The Power of the Heart

Listen to this episode here, on the Art of Connection Podcast:

Hello and welcome to today’s issue of ‘The Art of Connection’ newsletter!

Today, we’re building on our last episode, which covered the topic of establishing boundaries.

As we develop a greater sense of self-awareness, such as sensing the need for boundaries, our response may be to want to create a structure for decision-making. For example, you may want to list and define your boundaries or values. Such an activity is more valuable than having no sense of these things. However, the intricacies of establishing boundaries and understanding yourself are much more organic and nuanced than what can be set out in a defined list.

You’ll probably realise this if you go through the exercise of trying to define your boundaries or even your purpose. You might feel that you can never truly capture it, which is true! How can you define what you value based on a few principles, or what you are or are not willing to do based on a set of defined values?

We are consistently exposed to new moments that require us to decide what we will and will not do. We then experience the outcomes of these decisions, which helps us to realise whether we acted in alignment with our sense of “authentic self” or not.

So how do we become better and better at making aligned decisions?

By becoming in tune with our inner senses. We build our self-trust by strengthening our inner connection with a sense of self.

If we start to look inward, we have many rich inner sources of inputs and insights available to us.

Our mind is, of course, one, and for most people, especially in the Western world, it is the dominant source of input into our decision-making. Our education system is dedicated entirely to the development of the thinking rational mind.

The rational mind sees the answer to creating boundaries as setting out a defined list of values and using this to rationalise decisions.

This is a useful tool, and one I am very grateful for, but it is not the only tool available to us. As the saying goes, "the mind is a wonderful servant but a terrible master."

So what are some of the other sources of input, insights, and intuition?

Two that are considered to be as powerful and complex as the mind are the heart and the gut.

For the rest of this episode, we are going to focus on the heart. My goal is to introduce you to the power of the heart as a guide to your everyday decision-making. I’ll also share a very simple technique I have used to develop a greater sense of heart consciousness.

The inputs of the heart

For centuries, the heart has been regarded as the source of emotion, courage, and wisdom. The HeartMath Institute's work has provided a scientific foundation for this belief, demonstrating that the heart serves as an access point to wisdom and intelligence. By connecting with the heart, we can live more balanced lives, enhance our creativity, and improve our intuitive capacities.

This connection is crucial for increasing personal effectiveness, improving health and relationships, and achieving greater fulfilment in life.

Numerous studies, which can be found on The HeartMath Institutes website, have shown that heart coherence is an optimal physiological state associated with increased cognitive function, self-regulatory capacity, emotional stability and resilience. This means that the heart and brain need to work together coherently, rather than one dominating the other.

The heart has a complex neural network that enables it to act independently of the cranial brain to learn, remember, make decisions, and feel and sense. In fact, the majority of the fibres in the vagus nerve, the main nerves of your parasympathetic nervous system, which controls the body’s ability to relax, are ascending in nature, meaning they relay information up into the brain. More of these ascending neural pathways are related to the heart than any other organ. This tells us that the heart has a lot to do with our ability to regulate emotions, maintain physiological coherence, and achieve a state of overall well-being.

According to The HeartMath Institute’s book, Science of the Heart, the heart’s electrical field is about 60 times greater in amplitude than the electrical activity generated by the brain. The magnetic field produced by the heart is more than 100 times greater in strength than the field generated by the brain and can be detected up to 3 feet away from the body, in all directions. It is the strongest rhythmic field produced by the human body, not only enveloping every cell of the body but also extending out in all directions into the space around us. This research suggests that the heart’s field is an important carrier of information.

I mentioned the need for the brain and heart to work together coherently. Many contemporary scientists believe that it is the underlying state of our physiological processes that determines the quality and stability of the feelings and emotions we experience. The feelings we label as positive reflect coherent body states, meaning the regulation of life processes becomes efficient or even optimal, free-flowing and easy. The feelings we label as “negative,” such as anger, anxiety, and frustration, are examples of incoherent states, meaning the regulation of life processes becomes disorganized, inefficient, and strained, making it harder for the body to maintain balance and optimal functioning.

So the goal here is to get the heart and the head to work together, to achieve a state of coherence and to inform our decision-making from a place of self-alignment.

So, the million-dollar question is, how do we do this?

We can start to bring more awareness to our hearts and strengthen our senses to receive its input. One super simple exercise I like to do is a breathing exercise, which I can talk you through now.

Find a comfortable position and close your eyes, if you can. Breathe it slowly through your nose and imagine your breath expanding down into your heart area. Then breathe out slowly. Take another deep breath, maybe for a count of four or six, depending on what is comfortable for you, and imagine the breath expanding into your heart area. Take note of any feelings or energy that arise. Then breathe out slowly, for a count of six or eight, depending on your preference. Keep doing this for as long as you want to. When you finish, notice how you feel, and any feelings or sensations in your heart area. Don’t dismiss any of these feelings, emotions or images. Regard them as being interesting, something for contemplation.

This is a simple practice that I enjoy. There are many other great practices and talks about this on YouTube, including increasing heart consciousness and opening the heart chakra, which is an energy centre over the heart area.

I hope to have some guests who are experts in this area on the podcast in the future.

That’s it for this episode!

Thanks for being on this journey.

Natalie Shaw
CEO @ OneUpOneDown