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"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. Briefly re-experiencing a cherished memory
creates synchronization in your heart rhythm in mere seconds. Through its
research, the Institute of HeartMath proves that health starts with
love."


--
Ode Magazine, June 2005 Issue




Dear friends,



The Institute
of HeartMath (http://www.heartmath.org) has
conducted extensive research showing that good health starts with
love, and that love can reduce stress. Simple, quick exercises
such as
re-imagining a cherished memory can significantly improve your health
when
done on a regular basis. With a client list which now includes such
leading
companies as Hewlett Packard, Shell, Unilever, Cisco Systems, and
Boeing,
the HeartMath Institute has developed a powerful track record in
helping managers
and employees to decrease stress and increase joy in their lives and
work.

In
the
space of less than 15 years, the HeartMath Institute 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.
I
highly recommend the HeartMath exercises and a visit to their
inspiring website.
The below, highly inspirational article on HeartMath was published in
the
excellent magazine, Ode. Every
issue of Ode is filled with stories which deeply inspire and
empower.
As stated in the below article, may we all remember that we can
change
the
world, starting with ourselves.

With
heartfelt
love and best wishes,

Fred Burks for the inspiring and educational PEERS websites





http://www.odemagazine.com/doc/24/a_change_of_heart_changes_everything





A change of heart changes everything



Jurriaan Kamp

This article appeared in Ode issue: 24, June 2005

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 John 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. 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 Andrew 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. 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