If you haven’t yet heard the term ‘new' Sciences’. you have now. To us, what this means is simply that there are more and more alternative views of the world that are being confirmed by scientific discovery (rather than ‘a gut feeling I had'). As part of the work we do here at The Juicy Effect, we make reference to many scientific facts that often elicit a reaction of ‘Really? Nah, that can’t be right’.
Below are a few facts that may just blow your mind - they certainly did for us.
The Heart Brain Connection
Everyone seems to be talking about the brain. Neuroscience, neuromarketing, neuroleadership, it’s everywhere. But why isn’t anyone talking about the heart, because it is way more than just a pump. What if I told you that the heart influences your creativity, your decision making and your mental clarity?
The Heart Brain (source: Science of the Heart Volume 2 p. 5; https://www.heartmath.org/resources/downloads/science-of-the-heart/)
The thing is, in fetal development the heart forms and starts beating before the brain is developed. It’s where it all starts. The heart has a complex neural network that is sufficiently extensive to be described as a ‘brain on the heart’. This ‘heart-brain’ (as it has been coined) allows it to act independently of the cranial brain. This system of neurons has both short and long-term memory - It can learn, remember, make decisions, feel and sense. This is the reason why heart transplant patients often experience shifts in their preferences and tastes which are associated with their donor. The HeartMath Institute is leading the way in this exciting field, bringing together researchers from various disciplines from around the world to expand our knowledge in this area.
Our Heart Rhythm Patterns Affects Mental Performance.
Heart rate variability (HRV) is the term for normal, naturally occurring variations or changes in the amount of time between heartbeats. HeartMath has found that thoughts and emotions can change heart-rhythm patterns, and these changing heart rhythms affect the brain. (This is different from heart rate which is the number of beats per minute).
(Source: Connecting with the Intuitive Guidance of the Heart, Deborah Rozman; available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apK8h1B9UbQ)
The heart sends more information to the brain than the other way around. In fact, 90% of the traffic is from heart to brain. When we experience positive feelings such as care, compassion and courage, the Heart generates a rhythm that appears as smooth, ordered and sine-wave like patterns (referred to as a coherent state). This heightens the function of areas of the brain involved in processing information, decision-making, problem-solving and creativity along with many other functions. When we experience negative emotions such as anger, fear and anxiety, the Heart produces a disordered pattern (referred to as Incoherence), and this has been found to inhibit brain function.
While we know that experiencing some stress enhances performance, there is a tipping point for each individual where it becomes debilitating. At this point and beyond, the emotional experience becomes largely comprised of negative emotions such as frustration, anxiety and worry. It mostly goes downhill from there.
(Source: Science of the Heart Volume 2 p. 36; https://www.heartmath.org/resources/downloads/science-of-the-heart/)
Emotion Contagion
We haven’t quite finished with the importance of the heart just yet. The heart emits an electromagnetic field that can be measured 5 feet from the body. Every heart beat is sending out a powerful and measurable electromagnetic field - the most powerful rhythmic energy field produced by the body!
This field changes according to the type of emotions we are experiencing. The heart beats to the tune of what we are feeling, and we are impacted by the electromagnetic field of others just as others are impacted by us. If we put out an electromagnetic field with a stress wave pattern, it impacts others. Similarly, if we put out a field with a caring compassionate wave, it also influences those around us. The science has proven it!
(Source: Connecting with the Intuitive Guidance of the Heart, Deborah Rozman; available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apK8h1B9UbQ)
This is part of the reason why stress-based emotions can spread through groups of people very quickly. Unless individuals have practices in place to manage their own emotional world, their impact on others, particularly those who are susceptible, is problematic.
Consider the impact of teams of people who are working together! A single person can drag everyone else down even without words and actions! Crazy right? The good news is that everyone can develop the skills they need to reduce the impact.
The Mind
On average, each of us has around 50-60,000 thoughts per day. Research shows that on average, we spend about 48% of our time in distracted thinking. Distracted thinking is the enemy of creativity, decision-making, and listening. It is the foundation of re-work and missed deadlines. All of this creates a significant mental and emotional cost.
Thankfully, leading experts in the field of Neuroplasticity have provided us with scientific proof that we can work with the mind just as we do the physical body to create a ‘fit mind’ – one associated with focus, mental clarity, and increased positive outlook. Anyone can cultivate the type of mind that they want if they are willing to work at it.
But here is the real kicker... the environment around the cells that make up our bodies determines which DNA functions will be turned on or off. Yes you read that correctly, our DNA can be influenced by our emotions and state of mind! Given that 200 billion cells are replaced every day, emotions influence how these new cells are brought into the world. Simply put - your emotions have just as much influence (if not more) on your body than the nutrition that you feed your body (for more information, refer to the work of Dr Candace Pert and Dr Bruce Lipton). A happy healthy mind = happy healthy cells – the science of Epigenetics proves it.
Learn the skills, achieve your goals.
These are just a handful of amazing facts we cover off during our personal consultations and workshops. Get in touch to learn more about how the new sciences can give you a helping hand in the modern world.