute of HeartMath® “research shows that the …process of focusing attention in the area of the heart while experiencing a positive feeling, changes the patterns of information flowing along this pathway [from heart to brain] to a more coherent and harmonious pattern.” By focusing on the heart and allowing feelings of love and appreciation to expand and radiate outward, our systems come into alignment and a coherent state is created in the body. This can produce a feeling of “amplified peace.”

Positive emotions increase production of the hormone DHEA. This hormone has been called the ‘anti-aging hormone’ since it seems to decrease with age. Low levels of DHEA have been found to be a factor in many medical problems, such as sleep disorders, diabetes, chronic fatigue, high cholesterol and depression. When the DHEA levels are high, cortisol levels lower, causing feelings of revitalization. In one study, participants lowered cortisol levels by 23% and increased DHEA by 100% through feelings of love and appreciation.

In related research, subjects were monitored through feelings of both anger and compassion and tested on the effect to the immune system. While the experience of anger inhibited their levels of the immune antibody, secretory Ig-A (S-IgA), subjects were able to significantly increase their levels of S-IgA following a five-minute experience of positive emotion. It appears that feeling good is, in fact, good for you.

Magnetic Field of the Heart

Ampere’s Law states that electric currents produce magnetic fields. The magnetic field is created when an electric current runs through a conductor. In 1963, G. Baule and R. McFee measured the magnetic field of the heart generated by the heart muscle’s electrical activity. This energy field has been measured up to fifteen feet from the body although the increasing range of detection says more about the sensitivity of the measuring instruments than it does about the size of the field. According to James Oschman, “The biomagnetic field of the heart extends indefinitely into space. While its strength diminishes with distance, there is no point at which we can say the field ends.” Progress in instrumentation design has revealed the strength of the heart’s magnetic field to be the most powerful in the body and research shows that cardio-electromagnetic communication can be generated through coherence building techniques.        

Three Steps to Coherence

There are three basic steps to creating coherence through the HeartMath technique of Heart Lock-In; shifting attention to the heart; breathing slowly and deeply; and generating a feeling of appreciation. Shifting the focus from the head to the heart helps to disengage from stressful thinking, and is the first step to getting “the mind out of the way so that coherent, positive feelings are driving the process.” Integrating the shift in focus with attention to slow, deep breathing encourages the emergence of the entrainment pattern. The word “spirit” from the Latin root word, “spiritus” means breath. Breathing moves energy and energizes the heart as it serves as a connector between the energetic and spiritual bodies. Conscious breathing patterns cause peptides to disperse throughout the cerebrospinal fluid restoring balance to the body. The coherent pattern is maintained through the feelings of appreciation. By practicing heart-focused breathing and sustaining feelings of appreciation and gratitude, the system comes into and maintains a state of coherence.

These are simple steps and can be done by people of all ages in different settings. Techniques designed to create heart-generated coherence have been successfully used by athletes, people in high-risk or high stress jobs, and students for test anxiety reduction and learning enhancement.