Years ago I read a book called the Heart-Math Solution and found it fascinating. At the time I was in the midst of my ongoing struggle with panic and anxiety attacks and determined to find a solution or fix the underlying issue, I researched and read just about everything I could get my hands on at the time that might offer me some peace and perspective.
I must have read this book around the time I worked at the art gallery because I vividly remember sitting at a stop light on Wilshire Blvd. on my way to work one morning and feeling a panic attack arising. Hoping to stop it before it started, I utilized one of the techniques offered in the book where you imagine breathing through your heart and visualizing it filling with love and in the moment it worked. It obviously had a positive effect on me because I still remember it to this day.
In order for the mind, emotions and body to perform at their best, the heart and brain must be in harmony with one another.
I actually hadn’t thought about it in years, since I found that my daily meditation practice pretty much cured my anxiety back in 2014 (thankfully), until the other night when I was watching Missing Links on my favorite network, Gaia (Season 1, Episodes 10 and 11) and Gregg Braden was talking about heart brain harmony and coherence and their shared neural network.
In 1991 it was discovered that we have 40,000 sensory neurites, brain-like cells in our hearts concentrated in such a way that scientists call them the little brain in our heart. This means that they LEARN independently from the cells and neurons in our brain, they THINK independently, FEEL independently from our brain. We have a form of intelligence that functions separately from the brain but can be harmonized with the brain to awaken functions.
Harmonizing the heart and brain through a quick meditation to intentionally achieve a gamma state opens doors of deep intuition, increased focus, allows us faster processing of storage and retrieval, triggers and creates healing within our bodies and stronger immune responses, creates more overall awareness, regulates body function and temperature and produces anti-aging hormones.
Apparently by optimizing a conversation between our heart and our brain we can awaken the greatest potential in our lives. And I don’t know about you but that sounds pretty amazing to me 🙂 Here’s how you do it…
3 Minute Heart Brain Coherence Meditation
You can do this for as long as it feels right to you but typically, just 3 minutes will set into motion a cascade of positive biochemical events in your body that will last up to 6 hours. It takes about 72 hours to build the neurons to reach out and strengthen the connection from your brain to your heart. The more you do it, the stronger the connections become.
You can watch the episode Gregg Braden – Two Powerful Methods to Awaken Heart & Brain Connection and towards the end, watch how he guides you through the heart brain coherence meditation.
I’ve created a quick photo guide below as well, with my messy bedhead and the help of my trusted yogis 😉
1. Shift awareness from your mind to your heart.
You can do this by gently touching your heart center with your hands in a way that’s comfortable.
I like using the prayer hands because my thumbs feel my heartbeat where my flat hand cannot. Once I can feel my heartbeat, all my attention goes right to my heart.
2. Slow your breathing.
Inhale for 5 seconds and hold… then exhale slowly for 5 seconds. In through your nose, out through your mouth.
Slowing down your breathing triggers your body to feel safe.
3. Keeping your hand on your heart and slow breathing… Begin to FEEL… Appreciation, Gratitude, Care, Compassion… through your heart.
Feel one or some combination in your heart while you’re breathing as if your breath is coming from your heart, touching your heart center, you are setting up communication between heart and brain.
That’s it!
The quickest way I can FEEL care and compassion is to think of my dogs and then I feel it all welling up inside of me. Another way to get there for me is when I FEEL lucky. When I think to myself how lucky I am to live in this world, I begin FEELING appreciation and gratitude. Learning to feel it through my heart has taken a little more time, but the more I practice, the better I get.
Our research suggests the heart also is an access point to a source of wisdom and intelligence that we can call upon to live our lives with more balance, greater creativity and enhanced intuitive capacities.
~ Science of the Heart
Learn more The Mysteries of the Heart Infographic and Gregg Braden – Two Powerful Methods to Awaken Heart & Brain Connection, Read the Heart-Math Solution, Researchers develop the first ever 3D map of the heart’s nervous system, providing a foundation for understanding the complexities of heart health
Happy Sunday Lovecats!
* Find all my Self Care Sunday posts here
* Find all my Meditation posts here
* Find all my Wellness posts here
