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Heart ThoughtsHeart ThoughtsWhy not do heart thoughts every five minutes, for two heart beats, just because you can? Did you know that your heart has a brain, and that heart thoughts can keep your heart beat coherent, generating a cascade of healthy benefits for every cell in your entire body? Try this and see how you feel. Take 10 deep breaths, imagining the breath coming into your chest and out your back, just flowing past your heart, and then place the thought or image or both of someone you care for inside the volume of your chest, next to your heart, and hold the image or thought there for a bit, and note how you feel. I feel love when I do that because I imagine my children's faces inside my chest, and the feeling is a very gentle feeling which slows my entire aging process down, replacing it with antiaging chemistry. (At 61, I do not need to get older any faster than I already am). The process that I have just asked you to participate in is part of the HeartMath process, which is an integral part of my counseling practice. I have taught HeartMath heart rate variability biofeedback to hundreds of folks since 2001, most referred for domestic violence or anger management counseling. And I wanted to learn it because of its potential health benefits for me as I age. How often can you do HeartMath? How often does your heart beat? The Brain in Your HeartNot too many years ago, lucky for us, a scientist or two discovered that the heart has a brain of its own, actually a very sophisticated nervous system all of its own, a nervous system that can learn and make decisions independently of any other brain I have.And the heart intelligence is affiliative and cooperative when I access it, which certainly fits with the heart being the seat of love for poets and lovers throughout history. For example, someone working with chakra energy from a different tradition may speak to a "heart opening," which sounds strange to those of us from a different, more cognitive tradition. Which brings us back to heart thoughts. The HeartMath heart thoughts process is so effective because your heart will learn through a biofeedback training that whenever you have heart thoughts, it is to change the chemistry in your body to a chemistry based on heart rate variability coherence. The major hormone flowing through your body at that moment is DHEA, which has been called the antiaging hormone, and you can do this on demand. (Why not do heart thoughts every five minutes for two heart beats, just because you can?) The time between heart beats is consistent, so the pneumatic and electromagnetic impacts of your body on every cell in your body are creating a rhythm of coherence. Heart Thoughts Open the Heart Which Opens the Higher Perceptual Centers?Let me see if I have this process correct? All I need to do to open higher perceptual centers in my brain for more effective decisons about issues in my life is make my heart rate coherent by learning the HeartMath process? Yes, that is correct.HeartMath heart thoughts make the brain a more effective data processor, and make things like neurogenisis and neuroplasticity happen more effectively in my brain because of the harmony in my body. So HeartMath training can be part of the stress management or novel learning experience that the brain fitness experts say is necessary for the growth of new brain cells (neurogenesis) and new connections between neurons for very important neuroplasticity? Absolutely. In fact, Sharon Begley has reported about how meditation by Buddhist monks has been shown to change the structure of the brain. It appears that we are learning how to manage our inner experience much more effectively.
Here is Where to Get the Complete Scoop...
HeartMath and Your Brain's Fitness-They are Synergistic
Increasing My Attentional Skills Makes My HeartMath Work Better?
Would You Share Something That You Are Grateful For?
When I was beginning my personal growth journey, a wise person told me that when I was feeling resentful or afraid or sad, that I should remember the phrase "gratitude is the attitude" when I was ready to feel better. That phrase has helped me feel better tens of thousands of times. |
Did You See That Recent Reference to the Self-Healing Brain?
Brain Fitness and Neuroplasticity Exercises
Stretch Your Axons and Flex Your Dendrites?
There are something like 450 different models of counseling and/or psychotherapy. Of that number, perhaps 10-15 models enjoy any professional support or research credibility.
However, every one of those models involves your brain.
Want to make your brain more effective?
Brainfit for Life, by Simon Evans, Ph.D. and Paul Burghardt, Ph.D.
Mind Sparke Brain Fitness Pro Impulse Control
For your New Years Day Resolutions! Warning-has a side effect of increased IQ.
How is Your Attention? Try Your Hand at the Stroop Test.
To test your attention using the stroop test, read the color the word is printed in rather than the text of the word. So the text could be the word red, but if the word red is printed in blue, then the correct response if blue.
Ultimate Brain Fitness Program
Neurogenesis and Neuroplasticity
Replacement Parts for Your Brain?
Neurogenesis is the term used to describe the recently discovered capacity of the human brain to grow new neurons.
That is right, our brain is not physically fixed, it is constantly changing, losing some neurons, growing some neurons, making or deleting connections, and we can encourage that growth by attending to the Pillars Of Brain Fitness.
Those pillars are;
Physical Exercise
Nutrition
Sleep
Stress Management
Novel Learning Experience
Ultimate Brain Fitness Program
Want the Book On Brainfitness?
Chocolate is a Wonderful Counseling Tool, Don't You Think?
Looking for Information On the Grieving Process?
Many of the visitors to this site are looking for information about grief and grieving, and many have utilized the information found in
Back to Life! A Personal Grief Guidebook to plot their progress through the grieving process. Jennie's work has been a gift to many.
Thankyou for coming to visit me, please leave me a note about topics you might like me to cover.
Mike