17 Dec The Intelligent Heart
Research indicates what some of us know intuitively: the heart influences our brain sending signals that can influence our perceptions, emotions, and cognitive functioning.
With that in mind, it behooves us to be as attentive of the heart as we can. Caring our heart, not just the physical heart, but also the spiritual or emotional heart. The people at HeartMath are researching the connection between the heart and the mind, finding new ways to care for the heart and train ourselves to interact with our internal data so that we can effect the change we want.
Dr. J. Andrew Armour first introduced the term heart brain in 1991. Armour showed that the heart’s complex intrinsic nervous system qualified it as a “little brain.” This heart brain, the HeartMath book, Science of the Heart, explains “is an intricate network of several types of neurons, neurotransmitters, proteins and support cells like those found in the brain proper. Its elaborate circuitry enables it to act independently of the cranial brain – to learn, remember, and even feel and sense.”
One of the most important discoveries HeartMath researchers made in relation to the heart brain, which HeartMath also calls the intelligent heart, is that “intentionally altering one’s emotional state through heart focusing techniques modifies ascending neurological input from the heart to the brain.” This suggests that “as people experience sincere positive feeling states, in which the heart’s rhythms become more coherent, the changed information flow from the heart to the brain may act to modify cortical function and influence performance.