part0007

“Picture heart intelligence as the flow of awareness, understanding and intuitive guidance we experience when the mind and emotions are brought into coherent alignment with the heart. This intelligence steps down the power of love from universal source into our life’s interactions in practical, approachable ways which inform us of a straighter path to our fulfillment.”

There are many aspects to heart intelligence that we’ll touch on from different angles throughout this book. Most people reference their heart as something more than just their physical heart. When I was teaching meditation to children in a public school classroom of seven year olds, I asked them, “Point to your real self,” and everyone in the class pointed to their heart. They naturally felt their heart was who they really are. Regardless of race, religion or ethnicity, throughout history people have referred to their heart as their source of being, intuition and wisdom. In most every language, we find metaphors of the heart like, “listen to your heart,” “go to your heart for the answer,” or “put your heart into it.” Many ancient cultures, including the Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Babylonians and Greeks referred to the heart as a source of intelligence . They maintained that the heart is the primary organ capable of influencing and directing one's emotions, morality and decision-making ability, so they consequently attached enormous emotional and moral significance to its behavior. Over thousands of years, most often without knowing about one another, cultures across the planet seemed to share a similar knowledge about the heart as a source of intelligence and inner guidance.

From my personal experience teaching Gestalt psychology to adult classes in the early 1970s, I realized that the head and the heart were two different intelligence systems. There was nothing that I could find in the psychological literature at that time that could explain what I was observing. When a student was in conflict about a relationship or career issue, I would place two pillows on the floor and have the student pretend one pillow was the head and the other pillow was the heart. I would have students sit on the head pillow and have their head talk to their heart. After sharing their thoughts and concerns, I’d have them move to the heart pillow and tell their head what their heart’s view of the problem was and what their heart was feeling. It was often like two different people talking from two different reference points of awareness. Then I’d have them go back to the head pillow and respond to their heart. After switching pillows in this way 3 or 4 times, they’d settle in their heart and speak from their heart’s wisdom. What occurred was an obvious shift in the depth of what they would say and a different energetic quality that was palpable to them and the whole class. The intuitive insights that emerged from bringing their head and heart together resulted in a solution to their conflict or a clear next step. I witnessed this so many times I was convinced that the heart was accessing a source of intelligence.

When I met Doc Childre in the mid 1980s and heard him talk about “heart intelligence,” I immediately knew what he meant, though I wasn’t familiar with the term. He invited me and others to help create an institute to explore heart intelligence through research. I accepted the offer with enthusiasm because it resonated with my past studies and experience with the heart.

As we started our research we asked ourselves, "Are the spiritual and physical heart connected in any measurable way? Is what people refer to as heartfelt emotions just an aspect of the brain or is the physical heart involved in emotional experience? Is it involved in intuition?” These are some of the queries we pondered as we formed the HeartMath research center in the early 1990s. It was important to understand how the heart and brain communicate and to investigate the heart’s role in emotional experience, intuition and self-regulation. So we formed a scientific advisory board of esteemed brain researchers, cardiologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, physicists and engineers who were all interested in researching any connection between the physical heart and the spiritual heart.

Our research began with exploring the latest findings in the fields of neuroscience, neuro-cardiology, psychology, physiology, biochemistry and biophysics. In synthesizing research from these different disciplines, it was surprising to discover that the physical heart sends information to the brain and body through at least four different pathways: a neurological communication system (through ascending pathways in the autonomic nervous system); bio-physical communication (the pulse wave); biochemical messaging (the heart secretes a number of hormones); and, through the electromagnetic field created by the heart.[1] We also discovered that what we feel influences and is influenced by the activity of the physical heart and that our feelings are a key aspect to unlocking “heart intelligence.”

The word intelligence comes from the Latin verb intelligere which means to "pick out" or discern. This term “intelligence” has a long history of being linked to metaphysical ideas, including theories of the immortality of the soul.[2] However, exploring "intelligence" was relatively uncommon until the early 1900s. Since then, intelligence has been described in many ways, including our abilities for abstract thought, understanding, self-awareness, communication, reasoning, learning, having emotional knowledge, memory retention, planning, problem solving and more. It’s interesting that as human awareness has evolved, so have our discernments on what intelligence is.

Today, there are numerous definitions of intelligence by scholars with no real consensus. Within many circles, intelligence has been limited to the results of the IQ (Intelligence Quotient) test. There has been much criticism of confining a person’s intelligence to what can be measured by an IQ test. Critics do not dispute the fact that IQ tests can predict certain types of achievement rather well. But, they argue, to base our entire concept of human intelligence on IQ scores alone is to ignore many other important aspects of our abilities.[3]

In 1983, Howard Gardner suggested in his book Frames of Mind that people have multiple intelligences: logical, linguistic, spatial, musical, kinesthetic, intrapersonal (knowing yourself), naturalist and interpersonal (knowing others).[4] This opened educators’ thinking about intelligence and some schools began to teach to these different intelligences. From there a series of expanded views of intelligence evolved.

In 1995, Daniel Goleman wrote the groundbreaking book, Emotional Intelligence, which sparked a new movement, one that took emotions out of the closet and put them on the forefront of awareness. Goleman's exhaustive review of the research into the nature of emotions and intelligence revealed that our success in life is based as much or more on our ability to manage our emotions than on our intellectual or analytical capabilities. He found that our ability to self-regulate and direct our emotions is critical for success in a wide range of occupations and for building and maintaining friendships.[5]

Goleman’s work helped to spawn a new field of scientific inquiry called “positive psychology” based on research findings that positive emotional states actually broaden our thinking. Barbara Fredrickson’s “broaden and build” theory describes how negative emotions can’t get you into states that enable you to appreciate multiple points of view or facilitate problem solving and creativity. Only positive emotional states like gratitude and love can do that. [6] Now researchers are talking about a positive “collective intelligence” as human communities evolve towards higher order complexity and harmony.

When we began our research on heart intelligence, we had subjects practice heart-focused breathing techniques while generating feelings of appreciation, love, care or compassion. They frequently reported experiences of heightened intuition and insight for more effective choices in daily living. This gave us reason to suspect that heart-focused practices stimulated our intelligence beyond our normal range of perception. We understood that many sages and philosophers have talked about an intuitive intelligence that provides direct perception and clarity independent of the mind’s reasoning processes. We wanted to understand the physiological pathways, so our next step was to look at how the heart and brain communicate.

In-depth research into the physiology of heart-brain communication began in the second half of the 20th century. During the 1960s and ’70s, pioneer physiologists John and Beatrice Lacey conducted research that showed the heart actually communicates with the brain in ways that greatly affect how we perceive and react to the world around us.[7, 8]

In 1991, the year that the HeartMath Institute was established, pioneer neuro-cardiologist Dr. J. Andrew Armour introduced the term "heart brain."[9] He found that the heart possessed its own complex intrinsic nervous system that acts as a brain and functions independently from the brain in the head. This “heart-brain” has been shown to sense, process and encode information internally. There is evidence that the heart’s brain possesses the capacity to learn, and even has short and long-term memory, and neural plasticity. Moreover, ascending neurological signals sent from the heart to the brain continuously interact with and modify the activity in the brain’s higher cognitive and emotional centers.[10] In this way, input originating in the heart is a major and consistent influence in the very processes underlying our perception, cognition and emotion. At the physical level, the heart not only possesses an innate form of intelligence, but, through its extensive communication with the brain and body, the heart is intimately involved in how we think, feel and respond to the world.[1]

Today, scientists have learned a great deal more about the heart’s independent and intelligent functions, which is still not common knowledge for many people, even clinicians and other researchers. Here are some of the findings:

In the early ‘90s, our research center found that negative or stressful emotions threw the nervous system out of sync, and when that happened our heart rhythms became disordered and appeared jagged on a heart rhythm monitor.[11] This placed increased stress on the physical system and negatively impacted mental functions. Positive emotions like appreciation, love, care and compassion, in contrast, were found to increase order and balance in the nervous system, and produce smooth, harmonious, sine-wave like (coherent) heart rhythms. These harmonious rhythms reduced stress but they did more: They actually enhanced people’s ability to think more clearly and to self-regulate their emotional responses. [1]

We found that through learning how to decipher the messages we receive from our heart, we gain the keen perception needed to effectively manage our emotions in the midst of life’s challenges. The more we learn to listen to and follow our heart intelligence, the more balanced and coherent our emotions become. The more emotionally intelligent people are, the more they have been schooled by the wisdom and intelligence of the heart. Without the regulating influence of the heart’s intelligence, our minds easily fall prey to reactive emotions such as insecurity, anger, fear and blame, as well as other energy-draining reactions and behaviors. It became evident that emotional self-regulation supports access to our heart’s intelligence. In addition, mental clarity and intuition are heightened as people learn to shift into a more coherent heart rhythm, which enables them to listen and connect more deeply to their heart’s intuitive signals.[12]

When I was a student at the University of Chicago studying psychology, I was introduced to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), an evolution of psychotherapy designed to help people change their perceptions and thoughts about a situation or event, which in theory would then change their emotional state. CBT is still the most common form of therapy today and many would say the most effective because it’s helped millions of people. But, like most methods, CBT works better for some than others. Our deeply held emotional beliefs can undermine our mind’s rational and conceptual thinking. A focus on emotional self-awareness and nonjudgmental acceptance of our feelings is often an essential first step in releasing emotional resistance. This opens the heart so that intuitive heart intelligence can provide insight that allows a bigger picture to emerge in our perceptions and facilitate mental and emotional healing.

The ability to manage our emotions, not suppress them but enable them to transform into higher quality feelings and perceptions, is essential for the advancement of individual and collective human consciousness. If we look at history, we see how emotional mismanagement resulting in blame, hate and retribution has created endless loops of suffering on our planet. The power to transform thoughts and emotions into new perceptions is facilitated by learning to listen more deeply to our heart’s intuitive guidance and wisdom. This increases the ability to choose our emotional responses instead of mechanically reacting. We can learn to recognize emotions and attitudes that drain us, then replace them with emotions and attitudes that are regenerative and provide more enlightened perspectives. Gaining this ability is one of the primary benefits of practicing tools to access the heart’s intelligence.

It can be challenging to distinguish the guidance of our heart from the mental and emotional beliefs that often shape our thoughts. It’s encouraging to know that the more we practice discerning the difference between our heart’s guidance and our mind’s persuasions, it does get easier to distinguish. At the start, it can seem hard and discouraging at times. Yet with practice, we can learn to recognize our heart intuition has a different quality or tone than intellectual or conceptual thoughts or emotional desires and beliefs.

You may have found, as I did years ago, that following what you thought was your heart got you into trouble. For example, you might have felt a tingling and your heart beating fast about dating a certain person, but it turned out to be a bad experience. We can easily confuse an emotional sensation for our heart’s intuition, and follow that allure instead. It takes practice to discern the difference. I learned through trial and error that the lure of attraction wasn’t always a signal from my true heart.

The heart often whispers to us with quiet common sense. Often it’s our heart telling us, “I don’t know if I should take the job even though it pays a lot.” Then our mind decides to take the job, because in most cases money choices usually win over heart choices until we become empowered by our higher discernment capacities. The mind tends to rationalize our desires and reactions. As my friend Amy says, “When my mind’s judgments and reactions are in control, I feel justified in being angry. My heart is decidedly different – softer and simpler. It takes courage to listen to your heart. It might say, ‘Just let it go’ or ‘It’s no big deal,’ and you may be afraid you’re going to let someone get away with something or that the other person is going to walk all over you. But when you have the courage to do what your heart says, you feel better and things seem to work out better.”

Driving at Rush Hour. Head: Damn this traffic! Stupid driver, slowing everyone down. When are they going to widen this road? She just cut in deliberately! Heart: Traffic isn’t going to move until it moves—no use getting upset and draining energy. Turn on the radio and listen to some music.

At Work. Head : Who does she think she is? It’s not fair she gets the good assignments and I’m left with crap—makes me furious! Heart : I know things are tough for her and she’s running fast. I need to keep my cool, not get sucked into this drama and backbiting. Maybe I’m the one who needs a change in attitude. I think I’ll invite her out to lunch .

As you practice listening for the difference in tone, you may find that the mind and heart are like two different radio stations. When you tune to the heart station, your attitude shifts and you look for responses that are better suited for the wholeness of the situation. The mind becomes a big winner in the process. It actually becomes more rational . Heart intelligence provides the mind with a bigger picture that allows it to consider what is best for oneself while being more inclusive of the wholeness.

I have also learned that the most effective way to balance my emotional nature and clear unresolved issues is to access my heart and practice self-compassion, compassion for others, appreciation and kindness. These heart-based practices have increasingly enabled me to distinguish intuitive heart feelings from mental and emotional preferences or concerns. In our research, we found that intuitive insight occurs more frequently when people are aligned with the core values of their heart. It often comes as a high-speed intuitive download activated by genuine feelings of appreciation, compassion or kindness. For example, many people talk about the benefits of appreciation or keeping a gratitude journal. We realized that when people express gratitude or appreciation, these are acts of intelligence that create more insight and effective outcomes (they are not just something sweet or philosophical).

Many people practice some form of prayer or meditation to discern their heart’s intuitive signals. Mindfulness practice has recently become very popular. It teaches people to observe their thoughts and feelings without judging them or getting hooked into them. The practice of “loving kindness” gives you more capacity to do that and is also an important aspect of mindfulness. John Kabat-Zinn, author of numerous books on mindfulness wrote, “Awareness, like a field of compassionate intelligence located within your own heart, takes it all in and serves as a source of peace within the turmoil, much as a mother would be a source of peace, compassion and perspective for a child who was upset. She knows that whatever is troubling her child will pass, so she can provide comfort, reassurance and peace in her very being. As we cultivate mindfulness in our own hearts, we can direct a similar compassion towards ourselves.” [13]

Humanity will in time come to realize that the heart contains a higher intelligence software package, designed to provide the intuitive guidance needed for navigating life. More people than ever are going to the heart to find greater ease and flow in life. Emotional intelligence is part of it, but people instinctively know there’s something seriously intelligent about the heart or they wouldn’t say, “When there is nowhere else to go for an answer, go to your heart.” The fun question is, why not go there to start with, rather than everywhere else first.