DOES YOUR HEART SENSE YOUR EMOTIONAL STATE
Lets explore the link between your heart health and your
emotions. The heart's more than a pump — it actually sends messages to the
brain. Research done at he Institute of
HeartMath supports this theory.
An appreciative heart is good medicine. Psychologists once maintained that emotions were purely mental expressions generated by the brain alone. We now know that this is not true — emotions have as much to do with the heart and body as they do with the brain. Of the bodily organs, the heart plays a particularly important role in our emotional experience. The experience of an emotion results from the brain, heart and body acting in concert.
The Institute of HeartMath, a research center dedicated to the study of the heart and the physiology of emotions, has conducted numerous studies identifying the relationship between emotions and the heart. A number of their studies have provided new insight into understanding how the activity of the heart is indeed linked to our emotions and our health, vitality and well-being.
Emotions and the heart
Research studies conducted by HeartMath define a critical link between the heart and brain. The heart is in a constant two-way dialogue with the brain — our emotions change the signals the brain sends to the heart and the heart responds in complex ways. However, we now know that the heart sends more information to the brain than the brain sends to the heart. And the brain responds to the heart in many important ways.
This research explains how the heart responds to emotional
and mental reactions and why certain emotions stress the body and drain our
energy. As we experience feelings like anger, frustration, anxiety and
insecurity, our heart rhythm patterns become more erratic. These erratic
patterns are sent to the emotional centers in the brain, which it recognizes as
negative or stressful feelings. These signals create the actual feelings we
experience in the heart area and the body. The erratic heart rhythms also block
our ability to think clearly.
Many studies have found that the risk of developing heart disease is significantly increased for people who often experience stressful emotions such as irritation, anger or frustration. These emotions create a chain reaction in the body — stress hormone levels increase, blood vessels constrict, blood pressure rises, and the immune system is weakened. If we consistently experience these emotions, it can put a strain on the heart and other organs, and eventually lead to serious health problems.
Conversely, HeartMath’s research shows that when we experience heart-felt emotions like gratitude, love, care, appreciation and compassion, the heart produces a very different rhythm. In this case it is a smooth pattern that looks like gently rolling hills. Harmonious heart rhythms, which reflect positive emotions, are considered to be indicators of cardiovascular efficiency and nervous system balance. This lets the brain know that the heart feels good and often creates a gentle warm feeling in the area of the heart. Learning to shift out of stressful emotional reactions to these heartfelt emotions can have profound positive effects on the cardiovascular system and on our overall health. It is easy to see how our heart and emotions are linked and how we can shift our heart into a more efficient state by monitoring its rhythms.
Benefits come from being appreciative and grateful
The feeling of appreciation/gratitude is one of the most concrete and easiest positive emotions for individuals to self-generate and sustain for longer periods. Almost anyone can find something to genuinely appreciate or be grateful for. Especially in a time of despair, simply recalling a time when you felt sincere appreciation and recreating that feeling or having gratitude for basic things in life, you can increase your heart rhythm coherence, reduce emotional stress and improve your health, happiness and well-being.
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