I am so grateful that there has been excellent research done on this transformative power of our hearts. I love research. I find that I have a deeply suspicious streak in my nature. Many people have claimed that something was true because they wanted it to be true. Often, when I looked into their assertions, their claims turned out to be mere wishful thinking. I like to see if the data is there to support what they claim. If we are really engaging something of this magnitude, shouldn’t we be able to measure its effect on our body and emotions?
Fortunately, I came across the exciting work of HeartMath®
. I had asked my heart to guide me to a greater level of personal skill in my spirituality and a greater way to help others. The result was that I found myself exploring this avenue of research
.
I actually thought at that time that I knew all about the heart, and about love. Surprise – I didn’t. I found that I actually did not know much about it at all.
I got to work extensively with HeartMath’s research. I saw how, when the heart feelings we have in our memories are activated, we are freed of physical and emotional reactions created by the brain. We are changed. I felt it physically and emotionally when I did their exercise, but it meant a great deal to me to also see it on the computer screen.
More specifically, there is a change in the heart, which their researchers are able to identify, that shows one of the profound impacts of our spiritual hearts. This measurable change is a change from a disordered pattern of the heart’s speeding up and slowing down into an ordered pattern called coherence.
The heart’s speeding up and slowing down is called heart rate variability (HRV). It is examined by graphing the heart rate over time. When we are in a state of frustration, the heart rate variability graph (HRV) is highly disordered. There is no pattern to it. The scientists call that an incoherent pattern. When a person shifts from a feeling of frustration to a sincere
heart feeling such as appreciation, or a heart-filled memory, this pattern becomes ordered or coherent.
This is not a minor change. The speeding up and slowing down of the heart is literally transformed from disorder to order, from incoherence to coherence.
This change in the heart’s HRV pattern physically changes the parts of the brain we reviewed earlier – the amygdala and the thalamus. This is important because the thalamus impacts the cognitive patterns of our brain, and the amygdala impacts our emotional responses. We think and feel better when our heart is in its coherent state
.
What causes this shift? What created the coherent state in the heart? Feeling your heart feelings. That powerful experience when you remember – and feel again the feelings of the moment – when your heart was full. Those feelings cause your heart to change. Your heart then causes your brain to change, up-leveling your emotions and your thinking.
Those feelings transform your heart, which transforms your brain, which transforms your emotions. They don’t just improve them a little bit. Their impact is to transform each of these crucial elements of our perceptual nature to an entirely different level of operation.
This discovery that tells us how we can, efficiently and effectively, directly access our heart – and through it our spiritual heart – is to me the most important spiritual discovery of our time. I have seen this accomplished by thousands of people. They come from all different walks of life, and all different belief systems. It is simple. It is direct. It is effective. It is direct connection through your physical heart to your spiritual heart
.
It is actually possible to watch this happen to your own heart in real time, using a device that HeartMath®
developed, called the emWave®
. This device shows, on a computer screen (or on a tablet or iPhone®
), this amazing transformational change in your heart. You can watch your heart speeding up and slowing down, as the line goes up or down in real time. You can choose a heart feeling – a memory filled with a powerful feeling of joy or connectedness – and watch its effect on your heart. I have found it fascinating to watch my heart pattern (HRV) change as I enter into a powerful memory of a heart-filled moment.
The ability to monitor what happened in the brain and heart was instrumental in the researchers’ being able to identify the steps we can take to implement this powerful shift that connects us with our spiritual hearts. They identified the steps, which I used, testing them on myself. HeartMath®
has allowed me to share their techniques, expressed here in the language that I find most helpful for people. They developed these and other techniques to harness the heart’s transformative power, testing and teaching them as practical tools for effective living. The HeartMath®
researchers have tested thousands of people already,
and there are many thousands more using the emWave to self-test.
I love the science. I love seeing the measured changes. But what I love most of all is the ability to actually do it, to make the changes in myself, to experience the amazing power and wisdom of my spiritual heart. My guess is that you will, too.
