By Marguerite Jill Dye
Did you know that the way we live and think about ourselves affects our longevity? Counting our blessings and feeling other positive emotions improves our health and extends our lives.
“Miracles occur when we step outside of convention,” Dr. Joe Dispenza, author of “Programming Your Mind to Remarkable Recovery” announced in a Sounds True summit. “Thoughts are the language of the brain. Feelings are the language of the body.” We can reprogram our brains to be a map of the future instead of a record of the past. When we focus on our intention in a mental rehearsal and visualize the future condition we want (i.e., healing), we feel an elevated emotion. It instructs the body and changes it by building new brain circuits and rewiring old programs. “The power that made the body also heals the body,” Dr. Dispenza said. He recommends using meditation to observe ourselves (i.e., our unconscious words, thoughts and deeds) as we become aware of how very unaware we have been. “We must think greater than how we feel and cultivate the elevated emotion.”
Every organ in the human body has the ability to heal under the right conditions: fresh air, clean water, proper nutrition, and positive thoughts, feelings, emotions, and beliefs, according to Gregg Braden, scientist, author, and Templeton Award winner who bridges science and spirituality. The heart sends triggers to the brain (far more than the brain to the heart) and the heart-brain (two way) conversation depends on the quality of the emotions we create in our hearts. “We regulate the conversation through our emotions,” Braden said in the Sounds True summit.
The magnetic power of our hearts is 5,000 times greater than that of our brains. Heart EKGs are 100 times stronger than brain EEGs. Quantum physics explores the field of non-conventional energy and the Divine Matrix. We have 40,000 brain-like cells in our hearts that are called “sensory neurites.” The “little brain in our heart” thinks independently from the brain’s neurons. We’ve been taught to use our brains independently from our hearts, yet harmonizing our hearts’ and brains’ wisdom brings extraordinary rewards.
It takes 72 hours, three days, to establish new neural connections, Braden said. Shifting into heart awareness by touching our heart center and slowing breathing awakens our body’s healing response. Instead of praying for a healing (which acknowledges a current lack), self-regulated healing comes by giving thanks for the healing that has taken place (as it is envisioned and emotionally felt). “The act of feeling the feeling of being healthy and intact triggers the body to reflect what we expect.”
Research and clinical studies of HeartMath and the HeartMath Institute have proven how critical the heart-brain connection is and the link between our emotions, heart function, and cognitive performance. The quality of emotions we feel in our hearts determines the quality of heart-brain signals’ connection and coherence.
Our world is a reflection of our deepest beliefs. Our bodies mirror what we believe is true about our health and connections, Braden said. Symptoms often stem from unresolved, unconscious beliefs from infancy and childhood (through age seven). Anxiety, frustration, anger, and fear cause stress and impede clear thinking. They send chaotic, extreme patterns to the brain’s emotional center (like radical stock market graphs). Increased stress is a major cause of heart disease: it constricts blood vessels, weakens the immune system, and raises the heartbeat, blood pressure, and stress hormones (cortisol and adrenaline) in preparation for the fight or flight response.
Positive, rejuvenating feelings of gratitude, appreciation, compassion, and care (all loving expressions) have many benefits: they balance the nervous system, synchronize and harmonize the heart and brain’s neural networks, reduce stress, and improve the heart rhythm and cardiovascular system. When measured on a monitor, such emotions create a gentle rolling line. Hospitals and cardiac rehab centers are incorporating this effective approach because the body is designed to heal and will respond to the emotional healing stimulus, Braden explained.
The simple act of joining our two hands together connects the body’s energy centers and draws us to our heart center. Feeling gratitude and compassion opens us to receiving guidance, insights, and intuition and to experiencing the feeling of having already been healed. In “Resilience from the Heart: The Power to Thrive in Life’s Extremes,” Gregg Braden teaches more in depth and intentional heart-brain communication. Exercises excerpted from his book can be found at the end of his article, “Accessing Your Heart Intelligence: How to Strengthen Your Intuitive Heart Brain Connection.”
Our hearts are linked to our health, well-being, vitality, and emotions, so, this Thanksgiving, let us give thanks from our heart centers as we improve our health!
