A Change of Heart Changes Everything

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[i'll be posting a series of useful information on this topic. It can

change you life -- if you let it. --

A change of heart changes everything

Jurriaan Kamp

This article appeared in Ode issue: 24

A California institute demonstrates how people can actually make their heart

beat in a healthier way. Through its research, the Institute of HeartMath

proves that health starts with love, and that love can reduce stress. It is

a method that is used by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide and more

than 100 organizations-from global corporations to hospitals to government

agencies and schools. This simple method is changing the world. A report

from Boulder Creek, California.

All you need is love, sang Lennon.

True, according to most people.

The only challenge: how do you create love?

A quite startlingly simple answer was found to that question in the redwood

forests of Boulder Creek, California, south of San Francisco. Since 1991,

the Institute of HeartMath has generated a large body of convincing

scientific evidence that it is indeed possible to create love. HeartMath's

research shows that emotions work much faster, and are more powerful, than

thoughts. And that-when it comes to the human body-the heart is much more

important than the brain to overall health and well-being-even cognitive

function-than anyone but poets believed. Its dominance inside the body is

now clearly demonstrated. Thinking clearly with your brain is useful. But

feeling positively from your heart provides an amazing boost to health and

creativity.

Briefly re-experiencing a cherished memory creates synchronization in your

heart rhythm in mere seconds. This increases the release of healthy,

energizing hormones, while at the same time decreasing levels of damaging

stress hormones, at the same time your immune system is strengthened, blood

pressure decreases . and health and focus increase. Using a simple

prescription that consists of a number of exercises that anyone can do

anywhere in a few minutes-the details are coming shortly-HeartMath is

successfully battling the greatest threat to health, happiness and peace in

this world: stress.

Stress is the plague of our time, an epidemic that is spreading rapidly. The

World Health Organization (WHO) raised the alarm 20 years ago, but things

have only gotten worse. Every day some one million Americans fail to come to

work due to stress. The European Union estimated in 2000 that the annual

price tag of stress, in the form of healthcare costs and lost productivity,

amounts to some three to four percent of the EU's gross domestic product.

Stress is one of the most important causes of high blood pressure, which

afflicts one in three adults in Europe and North America and is the cause of

many serious illnesses such as heart disease and stroke. Stress also lies at

the basis of depression and burnout.

" The good news is that the negative effects of stress can be effectively

countered more easily than people might imagine. This leads to better

performance in every aspect of life. It is therefore a smart strategy for

every organization to tackle this source of excessive costs and human

strain, " according to HeartMath's president and CEO Bruce Cryer.

That insight has now permeated many companies and institutions. Managers

are sent to stress seminars. Yoga lessons are offered at company

headquarters. And there are even companies that encourage their employees to

take vacations. But these measures aren't very effective as long as stress

continues to permeate the corporate culture. The sense of relief from a yoga

lesson or a weekend at the beach is often lost during the first chat with a

frustrated colleague at the coffee machine. A successful anti-stress

strategy provides results precisely at the moment the stress is experienced.

This is what HeartMath does, which is why its client list now includes such

leading companies as Hewlett Packard, Shell, Unilever, Cisco Systems, and

Boeing.

HeartMath was established in 1991 by Doc Lew Childre. Childre had made a

name for himself as a researcher and advisor to companies and scientific

institutions. With the founding of HeartMath, he embarked on his mission to

demonstrate that the heart was central to human health, success and

fulfillment. While HeartMath's techniques emphasize the importance of

emotional self-management, HeartMath is no new age phenomenon.

It is a research institute that in the space of nearly 15 years has

published a large body of scientific research in established and respected

publications such as the Harvard Business Review and the American Journal of

Cardiology. Those publications support HeartMath's central aim of presenting

revolutionary scientific discoveries in a solid, " bullet proof " way. It has

demonstrated significant cost savings for healthcare organizations

struggling with staff turnover, and has shown significant health benefits in

an array of studies covering congestive heart failure, diabetes, asthma, and

hypertension. As Cryer says, " HeartMath is not based simply on belief. There

are proven physiological reactions in how emotion, heart and brain

interact. " In other words: HeartMath's work is kept scrupulously free of

the obvious potential for opportunism.

Which is admirable given that financing and survival issues have presented

tricky challenges for the organization through the years. HeartMath's

location reflects this cautious strategy. The institute is located in a

group of buildings on a lovely retreat-like setting in Boulder Creek, a town

that is nearly impossible to find among the tall trees of the ancient

Californian forests. Stress and Boulder Creek have little to do with one

another, I realize, following a drive through the pouring rain. And yet the

decision to locate HeartMath here was not so odd. Forty-five minutes down

the road is a well-known hotbed of this " modern plague: " Silicon Valley.

Research director Rollin McCraty is in his office-a simple study with a huge

window looking out over a wooded slope-working on one of HeartMath's latest

initiatives: a computer-driven experiment that shows how the heart reacts

more quickly to external stimuli than the brain (see box). HeartMath

programs utilize an innovative biofeedback system-developed by founder Doc

Childre-whereby your finger or ear is hooked up to a sensor that shows the

heart's activity on a computer screen. The feedback is not a precondition

for the result of the HeartMath exercises, but seeing your heart rhythms

live on a computer screen makes it easier to convince critics of the

favourable effect of positive feelings.

Measuring internal feelings using modern instruments is not new in itself.

For example, with the help of the electroencephalogram (EEG), it has been

proven that meditating yogis produce completely different brain waves

than-say-stock traders on Wall Street. But HeartMath's heart-driven method

extends much further than relaxation through meditation. McCraty notes,

" Meditation is mainly geared towards consciously separating yourself from

the reality around you. That has totally different physical consequences

than our approach, which is geared towards actively adding positive energy

to a particular situation. "

To measure the heart's reaction to particular events, HeartMath uses a

relatively new concept-one that is currently a hot item in mainstream

medicine-as an indicator of a healthily functioning body: heart rate

variability (HRV). Research conducted 10 years ago by Dr Armour of

Dalhouse University in Halifax, Canada showed that the heart has its own

neural network-in essence, a little brain. HRV-the rhythm of the time period

between two heartbeats-plays a key role in that network. It has now been

demonstrated that the heart sends signals to the brain and the hormonal

system via nerves which carry the heart rhythm patterns. It doesn't matter

so much how many times a heart beats per minute; it's the rhythm of the

heartbeat that counts.

Childre, McCraty and HeartMath's research team have discovered that certain

patterns in the heart rhythm correspond to a particular emotional state.

McCraty explains, " With every heartbeat, information is supplied that

affects our emotions, our physical health and the quality of our lives. "

This means that feelings of compassion, love, care and appreciation produce

a smoothly rolling-HeartMath calls it " coherent " -heart rhythm, while

feelings of anger, frustration, fear and danger emit a jagged and

capricious- " incoherent " -image. But this is more than a statistical

difference. HeartMath's research shows that a different heart rhythm leads

to other chemical and electrical-even neurological--reactions in the body.

Simply put: when people experience love, they not only feel happy and

joyful, but they also produce, for example, more DHEA, the hormone that

prevents aging, and gives us feelings of youthful vitality.

Not surprisingly, a synthetic form of the hormone is currently sold in pill

form at drugstores and health food stores. At the same time, the production

of damaging stress hormones like cortisol is reduced. High levels of

cortisol have been associated with Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, depression

and fatigue. By contrast, a " loving body " absorbs less cholesterol, thereby

preventing arteries from clogging while boosting production of

immunoglobulin A, an important biochemical that boosts immune function. In

addition, blood pressure stabilizes. McCraty links this effect to problems

many organizations face: " There is a clear connection between healthcare

costs and blood pressure levels. When your blood pressure falls, so do

visits to the doctor. " And so HeartMath concludes that love is both an

emotional and a physical state: positive feelings-like love-generate health.

The reverse is also true. Someone who is angry produces less DHEA and more

cortisol. And so on. HeartMath's slogan-a change of heart changes

everything-pretty much sums it up.

But how do you " change your heart? " According to HeartMath research, it is

much simpler than it looks. McCraty says, " If you consciously shift your

attention to a positive emotion, like appreciation or care, or if you allow

your thoughts to return to the feeling of a cherished memory, your heart

rhythm changes immediately. " This phenomenon continues to astonish the some

25,000 people who attend HeartMath courses each year. Initially, HeartMath

utilized expensive medical equipment to measure and display the heart

rhythm. But since 2000 HeartMath has offered a " do-it-yourself " equivalent:

the Freeze-Framer, an award-winning computer program with an innovative

sensor that anyone can install in their computer at home or at work. So far,

HeartMath has sold more than 30,000 of these systems.

The first time I start up the Freeze-Framer at home and attach the sensor

to my finger, a freakish pattern appears on my computer screen (see image).

My heart rhythm is all wild peaks and valleys or-in HeartMath jargon-an

" incoherent pattern. " I then perform my prescribed exercise. I shift my

thoughts to the area around my heart, I visualize that I'm breathing in

through my heart and out through my solar plexus (the energy point under the

breastbone, above the belly button). I remember a sweet memory with my

daughter. I feel the warmth of our contact at that moment. and I see the

graph on the computer screen change. The exercise, which I've only been

doing for a couple of minutes, is quick and effective. The volatile peaks

change into rolling hills on my screen. My incoherent heart rhythm has

synchronized into a coherent rhythm. And what I can't see on the line of the

graph, but know-from HeartMath research-is that my body is now functioning

in a more healthy and wholesome way.

The research is convincing. A group of managers from Motorola attended a

HeartMath workshop and were tested six months later on the results of their

daily exercises. One-quarter of the managers had high blood pressure at the

start of the project. After six months, they all had normal blood pressure

levels. In another study with Hewlett-Packard managers, the average blood

pressure fell from 138/86 to 128/80. This large an improvement is comparable

to the effect of losing nearly 20 kilos (44 pounds).

A recent study of employees at the food and household products

multinational Unilever shows that the production of the favourable hormone

DHEA increased by an average of 50 percent after six months of HeartMath

exercises and rose to 90 percent after nine months. The exercises also work

for people with chronic diseases. For example, diabetes patients who

performed a total of one hour of HeartMath exercises every week for six

months scored significantly better on a number of health aspects crucial to

them. Another HeartMath study indicates that the savings on health care

costs and absenteeism can run up to $ 700 U.S. (540 euros) per employee a

year. For a company with 1,000 employees, that would mean a savings of $

700,000 U.S. (540,000 euros) a year.

The fact the exercises are so easy may well be the most promising aspect of

the HeartMath system. Bruce Cryer notes, " Time pressure is continually

increasing. No matter how good a program might be for them, many people

simply don't take the time to invest in their emotional and physical health

every day. People want exercises to take virtually no time, but to yield

results. That's the strength of our approach. You can learn the techniques

in five minutes and get positive results if you do them a few times a day

for 30 seconds. When you're on your way to your next meeting, for example.

Or when you start up your computer. Or sitting at a stoplight. Or waiting to

make a phone call. Or before starting to check your e-mails. By making the

techniques simple and quick, you can integrate them into your daily schedule

without having to drastically change your life. "

Regularly using the Freeze-Framer is particularly helpful in recognizing

stress patterns. You gain insight into your own behaviour and the effect of

that behaviour on your health. In that respect, the Freeze-Framer works like

a thermometer: you get to the point where you don't need to take your

temperature any more to know you have a fever. As a result, it becomes ever

easier to quickly correct the experience of stress. Cryer says, " HeartMath's

aim is to eliminate stress. Of course we can't eliminate stressful events

from our lives, but we can change our physiological and emotional response

to them. The goal is to teach you to recognize which circumstances create

stress so you can change your reaction to those situations. For example,

practising a HeartMath technique helps you not to curse if someone cuts you

off on the highway, but to react differently. And the most important result

is that no damaging stress hormones are released in your body and no

damaging comments come out of your mouth that could make the situation much

worse. "

Is HeartMath the only effective answer to stress? Clearly not. Every walk on

the beach is beneficial. The same goes for an enjoyable concert. And for

experiences of friendship and love. There are also other promising

initiatives with a comparable focus. Ode previously reported on the work of

the Italian Amedeo Maffei (see Ode, June 2002) as well as the computer game

Wild Divine (see Ode, April 2004). And there are other projects geared

towards synchronising the heart and brain rhythms to stimulate favourable

biochemical and electrical processes in our bodies. But the strength of

HeartMath lies in the convincing evidence of the effectiveness of the

exercises and their simplicity. And its approach takes into account the

sense of time pressure continually experienced by the stressed target group.

Less stress and more health is, of course, enough of a recommendation for

following HeartMath's system. But there's more: studies show that the

electromagnetic field of the heart (which is created by the heart's

electrical system, or electrocardiogram) can be measured from between two

and three metres from the body. HeartMath has discovered that if someone has

a coherent heart rhythm, it has a demonstrably positive effect on other

people in close proximity to him or her (and the reverse is also true). Just

think about how you feel in the presence of someone who is appreciative or

caring, compared to being close to someone angry or frustrated.

That is: if your own heart rhythm is coherent, there is a greater chance

that your environment will also behave coherently.

That is: the health of your environment starts with your own health.

That is: changing the world starts with you.

Cryer notes how, " A lot of people feel powerless. Climate change. Poverty.

War. Terrorism. There are so many things we could fear in the world. So

where do you start as an individual, when the size of the problems seem so

daunting? It is important to know that you can have a demonstrably positive

effect on the world. We can change the world, starting with ourselves. "

That enthusiasm is behind all the solid research done by HeartMath. This

vision also explains why the Institute never opted for quick fixes, but

instead preferred building steady proof of concept. Cryer concludes, " It is

our mission to help the world change, by helping people change. The root of

most of our world's problems is a lack of emotional management, a lack of

understanding, care, respect and compassion. Most organizations and

governments are fairly dysfunctional, because their leaders lack skills to

manage themselves emotionally, let alone be an example for others to follow.

That dysfunction damages the planet every day. We offer tools that are

needed to eradicate major challenges and problems and to prevent wrongs. "

Those tools help the heart to make love.

All you need is love, Lennon sang.

It's as simple as that.

Regards,

" Every science touches art at some points while

every art has its scientific side; the worst man

of science is he who is never an artist, and the

worst artist is he who is never a man of science. "

[Armand Trousseau]