Does your heart sense your emotional state?
Stressful feelings may increase your risk of developing heart disease. Researchers at the
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An appreciative heart is good medicine
Psychologists once maintained that emotions were purely mental expressions generated by the brain alone. We now know that this is not true — emotions have as much to do with the heart and body as they do with the brain. Of the bodily organs, the heart plays a particularly important role in our emotional experience. The experience of an emotion results from the brain, heart and body acting in concert.
The
Emotions and the heart
Recent HeartMath studies define a critical link between the heart and brain. The heart is in a constant two-way dialogue with the brain — our emotions change the signals the brain sends to the heart and the heart responds in complex ways. However, we now know that the heart sends more information to the brain than the brain sends to the heart. And the brain responds to the heart in many important ways. This research explains how the heart responds to emotional and mental reactions and why certain emotions stress the body and drain our energy. As we experience feelings like anger, frustration, anxiety and insecurity, our heart rhythm patterns become more erratic. These erratic patterns are sent to the emotional centers in the brain, which it recognizes as negative or stressful feelings. These signals create the actual feelings we experience in the heart area and the body. The erratic heart rhythms also block our ability to think clearly.
Many studies have found that the risk of developing heart disease is significantly increased for people who often experience stressful emotions such as irritation, anger or frustration. These emotions create a chain reaction in the body — stress hormone levels increase, blood vessels constrict, blood pressure rises, and the immune system is weakened. If we consistently experience these emotions, it can put a strain on the heart and other organs, and eventually lead to serious health problems.
Conversely, HeartMath’s research shows that when we experience heart-felt emotions like love, care, appreciation and compassion, the heart produces a very different rhythm. In this case it is a smooth pattern that looks like gently rolling hills. Harmonious heart rhythms, which reflect positive emotions, are considered to be indicators of cardiovascular efficiency and nervous system balance. This lets the brain know that the heart feels good and often creates a gentle warm feeling in the area of the heart. Learning to shift out of stressful emotional reactions to these heartfelt emotions can have profound positive effects on the cardiovascular system and on our overall health. It is easy to see how our heart and emotions are linked and how we can shift our heart into a more efficient state by monitoring its rhythms.
Benefits come from being appreciative
The feeling of appreciation is one of the most concrete and easiest positive emotions for individuals to self-generate and sustain for longer periods. Almost anyone can find something to genuinely appreciate. By simply recalling a time when you felt sincere appreciation and recreating that feeling, you can increase your heart rhythm coherence, reduce emotional stress and improve your health.
For people who may initially find it difficult to self-generate a feeling of appreciation in the present moment, experts suggest that they recall a past memory that elicits warm feelings. With practice, most people are able to self-generate feelings of appreciation in real time and no longer need the past time reference. Dr. Rollin McCraty, director of research for the
Positive emotion-focused techniques, like those developed by HeartMath, can help individuals effectively replace stressful thoughts and emotional patterns with more positive perceptions and emotions. One of the long-term benefits to be gained from the practice of these kinds of techniques is increased emotional awareness. This increased awareness can help individuals maintain a more consistent emotional balance, a fundamental step in the process of improving cardiovascular health.
Diet and exercise will continue to be an important factor in keeping the heart healthy. However, there is increasing awareness of the importance of maintaining a healthy emotional state for those recovering from heart-related illnesses, as well as for maintaining heart health. Studies have shown that positive emotion-focused techniques reduce stress and anxiety, which is a safe and effective way to lower blood pressure and increase functional capacity in heart failure patients. This approach is currently being used in a number of hospitals and cardiac rehabilitation programs around the country.
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7 comments:
Wow, that was from the MSNBC website?
You know, there are always those who protest that feeling happy is cheesy and false. But I've never ever felt that way and in fact, I've always felt the immense health benefits of being a positive, enthusiastic, upbeat and a greatful person.
To those who think it's false, don't knock it until you try it!
:p
Good article M, but according to this, I should be pushing up daisies already....I have a lot of problems right now that are so stressful, I feel for my heart. Will try to put some of this to practise. Hard but important I know. Thanks again.
Hi Amit,
Fascinating, isn't it?! I love it, but among most people, I find mind/body healing to be a very controversial topic.
Here is something interesting, too, about happiness and sadness, and the immune system. These ideas come from an interview between Bill Moyers and Margaret Kemeny Ph.D. in the book Healing and the Mind.
Dr. Kemeny studied the immune system response of people who experienced short-term happiness and people who experienced short-term sadness (periods of intense emotion that lasted less than a day, not people suffering sadness, depression, or grief over an extended period of time).
She found that, in normal daily life, a short period of sadness boosted the immune system just as a period of happiness did.
However, sadness over an extended period of time, as when one is suffering depression or grief from the loss of a loved one, suppresses the immune system and it cannot cope with disease or effect a healing.
It's hard to believe that even after all the studies that have been done proving emotional states affect physical health, many people still deny the mind/body connection.
Hi G,
Happiness is only one phase of being healthy, of course. While being happy and appreciative is important, it probably isn't going to offset a handful of unhealthy habits.
You do a lot of other very healthy things in your life, so don't go thinking about pushing up those daisies just yet. :-)
Greetings Michelle!
Thanks for visiting me at Arboreality. :) Oregon is a beautiful state. I admit that I miss the Washington evergreens... but I am so excited about the leaf turning here on the east coast! (Who wouldn't be?)
I too enjoy natural approaches to healing. I'm looking forward to learning more at your site.
Cheers,
JLB
Hi JLB,
Welcome to BWWM~N! and thank you for visiting, too.
One of the best things a person can do to reduce stress is go for a stroll in the woods or forest. (If there happens to be a river or stream beside the path, all the better!) :-)
Absolutely Michelle!
This is going off on a slight tangent but I thought I would share this with you:
There's two really good health programs in the UK that come on, One is called "You are what you eat" and is presented by a lady called Dr Gillian Mckeith and she's so good and practical with her health tips. There's another program called "Diet Doctors".
In an episode of that they did an experiment on an athelete who had to eat 1lb of cheese every day for two weeks to see what the effect would be. After just the two weeks, he had gained 2 inches on his waist, he was sweating much more, he was depressed, he lung capacity had reduced by 40%!
It just goes to show that it can work both ways in the sense that your health based on your diet can affect your well being and your well being can affect your health.
On that note, I've a few new ideas for blog posts! :D
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