Expand Your Heart

                As I was ruminating on this post today, I was given such an opportunity to practice what I preach.  I was driving a “new to me” car and was unsure just how much gas might be left in my tank when the gas light goes on.  So I pulled into the nearest gas station.  The station has 18 pumps and 25 cars jockeying to get in first.  I’m not sure if I have the gas to go anywhere else, so I resolve to wait (with patience).  As I sat there in line, giving plenty of room for cars to pull out, a little car zooms in and cuts us all off.

                Now there are several possible reactions to this and much as I hate to admit it, I took the least attractive option.  I gave the car the evil eye and proceeded to get a good, righteous anger on.  In the midst of this revving up to ramming speed, I remembered my blog post and changed my attitude. At first I just released caring, but then moved on to loving all of the people at the gas station.  They weren’t any different from me.  We all just wanted to get gas quickly and get out of there.  As I pulled away with a happy heart I realized the whole maneuver had taken just over 11 minutes.  Definitely not worth losing your inner harmony over.

                In yoga we do heart openers, in BioGenesis creating we feel the warmth of the heart, in HeartMath we focus on heart coherence, but where to begin to find this feeling place?  How to find ease and harmony with any situation?  Though I had heard all the words before, tried meditation, practiced yoga, read the books, the first technique that ever worked for me came from Dr. Amen’s HeartMath.  What follows is a summary of his Quick Coherence Technique and this is a link to the webpage  http://www.heartmath.org/free-services/tools-for-well-being/quick-coherence-adult.html.

1. Heart Focus. Focus your attention on the area around your heart, the area in the center of your chest. If you prefer, the first couple of times you try it, place your hand over the center of your chest to help keep your attention in the heart area.

2. Heart Breathing. Breathe deeply but normally and feel as if your breath is coming in and going out through your heart area. As you inhale, feel as if your breath is flowing in through the heart, and as you exhale, feel it leaving through this area. Breathe slowly and casually, a little deeper than normal. Continue breathing with ease until you find a natural inner rhythm that feels good to you.

3. Heart Feeling. As you maintain your heart focus and heart breathing, activate a positive feeling. Recall a positive feeling, a time when you felt good inside, and try to re-experience the feeling. One of the easiest ways to generate a positive, heart-based feeling is to remember a special place you’ve been to or the love you feel for a close friend or family member or treasured pet. This is the most important step.

I am a scientist at heart so I have included a small explanation of why this works below, copied directly from the HeartMath store website http://store.heartmath.org/.  Please feel free to skip it if this is not your thing, but give this wonderful method a chance.  It can change your life.  The least that can happen is restore your peace of mind and that is no small thing.

                 

The heart is a primary generator of rhythmic patterns in the human body, and possesses a far more extensive communication system with the brain than do other major organs. In addition, the heart plays a particularly important role in the generation of emotion. With every heart beat, the heart transmits complex patterns of neurological, hormonal, pressure, and electromagnetic information to the brain and throughout the body. As a critical nodal point in many interacting systems - physiological, cognitive and emotional - the heart is uniquely positioned as a powerful entry point into the communication network that connects body, mind, emotions and spirit.

Doc Childre and the research team at the Institute of HeartMath (IHM) have shown that techniques which combine intentional heart focus with the generation of sustained positive feelings lead to a beneficial mode of physiological function they have termed psychophysiological coherence. Correlates of psychophysiological coherence include a sine wave-like pattern in the heart rhythms, increased heart-brain synchronization (alpha rhythms become more synchronized to the heart) and entrainment between heart rhythm patterns, respiration, blood pressure rhythms and other physiological systems. Although psychophysiological coherence is a natural state that can occur spontaneously while people are feeling genuine positive emotions and during sleep, sustained periods are generally rare.

 As an interesting side note, my husband had a great example of the difference between our "normal" state and coherence.  I love some of the songs from The Pogues, a celtic punk band.  One day my husband played me some of their other music...
Here are The Pogues

Here are The Pogues on HeartMath. Reach inside and expand your heart.