heart is the new brain
Years ago, I learned something interesting and important about the heart.
The heart has an electromagnetic field that is 5000 times greater than the brain's, and extends three feet from the human body from all directions into the space around us, generating an amplitude 60 times greater than the energy activity generated by the brain.
Research from the HeartMath Institute has gathered that the field is so powerful that one person’s heart signal has the capacity to affect another person’s brainwaves.
Woah. Talk about power. We can influence another person's brain activity by the energy we send out from our heart field. That's pretty effing incredible.
In practice, we know this works. Hearing someone speak who inspires us with their passion, watching a creative dance piece that keeps us in stillness, reading a line of writing that lingers in the air, catching someone's smile that stops us in our tracks.
When we harness the intelligence of the heart, the world changes. Our thoughts, feelings, how we see the world, how we relate to each other -- in essence, we snap out of one reality (the one where we were taught to act like brains on a stick) and zap into a new one.
We've all been feeling a lot over the year. But starting with our heart doesn't mean staying looped in emotion all day. Starting with our heart is about creating emotion that influences right action. And right action sends us on our way. With trust, love, and conviction.
Here's a simple practice:
Take this moment and check in with your body. Notice your breath. Send the energy you feel around your head down into your heart space. Breathe from there.
Say hello to your heart ("Hi heart"). Place your hand on your chest to create more connection. Feel it beat. If you receive something that feels anxious or contracting, send that energy down to the ground and keep with your breath until it clears. Reconnect with heart ("Hi heart").
What are your heart's qualities today? What energy is it generating? Maybe it's Courage, Honesty, Passion, Appreciation, Patience, Dignity, Calm, Compassion, or something else. Maybe the quality is Love itself. Whatever it is, bask in the energy for a moment. Really feel it and breathe it in and all through your body. This is the way the heart thinks.
Now ask yourself, how can you use its energy to help your day or situation?
As much as the culture has set us up to act like we're brains on a stick, we're not. The heart is associated with our source of wisdom, a "knowing" that bypasses logical and linear thought. Try to be OK with not having to explain your feeling. There's nothing you need to prove when it's a knowledge from the heart.
Whatever is going on for you, tune into that gigantic field of energy emanating from your being, and let it guide the way.
Look at someone today from your heart. Listen to someone today from your heart. Speak from your heart. Lead from your heart. Live from your heart. Choose with your heart.
All of this is not the same as being "emotional" or "fluff" or "in your feelings," by the way. It's time to be done with that thinking now; it's a total disservice to humanity's potential.
Using your heart's intelligence is about being real and being clear.
It's where our greatest energy comes from, after all. Use it with attention, intention, and care.
My heart to yours,
Gloria