Did you know that your heart has true wisdom?

Let me share my geeky side with you to explain this, OK?

My doctoral research examines the role that body awareness (what I now call Sense-Ability™) plays for people undergoing major career change. I examined many ways of “knowing” that reside outside the brain. One of the pathways of wisdom comes from  heart intuition.

It’s very exciting to me that science has begun to point out the value of drawing awareness to our heart energies. The Institute for Heartmath, in Boulder Creek, California, has focused its energies on the intuitive power of the heart.

A team of their scientists conducted a study to examine the process by which intuition, which they defined as “information normally outside the range of conscious awareness” is perceived by the psychophysiological systems of the body.  The study attempted to demonstrate that the body can respond to an emotionally-arousing stimulus seconds before it is actually experienced.

In the study, 26 participants were shown 30 calm images and 15 emotionally arousing images.  Each participant viewed the images under two states.  The first state was under normal psychophysiological functioning.  The second state was under what’s known as physiological coherence, a state in which participants’ heart rhythms were entrained to a rhythmic regularity, with the assistance of a visual heart-rate monitor and verbal instructions.  In order to investigate where and when in the brain intuitive information is processed, measures were taken of skin conductance, electroencephalogram (EEG) activity, and electrocardiogram (ECG) cardiac accelerations and decelerations.

A number of results were derived from the study.  I’ll highlight just those that are most relevant:

First, the heart appears to receive and respond to intuitive information.The researchers link this finding to the fact that the electromagnetic field of the heart is about 60 times greater in amplitude than that of the brain, and the magnetic component of the heart is approximately 5000 times stronger than the magnetic field of the brain.

Second, heart rate deceleration increased when future emotionally stimulating information was presented (as compared to calm stimuli). This fact can be linked to research showing that our brain rhythms naturally synchronize to our heart activity.

From the study, the research hypothesized that prestimulus information is received in the body’s psychophysiological systems and is processed in the same way as conventional sensory input, such as touch.  In other words, our body “knows” before our brain registers that knowing in cognition. According to the researchers, this would tend to argue that our bodies perceptual systems are constantly scanning the future.  In other words, the body (and the heart in particular) has the ability to predict—or at least prepare for, at some level—future states.

The HeartMath researchers propose that “the heart’s field acts as a carrier wave for information that provides a global synchronizing signal for the entire body.” This vantage point would support the intelligence of listening to your heart in the midst of career transition. Why? Your heart literally in-forms (gives shape to) the activity of the body as a whole, which includes your mind.

So, not just on Valentine’s Day, but year-round, I encourage you to trust your heart. It’s got real wisdom.

With love,

Dr. Susan Bernstein
Life/Work Transition Expert
www.WorkFromWithin.com

PS – Hey, I’m opening up my heart to you! I’d like to offer you a 20% discount code on EVERYTHING in the Work from Within store, from now through February 15, 2010.  To get the discount, click on any item you want to buy in the Work from Within store. You’ll be taken to a checkout screen. Simply enter the code ” LOVE2010″ in the Coupon Code field (on the left, below the name of the product you want) and then hit the “apply” button. You’ll get 20% a discount on all the items in the Work from Within store. And, you can buy as many of the items as you like.