Truly, truly beautiful. I just watched this film the other night with my fiance and we were floored by much of what was revealed in it. More importantly, we were inspired at the end to be more conscious than ever about the little things in our every day life that make the biggest difference in our entire lives (especially what we put into our bodies). Yes, it’s a scary world we live in… And we don’t have to live in fear.
Click HERE to read about it or see the Trailor Below:
And remember Life is Short… so Live it as fully as you can…
RIP Dr. Max Gerson.. Thank you for leaving us with your beautiful wisdom..
How often to do you stop to listen, to really listen to what your body, mind, and spirit needs? And what if you could literally ‘peek’ at what is happening inside your body?
I’ll be the first to admit, this is a practice I am still learning and striving to improve. A week ago, however, the voice within became very loud, screaming at me to not have that cup of coffee that I usually look so forward to enjoying. Believe me, I LOVE my coffee! So, instead of taking my body’s advice, I did what most people usually do out of pure habit. I had my cup of coffee, and that entire day, I felt more anxious than ever. At one point I even felt my heart beat do something out of the ordinary. My nervous system was so activated, my mind, my thoughts naturally followed suit! Before long, I was a crying mess and I wasn’t really sure why.
The next thing I did was hook myself up to a biofeedback device designed to measure heart rate variability (HRV) and Coherence. As I predicted, my nervous system was completely dysregulated. My HRV graph was all over the place and my coherence was in the red zone. My score was about 20% out of 100 which is low by any standard. So, what is HRV and Coherence?
In short, while the heart generates rhythmic patterns, the beat-to-beat interval varies. For example, as you inhale, your heart rate increases, and as you exhale your heart rate decreases. Thus, your breath is one of several major factors that influences your HRV. Other major factors are the central and peripheral nervous system states. In fact, you can see with your own eyes how your thoughts affect your heart rate patterns. This is what I love about this device the most, you can experiment with your breathing, your thoughts, and in my case, what you put into your body, to see how these factors affect not only your HRV but more importantly, your state of Coherence.
Coherence is a term described by scientists as a highly efficient physiological state in which the nervous system, cardiovascular, hormonal and immune systems are working efficiently and harmoniously. Basically, increased coherence is correlated with increased well-being. As stated by Heartmath, a leading company dedicated to health and wellness, high coherence is a state associated with positive emotional attitudes which send signals to the brain that reduce stress and improve brain function.
I highly encourage anyone and everyone to practice with biofeedback either on their own or with a coach. Utilizing the emWave device not only for myself but also with my clients has provided the only concrete way to measure empirical data to track progress and effect of lifestyle changes ranging from how you breathe or eat to how to think.
Click here to learn more about the science behind emWave and Heart Rhythms.
I’ve always believed in the power of this tool, but it wasn’t until this morning that I got to experience first-hand, how powerful it is.
The morning after my anxiety meltdown, as usual I thought about my morning coffee, but this time, my body cringed and I listened, “No coffee, please! No alcohol, no toxins! Please!” That day I started an experimental cleanse replacing my morning coffee with detox tea. Less than a week later, after monitoring my HRV every day, my heart rhythm is painting beautiful, smooth, sin waves in my HRV graph and my coherence is up to 100% (admittedly, after morning yoga & meditation). Though previously, what I found was that yoga & meditation alone did not bring me to full coherence. Another example to show that balance is key!
I’d like to end this entry with a question. Last night, in a conversation with a yoga teacher, I heard her ask someone in the room, “What would you have to give up to be someone that you look up to?
Not only do I invite you to ask this of yourself, I embrace the challenge of asking this of myself. When I know that the activity of my heart and my thoughts create an electromagnetic field that extends up to several feet around me, it makes me want to do everything and anything that I can to create a field that has a beneficial impact on not only myself, but the lives that surround me.
If you or anyone you know is interested or have any questions about utilizing HRV to make a difference in your life, please don’t hesitate to comment or email me directly.
The following is a great video of Dr. Rollin McCraty explaining the “Science of Heart.” I couldn’t explain it better:
According to the results of several studies, remote prayer or mental intention certainly can and does have a physical effect on physiological systems.
One laboratory (Bengston and Krinsley, 2000) has published findings in the Journal of Scientific Exploration demonstrating the curing of cancer in mice by such methods. In a controlled experiment, these scientists employed a noncontact form of “laying on of hands” in an attempt to cure mice of transplanted mammary adenocarcinoma. There were three groups such that one had a group of healers place their hands just above the mice with healing intention and no contact. The other two groups were control groups (one in the same room and one in a separate room from the experimental group) that were treated exactly the same except they were not given mental intention with hands. Following three replications, 87.9 percent (29 out of 33 mice) were cured of the cancer in the experimental group compared to 69.2 percent (18 out of 26 mice) being cured on site. None of the control mice off site were cured. Furthermore, when the scientists re-introduced tumor cells to the treated, cured mice, the cells were rejected, suggesting a long-term physiological effect.
Scientific reports of this type of mental phenomena date back to the 1960s. A study published in the Journal of Parapsychology shows these effects can occur from a distance on fungus cultures in a laboratory (Barry, 1968). In this study, ten subjects were told to use conscious intent to suppress the growth of fungus. Each subject concentrated on the cultures for fifteen minutes from a distance of approximately 1.5 yards. The cultures were then incubated for several more hours. An impressive 151 out of a total of 194 culture dishes demonstrated retarded growth.
More recently, remote prayer has been shown to have significant beneficial effect on hospital patients. Harris et al. (1999) published significant results in the Archives of Internal Medicine for a double-blind experiment involving 990 consecutive patients admitted to a coronary care unit (CCU). Patients were randomized to either receive or not receive remote, intercessory prayer. The team of outside intercessors prayed for patients in the prayer group daily for four weeks. Patients were made aware that they were being prayed for, and the intercessors never met the patients and were given only the patients’ first names. The medical course from hospital admission to discharge was summarized in a CCU course score derived from blinded, retrospective chart review. The results showed that the prayed-for group had about a 10 percent advantage compared to the usual-care group and this difference proved to be significant (P = .04).
What does all this mean? Perhaps it means nothing at all. Or maybe, it means we could benefit greatly from re-conceptualizing what is possible and practical in placing health and well-being into our own hands. If nothing else, let it be a reminder that there is still an enormous amount to learn about our minds and there is so much potential in the power of our thoughts. In line with these findings, the former editor of Nature, Sir John Maddox, stated, “The catalogue of our ignorance must…include the understanding of the human brain…. What consciousness consists of…is…a puzzle. Despite the marvelous success of neuroscience in the past century…, we seem as far away from understanding…as we were a century ago….The most important discoveries of the next 50 years are likely to be ones of which we cannot now even conceive” (Maddox, 1999).
Barry J. 1968. General and comparative study of the psychokinetic effect on a fungus culture. Journal of Parapsychology. 32: 237-43.
Bengston WF, Krinsley D. The effect of the “laying on of hands” on transplanted breast cancer in mice. Journal of Scientific Exploration. 2000;14(3):353-364.
Harris W, Gowda M, Kolb JW, Strychacz CP, Vacek JL, Jones PG, Forker A, O’Keefe JH, McCallister BD. 1999. A randomized, controlled trial of the effects of remote, intercessory prayer on outcomes in patients admitted to the coronary care unit. Archives of Internal Medicine. 159(19):2273-2278.
Maddox J. 1999. The unexpected science to come. Scientific American. 281(6):62-67.
The universe is constantly moving toward a state of chaos. Indeed, incredible amounts of energy and work are required to keep matter organized. This natural tendency for disorder is known as entropy. Entropy is evident in everything that we do, in every space that exists. There is constant flow seeping through the cracks of every structure set in place. Perhaps we are most vulnerable in the realm of the nonphysical, for very few have mastered the art of creating structure out of something as evasive as a cloud or even more intangible, like a thought. The written language is arguably the closest humans have come to pulling scattered thoughts together into a form that is comprehensible. At the other end of that same spectrum is the absence of language as can be found in silent meditations.
It is so easy to get caught up in the chaos of our own and other people’s thoughts. Our experience of every moment in life is subject to responses to every internal and external stimulus in the universe. How often have you woken peacefully to have your entire day shaken up by one little phone call or email carrying the ripples of someone else’s sadness, anger, or confusion? I dare to say distraction is more often than not our normal state of existence. So how do we learn to ride that powerful wave of chaos and not wipe out in the wash? And then, once we learn to ride, how do we master the ride with the kind of stealth and grace that others can look upon with complete and utter awe? Isn’t this the skill to strive for? It matters not what wave we choose to take on in life. What matters is how we ride it.
This ultimate challenge must be taken on at the level of the mental, the physical, and the emotional. Each of these realms is like a circle, or a sphere, ever so persistently contracting and expanding. Each is a boundless entity, breathing in, out, and all around the source which is center.
Bring it back to center. Bring all back to center. Whatever the moment and experience is, always be able to bring yourself to center. The instructions are simple yet the knowing is never enough. A certain shift must first occur. Transformation of the knowing into the Being is how we access what we call Center. Being breath, being silence, and being acceptance. The body manifests in the realm of the physical where our breath serves as source. Thoughts manifest in the realm of the mental where silence serves as source. Feelings manifest in the realm of the emotional where acceptance and peace serve as source.
In source is center and from center, there is choice. Where there is choice there is a sacred freedom, the freedom required to gracefully master the art of creating form from chaos. Here, we no longer wait for the perfect wave to arrive. Here, we simply create the perfect wave of our lives.
