Nervous system out of balance?

A great question uh?  Who’s isn’t out of sync these days?  With all the demands that are placed on us from employers, employees, family members, societal issues, the economy, retirement, college…..the list goes on.  Feel what happens in your body with just the thoughts of these, or what emotions begin to percolate within?

Perhaps it is through common sensations, sweaty palms, heart racing, skipping beats, shallow breathing, tension in the gut.   Many people cope with this imbalance/stress by ignoring it, truly not realizing the accumulated effects of this on their body, minds and relationship to Spirit.

A study from the Center for Healthy Minds published in Psychological Science suggest people who are more aligned with their heart rate (healthy HRV) – called “stress -heart rate coherence” had higher levels of psychological well being and lower levels of inflammation.

What they found is the more you tune into your emotions and your body, the better off you are!  Emotions influence consistently how your body performs,  over 1400 biochemical changes in the body happen with shifts in our emotional states. Our brain actually performs better when we are in a coherent state.

What they found was it’s not just whether you experience more stress or less stress, or whether you heart rate increases a little or a lot under stress.  It is surprisingly the person’s awareness of their stress levels and how consistent that is the heart rate (HRV) that is linked to psychological and physical well being.

Researchers found that people with higher heart rate coherence had fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression along with lower levels of inflammation!

We know that awareness can be enhanced through training, and that stress-heart rate coherence can be learned!! Coherence allows us to think clearly and to respond rather than react to situations and people.

The more aware you are of what is going on inside of you gives you the power to change that. Choosing in each moment when you are feeling depleting emotions to make a shift to the heart, breathe, find another renewing emotion and activate that!

Consider the applications in your personal and professional lives that coherence training would enhance your resilience.  Would I be a better manager, parent, colleague ,citizen, friend, neighbor, if I knew how to get heart-coherent?

My experience is yes!!!! Get back into balance;-)