Science Of The Heart

What follows are copy and paste excerpts from a free online book called - Science of the Heart
available at Heartmath Institute

         Check this video     The Heart’s Intuitive Intelligence


The link to the book is is here       Science of the Heart

I did a quick read of this book and here are the direct quotes I found most interesting for myself.

New research shows the human heart is much more than an efficient pump that sustains life. 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. The heart has been considered the source of emotion, courage and wisdom for centuries.

In the early 1990s, we were among the first to conduct research that not only looked at how stressful emotions affect the activity in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and the hormonal and immune systems, but also at the effects of emotions such as appreciation, compassion and care. It became clear that stressful or depleting emotions such as frustration and overwhelm lead to increased disorder in the higher-level brain centers and autonomic nervous system and which are reflected in the heart rhythms and adversely affects the functioning of virtually all bodily systems.We also observed that the heart acted as though it had a mind of its own and could significantly influence the way we perceive and respond in our daily interactions. In essence, it appeared that the heart could affect our awareness, perceptions and intelligence. Numerous studies have since shown that heart coherence is an optimal physiological state associated with increased cognitive function, self-regulatory capacity, emotional stability and resilience. The heart is, in fact, a highly complex information-processing center with its own functional brain, commonly called the heart brain, that communicates with and influences the cranial brain via the nervous system, hormonal system and other pathways.

.....the mobilizing part of the nervous system (sympathetic) energizes us for fight or flight, which is indicated by an increase in heart rate, and in more quiescent moments, the calming part of the nervous system (parasympathetic) calms us down and slows the heart rate. Cannon believed the autonomic nervous system ( ANS) and all of the related physiological responses moved in concert with the brain’s response to any given stimulus or challenge. Presumably, all of our inner systems are activated together when we are aroused and calm down together when we are at rest and the brain is in control of the entire process. A number of health problems can arise in part because of improper function of the ANS. Emotions can affect activity in both branches of the ANS. For example, anger causes increased sympathetic activity while many relaxation techniques increase parasympathetic activity. The heart was behaving as though it had a mind of its own. Furthermore, the heart appeared to be sending meaningful messages to the brain that the brain not only understood, but also obeyed. Even more intriguing was that it looked as though these messages could affect a person’s perceptions, behavior and performance. The Laceys identified a neural pathway and mechanism whereby input from the heart to the brain could inhibit or facilitate the brain’s electrical activity. The heart-brain, as it is commonly called, or intrinsic cardiac nervous system, is an intricate network of complex ganglia, neurotransmitters, proteins and support cells, the same as those of the brain in the head. The heart-brain’s neural circuitry enables it to act independently of the cranial brain to learn, remember, make decisions and even feel and sense. the heart sends more information to the brain than the brain sends to the heart. The heart also communicates with the brain and body biochemically by way of the hormones it produces. Atrial peptide the balance hormone, plays an important role in fluid and electrolyte balance and helps regulate the blood vessels, kidneys, adrenal glands and many regulatory centers in the brain.[18] Increased atrial peptide inhibits the release of stress hormones,[19] reduces sympathetic outflow[20] and appears to interact with the immune system.[21] Even more intriguing, experiments suggest atrial peptide can influence motivation and behavior.[22]the heart contains cells that synthesize and release catecholamines (norepinephrine, epinephrine and dopamine), which are neurotransmitters once thought to be produced only by neurons in the brain and ganglia.[23] More recently, it was discovered the heart also manufactures and secretes oxytocin, which can act as a neurotransmitter and commonly is referred to as the love or socialbonding hormone.Unspecified negative emotional arousal, often described as stress, distress or upset, has been associated with a variety of pathological conditions, including hypertension,On the other hand, positive emotions and effective emotion self-regulation skills have been shown to prolong health and significantly reduce premature mortalityFrom a psychophysiological perspective, emotions are central to the experience of stress. It is the feelings of anxiety, irritation, frustration, lack of control, and hopelessness that are actually what we experience when we describe ourselves as stressed. In essence, stress is emotional unease, the experience of which ranges from low-grade feelings of emotional unrest to intense inner turmoil. Stressful emotions clearly can arise in response to external challenges or events, and also from ongoing internal dialogs and attitudes. Recurring feelings of worry, anxiety, anger, judgment, resentment, impatience, overwhelm and self-doubt often consume a large part of our energy and dull our day-to-day life experiences. Additionally, emotions, much more so than thoughts alone, activate the physiological changes comprising the stress response. Our research shows a purely mental activity such as cognitively recalling a past situation that provoked anger does not produce nearly as profound an effect on physiological processes as actually engaging the emotion associated with that memory. In other words, reexperiencing the feeling of anger provoked by the memory has a greater effect than thinking about it.[51, 52]

“We are coming to understand health not as the absence of disease, but rather as the process by which individuals maintain their sense of coherence (i.e. sense that life is comprehensible, manageable, and meaningful) and ability to function in the face of changes in themselves and their relationships with their environment.[57]”

Despite the importance of self-directed control, many people’s ability to self-regulate is far less than ideal. In fact, failures in self-regulation, especially of emotions and attitudes, arguably are central to the vast majority of personal and social problems that plague modern societies. For some, the lack of selfregulatory capacity can be attributed to immaturity or failure to acquire skills while for others it can be the result of trauma or impairment in the neural systems that underlie one’s ability to self-regulate.[58] Therefore, we submit the most important skill the majority of people need to learn is how to increase their capacity to self-regulate emotions, attitudes and behaviors. Self-regulation enables people to mature and meet the challenges and stresses of everyday life with resilience so they can make more intelligent decisions by aligning with their innate higher-order wisdom and expression of care and compassion, elements we often associate with living a more conscientious life.
Three 10-year studies concluded that emotional stress was more predictive of death from cancer and cardiovascular disease than from smoking; people who were unable to effectively manage their stress had a 40% higher death rate than nonstressed individuals.[74]
60% to 80% of primary care doctor visits are related to stress, yet only 3% of patients receive stress management help.[60-62]

...neural connections that transmit information from the emotional centers to the cognitive centers in the brain are stronger and more numerous than those that convey information from the cognitive to the emotional centers.
...intentional activation of positive emotions plays an important role in increasing cardiac coherence and thus self-regulatory capacity.[5] These findings expand on a large body of research into the ways positive emotional states can benefit physical, mental and emotional health.[44-49]

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) (Figure 1.1) is the part of the nervous system that controls the body’s internal functions, including heart rate, gastrointestinal tract and secretions of many glands. The ANS also controls many other vital activities such as respiration, and it interacts with immune and hormonal system functions. It is well known that mental and emotional states directly affect activity in the ANS. This system underlies one’s ability to self-regulate and calm oneself by inhibiting sympathetic outflow to targets like the heart and adrenal glands.



Thoughts and even subtle emotions influence the activity in the autonomic nervous system.
   
The ANS interacts with our digestive, cardiovascular, immune, hormonal and many other bodily systems.
   
Negative emotions/feelings create disorder in the brain’s regulatory systems and ANS.

Feelings such as appreciation create increased order in the brain’s regulatory systems and ANS, resulting in improved hormonal- and immune-system function and enhanced cognitive function
The feelings we label as positive actually reflect body states that are coherent, meaning "the regulation of life processes becomes efficient, or even optimal, free-flowing and easy,"[160] and the feelings we label as "negative," such as anger, anxiety and frustration are examples of incoherent states.

...studies have shown increases in parasympathetic activity (vagal tone),[133] reductions in cortisol and increases in DHEA,[116] decreases in blood pressure and stress measures in hypertensive populations,[113, 115] reduced health-care costs[112] and significant improvements in the functional capacity of patients with congestive heart failure.[192]
nonlocal intuition, which refers to the knowledge or sense of something that cannot be explained by past or forgotten knowledge or by sensing environmental signals. It has been suggested that the capacity to receive and process information about nonlocal events appears to be a property of all physical and biological organization and this likely is because of an inherent interconnectedness of everything in the universe.

....the physical heart also has communication channels connecting it with the energetic heart.[244] Nonlocal intuition, therefore, is transformational, and from our perspective, it contains the wisdom that streams from the soul’s higher information field down into the psychophysiological system via the energetic heart and can inform our moment-tomoment experiences and interactions. At HeartMath Institute, this is what we call heart intelligence.

Heart intelligence is the flow of higher awareness and the intuition we experience when the mind and emotions are brought into synchronistic alignment with the energetic heart.When we are heart-centered and coherent, we have a tighter coupling and closer alignment with our deeper source of intuitive intelligence. We are able to more intelligently self-regulate our thoughts and emotions and over time this lifts consciousness. In other words, there is an increased flow of intuitive information that is communicated via the emotional energetic system to the mind and brain systems, resulting in a stronger connection with our deeper inner voice.

As we learn to slow down our minds and attune to our deeper heart feelings, a natural intuitive connection can occur.Our intuitive insights often unfold more understanding of ourselves, others, issues and life than years of accumulated knowledge. It is especially helpful for eliminating unnecessary energy expenditures, which deplete our internal reserves, making it more difficult to self-regulate and be in charge of our attitudes, emotions and behaviors in ordinary day-to-day life situations. Intuition allows us to increase our ability to move beyond automatic reactions and perceptions. It helps us make more intelligent decisions from a deeper source of wisdom, intelligence and balanced discernment, in essence increasing our consciousness, happiness and the quality of our life experience. This increases synchronicities and enhances our creativity and ability to flow through life. It also increases our ability to handle awkward situations such as dealing with difficult people with more ease and it promotes harmonious interaction and connectivity with others.
The research discussed above suggests it’s possible to access intuitive intelligence more effectively by first getting into a coherent state, quieting mental chatter and emotional unrest and paying attention to shifts in our feelings, a process that brings intuitive signals to conscious awareness.


    “Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease.”      -Hippocrates


An estimated 60% to 80% of primary-care doctor visits are related to stress.[60-62] HeartMath’s easily learned mental and emotion self-regulation techniques and practices can provide an effective strategy for stress reduction in many clinical contexts. As discussed earlier, these intentionally simple techniques allow people to quickly self-induce a physiological shift to a more coherent state that takes advantage of the concurrent change in afferent neuronal input to the brain, which is associated with increased self-regulatory capacity and thus, ability to more successfully handle the demands and challenges of life with more ease and composure. Consequently, there is a greater experience of connectedness, harmony, balance and physical, emotional and psychosocial well-being.