If you’re unfamiliar with the HeartMath System of wellness, developed by Doc Childre, this new year may be the perfect time to examine the benefits of this groundbreaking approach to holistic wellness.
The HeartMath claim…
“Access the power of your heart’s intelligence to improve your focus and creativity, elevate your emotional clarity, lower your stress and anxiety levels, strengthen your immune system, promote your body’s optimal performance, and slow the aging process.”
Those are some serious assertions that might make many skeptical. And yet, the system is science-based, with decades of research to back it up.
More than 30 years of research have shown that the heart’s “intelligence” affects emotions and physical health, especially when it comes to handling stress, and specifically what you can do to balance heart rhythms, reduce stress hormones, and boost your immune system. The “intelligence” mentioned above refers to both the heart’s “brain,” or the 40,000 neurons found in the heart (the same number in the brain itself), and the intuitive signals the heart sends, including feelings of love, happiness, care, and appreciation.
How the HeartMath System Works
Synchronizing your breathing with your heart rhythms while focusing on positive emotions has been shown to reduce the negative effects of stress, improve relaxation, and build resilience with just a few minutes of daily use.
When such positive emotions are felt, they not only change patterns of activity in the nervous system; they also reduce the production of the stress hormone cortisol. When there’s less cortisol, there’s more DHEA, the so-called fountain of youth hormone known to have anti-aging effects on many of the body’s systems.
The HeartMath Solution outlines 10 steps for harnessing the power of the heart’s intelligence, including ways to manage your emotions and keep energy levels high.
- Learn how to transform stress from an energy deficit to an energy gain
- Identify situations that create tension and can then take steps to squash the irritability
- Find greater emotional control and resiliency to stress and emotional triggers
- Develop improved emotional flexibility
- Experience more self-compassion
- Eliminate toxic neural pathways
- Deeper, more restful sleep
- Overall improvement in wellness
This is not about “forcing” yourself to be positive despite the world around you. Rather, once you learn to breathe and let yourself have calming thoughts, you will feel yourself attaining a new level of balance, closer to the one you were looking for.
“Because of the HeartMath system, I now evaluate most situation as energy gain or deficit. Whenever I recognize a situation that creates deficit, I try to minimize its negative impact. On the other hand, I also cultivate situations, feelings that create an energy gain. This alone is worth the price of the book and more: I now have a rational view on stress and can take action, with methods proposed in this book or any other method that I can integrate in the plan.” (Reader review for the HeartMath Solution book.)
