We need it now more than we’ve ever needed it! Peace. But what does it really mean to you personally? And besides the obvious tension in the Middle East, unrest in Egypt, and violence in your own hometown, how do you benefit from having Peace?
In my coaching practice with my clients – as well as training coaches and therapists to be a HeartMath Provider and coach – I share with them something we call The Emotional Landscape (TEL).
TEL allows one to see exactly what happens in our nervous system, physiology and biology when we’re under stress and duress; as it relates to hormones like Adrenaline, Acetylcholine, Cortisol, Testosterone, DHEA, Oxytocin, Serotonin, Dopamine etc, as well as our heart rate, emotions, and brain function… the ability to think clearly and act effortlessly under pressure.
No matter where you are in the world as you read this, you and I and everyone else on this planet have one thing in common: our heart rate speeds up dramatically when we’re stressed, or it slows down more than usual. For simplicity’s sake we’ll call it Fight or Flight, or Freeze.
Whether tension, unrest or violence causes us to Fight, Flight, or Freeze, over 1400 biological changes are taking place in our body in a heart-beat, preparing us for action to keep us safe!
Sometimes those reactions are justified – sometimes we are really in danger and need to act!
But sometimes we’re not in the heat of the action, sometimes we’re not immediately involved, and yet our bodies still react as if we were. This is even true when we watch the news and get caught up in the drama unfolding in our world.
I don’t have to tell you that constant high heart-rates, being pumped full of Adrenaline and Cortisol is bad for you, you’ve heard that before. And you’ve also heard that sitting behind your desk for hours and hours and hours throughout your day is also bad for you (read: low heart rate).
We need flexibility. We need balance. We need the ability to respond appropriately to our stress and the dangers in our world in a way that keeps us safe and functioning optimally, thinking clearly and creatively, and allowing positive emotions like Peace, Calm, Compassion, Ease, Joy, Appreciation and Passion to lead our actions. When we do that then Love is not just an idle abstract concept, but it becomes an Action that has impact.
HeartMath teaches us how to make this shift, quickly. The emWave and Inner Balance Trainer technology monitors this shift for us, and helps keep us focused on the release of the good hormones by changing our heart-rhythm patterns and focusing on positive emotions.
HeartMath’s Global Coherence Initiative project attempts to monitor these changes on a global scale. Just as we’re able to influence our physical heart-rates and hormones, responding more appropriately to our stress, we’re able to collectively focus our energetic heart-rates and influence our emerging world. This is researched and proven science post 1995, yet the majority of us still live in a scientific worldview pre-1995. It’s time for a change.
The Global Coherence Initiative is once again facilitating a synchronized World Focus on Peace. Log in on Saturday 21 September and see your self represented by a tiny light amongst thousands of other lights from around the globe, and spend a couple of minutes with everyone focusing on one outcome: Peace.
Did you know? You can change your own heart-rhythm patterns and release Oxytocin (the social-love-bonding hormone), Serotonin (a mood enhancing hormone), Testosterone (amongst others, it prevents osteoporosis), and Dopamine (which controls our reward and pleasure centers), at will?
Think about this:
Scene 1… You’re at a great party, awesome music is playing, you’re dancing and having fun. You’re feeling great and so is everyone else. In walks a group of five people, angry and pissed off about something. You notice them and begin to wander what’s up. More people begin to notice them, and someone tells the DJ to turn the music down, we want to find out what’s wrong. In no time at all has the fun times stopped and you’ve been high-jacked by someone else’s negative emotions.
Scene 2… It’s the same great party. Awesome music is playing, you’re dancing and having fun. You’re feeling great and so is everyone else. In walks a group of five people, angry and pissed off about something. You notice them and begin to wander what’s up. You go over to them, smile, and say, “Come on, join in our party! The music’s great and we’re all having fun!” And in no time at all does the group disperse and forget about their problems, being high-jacked by your positive emotions.
You see:
When you really think about it, we all – every single one of us on this planet – want the same thing… we want to feel good. Sometimes we do stupid things in order to feel good without having all the data to make a better choice, or even realizing the power of our choices.
Those of us who can still make those good choices should, and in one way or another influence others to make better choices. International Peace Day 21 September 2013 is an opportunity to do just that. Join in with the Global Coherence Initiative and feel what a couple of minutes of Peace can do for you.
- Alan Strydom, Director HeartMath SA, Lead Trainer, 1:1 Provider & Coach
