Creating balance between the heart and mind is important when you want to create an empowered life. We cannot navigate through life through thought alone; we need the feminine qualities of the heart to work in conjunction with the masculine logical mind.
The heart is interdependent with all life
Science has shown that the heart communicates in a language all its own. The heart, which is the source of emotional energy and generates the largest rhythmic electromagnetic field produced in the body, has about forty thousand neurons. It starts beating before we are born. Rollin McCraty, PhD, executive vice-president and director of research for the Institute of HeartMath, points out that our emotions affect the heart’s electromagnetic field, which influences people around us. At both physiological and psychological levels, the heart is the basic building block we can use to optimize what’s going on in the world.
Researchers have been investigating heart-brain interactions for more than eighteen years. They study how the heart and brain communicate with each other and how this communication affects consciousness and our perceptions of the world. In their studies, they have identified a state called coherence. When we are feeling positive emotions, they say—appreciating the sunset, feeling love, showing compassion, or expressing concern for someone—our heart beats out a unique message. The heart is deeply enfolded into the unseen energy fields within and outside our bodies, and through intention we can spread goodwill and bring harmony to the whole world. How can we use this information to impact those around us and change the world? When we shift our emotions, we can change what we encode in the field and use it to lead more compassionate and joyful lives.
When HeartMath scientists looked at the spectrum analysis of the magnetic field radiated by the heart, they found that emotional information is actually encoded and modulated into magnetic fields. All electromagnetic fields are force fields that carry energy. Like an electric current flowing in a wire or coil, these fields are capable of producing an action at a distance. Magnetic and electric fields exist around appliances, power lines, electric wiring, even light fixtures, but electromagnetic fields are generated only when an electric current is flowing. Since electrical currents also flow through living organisms, all living things are surrounded by magnetic fields extending out from their bodies. These currents can be influenced by external magnetic fields, too. The magnetic field produced by the brain can be detected and measured from several feet away from the head.
But it’s the heart that generates the body’s most powerful and extensive rhythmic electromagnetic field, which is even stronger than the brain’s. Compared to the electromagnetic field produced by the brain, the electrical component of the heart’s field is about sixty times greater in amplitude. It permeates every cell of the body. The heart’s magnetic component is also approximately five thousand times stronger than the brain’s magnetic field and can be detected several feet away from the body with sensitive magnetometers. What the HeartMath team discovered in their research was that brain rhythms naturally synchronize with the heart’s rhythmic activity.
These scientific studies, and others in the field of neurocardiology, suggest that the heart’s nervous system enables it to learn, remember, and make functional decisions independent of the cerebral cortex. The heart actually sends signals to the brain that influence the function of the higher brain centers involved in emotional processing, perception, and cognition. In other words, also though the heart works as a pump, it is also a sensory organ that has a mind of its own. Because it can make decisions, we need to think and ask from the heart more often.
Your emotional state
A person’s emotional state is communicated throughout the body by the heart’s electromagnetic field, which interacts with our organs and informs our bodily functions positively or negatively. If you’re angry, the beating pattern of your heart is erratic, disordered, and incoherent, whereas if you’re feeling positive emotions, it beats in a smooth, orderly, and coherent pattern. When you’re feeling gratitude or love, your respiratory rhythm, along with your blood pressure and other systems in your body, entrains to your heart’s rhythm. As pulsing waves of energy radiate out from our hearts, they also affect our environment, our relationships, and our experiences in our social environment. Because our heart’s electromagnetic field can be detected by other people, love, compassion, and joy can change our external environment. There is also evidence to suggest that a subtle yet influential electromagnetic or energetic communication system operates just below our conscious awareness. Isn’t it true that our social interactions have magnetic or repulsive components to them? That’s because our hearts’ electromagnetic fields transmit information between people.
When the electromagnetic fields of two hearts merge, they begin to entrain, or synchronize, with each other and exchange information. The information embedded in each field is taken in by the receiving organism. This produces an informational gestalt and becomes something more than the sum of its parts. This harmonization, or exchange of heart energy between individuals, is measurable. When we generate a smooth and coherent heart rhythm, our brain waves can actually synchronize to another person’s heart.
The heart is vital to our spiritual awakening
Finally, science has proved that a clear and beautiful mind, which is the expression of love and compassion, makes us sensitive to those around us. The merging of our heart energies is a natural process. When we spiritually awaken, we can direct our attention outside ourselves and become aware of vibrations generated by our encounters with everyone else’s external electromagnetic fields. When our hearts touch other people’s electromagnetic fields, we can feel their encoding, and, when we are highly tuned in, we can feel the beat of every living thing. We are in total harmony. Those who reach a state of samadhi, a mystical state of complete absorption into the Divine, have suspended their mind’s activity. Now the mind can become aware of itself, as if looking in a mirror. A person in samadhi will often say he or she feels one with all plants, trees, and various wild critters.
If we immerse ourselves in nature, we experience coherence with the environment and connect as a single, synchronized natural system. This might explain the feelings of awe and appreciation we gain from seeing the Northern Lights or the Rocky Mountains. It’s our heart perceiving the electromagnetic field of our planet. Does our heart sense the Great Mother as a sentient being who has a consciousness of her own? I tend to think so. Our hearts are meant to communicate with the outside world and the endless energy in existence on earth. We can, in fact, extend our electromagnetic fields to beyond the planet and into infinity.
The potential of a coherent electromagnetic field can lead to powerful dialogues. This potential is a natural part of our spiritual awakening. If we want to relate to the world and use all our capabilities, we need to shift more often from brain- to heart-centered awareness and elevate our heart’s mind into our decision making. This is what it means to have an empowered heart.
If science says we can learn to better perceive the information encoded in the heart fields of those around us, then why are we holding back on compassion and love? In our brain-dominated world, we have lost our ability to trust our heart’s conversation. Our cultural conditioning has trained us to discount our intuition. If we choose, we can grow more intuitively as we grow in spiritual awareness.
Today’s Tips
How can we empower ourselves with heart-centered awareness?
- Know that you can change the world with your heart. When the electromagnetic fields of two hearts merge, they begin to entrain, or synchronize, with each other and exchange information. Science can actually measure this. Starting today, know that all this information is being received by someone. Know that what you feel with someone becomes more than a sum of its parts. It’s very empowering to understand how you can change the world.
- Rely upon your heart in your decision making. The heart is deeply enfolded into the unseen energy fields within and outside the body. Through intention, we can spread goodwill and bring harmony to the whole world. Shift your emotions toward leading a compassionate and joyful life. Life has an intelligence all of its own.
- Live with an open heart. Your body is physically designed to send messages to your environment through your heart. There is an information exchange that constantly goes on. No matter what you say out loud, your heart speaks its own vibrational language. Be aware not only of what you say, but also what you energetically project.
Today’s Affirmation
Let’s affirm the presence and the importance of our heart center:
“Today, I rejoice in the cosmic power of love. I open my heart to receive more love. I begin to leave logic behind. By knowing love, I am experiencing the highest power possible. I use my love power to manifest good in my life, no matter the outcome of any relationship or circumstance.”
Every Blessing,
© Charlene M Proctor and The Goddess Network, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
For more affirmations, read The Women’s Book of Empowerment:323 Affirmations that Change Everyday Problems into Moments of Potential. Click Here to buy. Download Living in Heart Centered Awareness Free Chapter Bonus
