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There is a two-way communication system between the heart and the
brain that regulates heart rate and blood pressure and it is the interaction
of signals flowing between the two that causes the heart
rate to vary with each beat. Analysis of HRV is used by
doctors to measure the balance between the sympathetic and
parasympathetic nervous systems, two important branches
of this communication system. Your thoughts, perceptions
and emotional reactions are transmitted from the brain to
the heart via these two branches of the autonomic nervous
system and can be seen in the patterns of your heart rhythms.
See Figure A.
Figure A. Your Nervous System
Simplified diagram of the autonomic nervous system. The sympathetic
branch increases heart rate and the secretion of adrenal
hormones, etc., whereas the parasympathetic slows heart
rate and has a relaxing, protective role. Proper function
and balance between the two branches of the ANS is important
for good health.
The graph in Figure B(1) shows the typical HRV pattern of someone
feeling frustrated or edgy. When you feel edgy inside, you
are likely to experience this type of heart rhythm. This
excess wear and tear can create a chain reaction in your
body. For example, when you're frustrated, your nervous
system is out of balance, your blood vessels constrict,
blood pressure rises and you waste a lot of energy. If this
happens consistently, you can become hypertensive and greatly
increase your risk of heart disease. Hypertensive individuals
are two to three times more likely to develop coronary artery
disease and four times more likely to suffer a stroke. As
you've already read, it's estimated that one in four Americans,
approximately 60 million people, are hypertensive.
Heart disease now accounts for slightly more than 40% of all deaths
reported in the U.S.
Figure B(1). Stress-Producing Heart Rhythm
Figure B(2). Harmonious Heart Rhythm
Figure B illustrates the heart rate variability pattern of frustration
or anger (top) which is characterized by its random, jerky
pattern. Sincere, positive feeling states like appreciation
(bottom) can result in highly ordered and coherent HRV patterns,
generally associated with enhanced cardiovascular function.
On the other hand, feelings of sincere appreciation create the HRV
pattern you see in Figure B(2), which is a smooth, even
rhythm. This pattern is an example of cardiovascular efficiency.
What's happening is that the two branches of the autonomic
nervous system are "entraining" and working together at
maximum efficiency instead of fighting each other. Think
of entrainment as being "in sync." When your head and heart,
thoughts and feelings, are working harmoniously together,
you have more clarity and inner balance : and you feel better.
Another very important part of the heart/brain communication link
are the nerves that carry information from the heart to
the brain (see
Figure C).
It is now known that the heart has a complex nervous system, which
has been described as a "brain" of its own. Considered a single
entity, the brain in the heart is an organized network of
nerve cells and nerve plexi (centers) that send messages
to each other using neurotransmitters and proteins. The
heart has a complex circuitry that enables it to act independently,
learn, remember, and as the saying goes, produce the feelings
of the heart.
The information sent from the heart to the brain can have profound
effects on the higher brain centers and influences perception,
emotion and learning abilities. It even affects coordination
and reaction speeds. IHM research shows that the Freeze-Frame
process of focusing attention in the area of the heart while
experiencing a positive feeling changes the patterns of
information flowing along this pathway to a more coherent
and harmonious pattern. This may explain the shift in perception
experienced after Freeze-Framing. In addition to these perceptual
shifts, many people have also been able to reduce their
blood pressure and stress symptoms such as sleeplessness,
indigestion and tension.
Heart rate variability is an excellent measure of nervous system
balance, and research is showing that your perceptions and
reactions affect your heart rhythms. Therefore, heart rate
variability is an important indication of how well you are
balancing your life.
Figure C. Heart to Brain Communication System
The human body has hundreds of sensory systems which send information
back to the brain. The heart communicates to the brain via
two primary pathways.
As you become practiced in Freeze-Frame, you can balance your nervous
system and change your heart rhythm patterns in the moment,
as shown in Figure D.
Figure D. Physiological Benefits of Freeze-Frame
These graphs show an individual's heart rate variability, pulse transit
time and respiration patterns for 10 minutes. At the 300
second mark, the individual Freeze-Framed and all three
systems came into entrainment, meaning the patterns are
harmonious instead of scattered and out-of-sync.
How Your Heart Affects
Others
The electrical waves of the heart act like radio waves and are transmitted
outside the human body as well as to every cell of your
body. This may explain why you can sometimes walk into a
room and tell if two people just had an argument, even though
they are quietly standing there. You can "feel it in the
air." The electrical frequencies radiated by the heart change
dramatically when you are in different emotional states
and can affect not only yourself but the people around you.
In fact, the researchers at IHM have shown that the field
radiated by your heart is literally picked up by the brains
of people nearby! When two people are touching or even standing
near each other, it is now possible to measure the heartbeat
of one person being registered in the other person's brainwaves.(Fig. F) By learning to create internal entrainment and coherence
through the Freeze-Frame process (taught in all HeartMath
fundamental programs), you radiate a much more harmonious
signal to your environment and the people around you.
Figure F. Electricity of Touch
Signal averaging techniques were used to show that when two individuals
touch, one person's electrocardiogram (ECG heartbeat) signal
is registered in the other person's electroencephalogram
(EEG brainwave) and elsewhere on the perso's body.
Beyond 2000 Freeze-Framing in Action
In late 1993, a videotape crew from the television program Beyond
2000 came to the Institute's research facility to do a feature
on the music Heart Zones, which I designed scientifically
to help people achieve increased mental and emotional balance
and renewed vitality. The crew wanted to understand how
the music was created, how to use it to get better results
with Freeze-Frame and how we were able to prove its effectiveness
in our laboratory research.
The host for the show decided to open the segment by being hooked
up to all the physiological testing equipment in the lab
heart rate, ECG, EEG (brainwaves), blood pressure, respiration
and more. Computers tracked all his physiological responses
as he was videotaped. Unfortunately, he stumbled over his
opening lines several times, forcing repeated "takes" and
he became increasingly tense and nervous. The computers
showed the results of his mounting tension. His blood pressure
and heart rate had shot up to extremely high levels. The
scientist monitoring the host's physiological responses
suggested he try the Freeze-Frame technique he had learned
earlier. As you can see in Figure G, within seconds his
heart rate and blood pressure returned to normal and his
respiration regained a smooth, even pattern. He then delivered
his lines perfectly. The host and crew were delighted that
they had real-time verification of Freeze-Frame's effectiveness
captured on videotape.
Figure G.
Chart shows the effect of Heart Zones and Freeze-Frame on an individual
with little prior training. The individual was the host
of the TV show Beyond 2000 featured on the Discovery Channel.
Heart Hormones and the
Immune System
Scientists are proving that repeated episodes of anger and frustration
cause nervous system imbalances that are detrimental not
only to the heart, but to the brain and the hormonal and
immune systems. Have you ever had an argument with someone
you loved and, the next day, replayed the situation over
and over in your mind, cranking up negative emotions from
the day before that made you feel terrible? Even recalling
an upsetting episode can produce imbalances and stress.
As mentioned earlier, the stress reaction creates specific
hormonal imbalances and that these same hormonal imbalances
have been shown to damage brain cells. They may even lead
to Alzheimer's disease.It doesn't have to be
that way once you understand what you are doing to yourself
and how you can change it.
A
study conducted at the HeartMath Research Center recently
demonstrated that a group of normal, healthy people were
able to increase the amount of the hormone DHEA available
to the cells by up to 100% while decreasing their cortisol
levels by 23%.DHEA is a very important
hormone and is often referred to as the "anti-aging" hormone
while cortisol is called the "stress hormone" because it
is well known to increase when you are experiencing stress
or feeling anxiety, helplessness or withdrawal. Cortisol
is also the hormone that can damage the brain cells when
its levels are kept too high from constant stress or worry.
In the study, the increase in DHEA was significantly related
to the subjects' increasing their feeling of warmheartedness;
the reduction in cortisol was related to their reductions
in stress levels after practicing a HeartMath tool and listening
to the music I wrote to facilitate the process. This stress-reducing
music has been shown in other research studies to help boost
immunity,reduce tension and improve mental clarity.
The Immune System's First Line of Defense
IgA (immunoglobulin A) is an immune system antibody and one of the
body's first lines of defense against colds, flu and infections
of the respiratory and urinary tracts. IgA is found in our
saliva, lungs, digestive and urinary systems. In a group
study (twenty individuals) comparing the effects of anger
versus care and compassion on average IgA levels, it was
found that one five-minute episode of mentally and emotionally
recalling an experience of anger caused an immediate short-term
rise in IgA, followed by a depletion that was so severe
it took the body more than six hours to restore normal production
of IgA (see Figure I). What this study showed is that even
a single episode of recalling an experience of anger and
frustration can depress your immune system for almost an
entire day.
Figure H.
Figure H. This graph shows the impact of one 5-minute episode of
recalled anger on the immune antibody IgA over a six-hour
period. The initial slight increase in IgA was followed
by a dramatic drop which persisted for six hours. When the
subjects used the Freeze-Frame technique and focused on
feeling sincere care for five minutes, there was a significant
increase in IgA, which returned to baseline an hour later
and then slowly increased throughout the rest of the day.
What are most people's days like? You wake up anxious because you
didn't sleep well; you get frustrated with a coworker who
forgot to give you an important report; somebody gives you
a strange look at the coffee machine and you feel a surge
of irritation. Then you find voicemail messages that you're
late responding to it's a cascading series of events of
anxiety, frustration and anger. The cumulative results of
seemingly insignificant frustrations and anxieties have
been shown to be even more detrimental to the immune system
than the occasional large blowout of anger. Is it any wonder
that health care costs are so high, eating up a huge percentage
of corporate profits and expected to get worse?
This same IgA study also showed that one five-minute episode of mentally
and emotionally experiencing the emotions of care and compassion
caused a much larger, immediate rise in IgA'an average of
34% .followed by a return to normal (baseline).However,
the IgA levels then gradually climbed above baseline throughout
the next six hours. Learning to manage the moment and increase
the ratio of your positive attitudes and feelings can improve
your quality of life and well-being.
Other studies also show that feelings of happiness and joy increase
white blood cell counts needed for healingand defend against
invading pathogens, including cancer and virus-infected
cells.
Freeze-Frame with HIV-positive/AIDS patients
In a study using Freeze-Frame with HIV-positive and AIDS patients,
researchers found dramatic improvements in anxiety levels
and physical symptoms. Using the STAI (State Trait Anxiety
Inventory) to measure psychological changes, participants
who practiced Freeze-Frame for six months reduced their
level of despair, anger, fear and guilt. At the beginning
of the study, most of the participants had very high levels
of anxiety. This was quite understandable considering the
condition of their health and the general prognosis for
people diagnosed HIV-positive. By the end of the six-month
study, average anxiety levels had dropped by 20%, almost
to that of the average healthy person, in spite of the fact
that they still had a virus that is feared by society and
could supposedly kill them at any time.They also reported
more balance and harmonious flow throughout the day. More
things seemed to go their way and they were able to increase
the percentage of good days and get more done.
Affiliative Motive
Another psychological measure is, the "affiliative motive." Affiliation
is a social motive characterized by the desire to establish
warm and caring relationships with others. People with strong
affiliative motive tend to be loving and caring individuals.
It has been shown that loving and caring people have decreased
levels of stress hormones, and higher IgA levels during
times of stress than non-affiliative individuals.They get
sick less often and are less vulnerable to disease. Loving
and caring people also have increased norepinephrine, a
chemical released from the nerves that has a wide variety
of functions in balancing the nervous systems. Studies have
shown that even if you aren't naturally affiliative, self-induced
feelings of warmth and care towards others also increase
IgA levels, resulting in an enhanced immune system.
Easy Access
The Freeze-Frame technology focuses your attention in the area around
the heart (where people subjectively feel love, care and
appreciation). These feelings have been shown to help balance
the nervous systems. When you Freeze-Frame, the heart rhythms
become smooth and coherent and the signals that the heart
sends to the brain through the nervous system affect the
perceptual centers in the brain. This helps to give you
a more balanced perspective of any situation.
Learning to manage the moment can literally change the quality of
your life.
Freeze-Frame is a technology that gives you the conscious ability
to self-manage your reactions, gain clarity and have more
quality, fun and well-being in the moment. You gain the
power to make better choices and decisions and not be victimized
by your reactions to people, places and situations. Just
as the detrimental effects of stress are cumulative, so
are the beneficial effects of Freeze-Frame. Practice leads
to increased mental and emotional buoyancy, cardiovascular
efficiency and improved quality of life. Here's how it works
inside our body:
"The background physiology and the scientific underpinning of this
technique are absolutely sound, which is why we went ahead
with pilot studies at Shell. I don't think the science is
new, but getting it to work with individuals and particularly
technical people is!"
Graham Bridgwood, M.D.,
Chief Medical Officer, Shell International
The Cycle of Perception : Reprogramming Neural Circuitry
Your perceptions underlie how you think and feel about the person
or issue that you are dealing with. The resulting thoughts
and emotions, but especially the emotions, cause numerous
physiological changes in the body. These changes can be
measured in the nervous system, hormonal system, heart and
blood pressure. These changes, in turn, feed back and affect
what is called the neural circuitry of the brain. The state
of your neural circuitry, in turn, affects your perception.
Your neural circuitry consists of neural pathways in the
brain and body, pathways that are developed and reinforced
to the degree that we use them. Whether you "learn" a healthy
response or a stressful reaction, you are "hard-wiring"
this pattern into your system through repetition.
Here's an illustration of how the cycle works. If you get frustrated
because traffic was unusually heavy on the way to work,
that feeling causes the sympathetic nervous system to increase
your heart rate and instruct the adrenal glands to secrete
adrenaline and other hormones into the blood stream. These
changes then affect the neural circuits in the brain. You
are then more sensitive to the next stressful situation
and more likely to have a negative reaction. If you repeat
this pattern, the neural pathways in the brain are reinforced
and your emotional response becomes automatic so that you
can get stuck in repeating, inefficient thought loops such
as worry and anxiety. This then leads to a depletion of
your energy and clouds your judgment. Freeze-Frame allows
you to break the cycle, and with practice you can begin
to retrain and reprogram the neural circuitry so that you
are not the victim of your own thought loops and inappropriate
self-defeating emotional reactions, but can build new intelligence
into your system.
For more information please do not hesitate
to contact
us.
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