Energy Out, Energy In

Eat smart and exercise regularly: That’s what people generally believe to be a successful formula for maintaining a good supply of energy to do the things they want to do and live long and healthy lives. There’s no debate: This formula is a great start, but millions of people who subscribe to it nevertheless find their energy drained by the end of the day or work week. Ever wake up and almost immediately begin dreading your day before you climb out of bed? At a time when you’re supposed to be rested and ready to venture forth, you’ve already begun spending precious energy and your day has barely started. (See our Recommendations).

Researchers at the Institute of HeartMath and elsewhere know our thoughts and feelings are as important or perhaps more so than the food and drink we consume. It is our mental and emotional diets that determine our energy levels, health and well-being to a greater extent than most people realize.

As human beings we all want to be happy and free from misery… we have learned that the key to happiness is inner peace. The greatest obstacles to inner peace are disturbing emotions such as anger, attachment, fear and suspicion, while love and compassion and a sense of universal responsibility are the sources of peace and happiness.

Dalai Lama

The process by which the body’s systems are maintained, repaired and regenerated, though biologically complex, are easily grasped intellectually. When we have negative emotions such as anger, anxiety and dislike or hate, or think negative thoughts, we experience stress and our energy reserves are redirected. When our energy reserves are constantly redirected into the stress pathway, we frequently don’t have enough left for the normal regenerative processes that replenish the resources we’ve lost or repair damage to our bodies and defend us against disease. Over the long term, stress depletes our bodies’ systems and can severely damage our health and age us faster, mentally and physically.

In contrast, when we activate the power of our hearts and intentionally have sincere feelings such as appreciation, care and love, we allow our hearts’ electrical energy to work for us. Consciously choosing a core heart feeling over a negative one renews our body mentally, physically and emotionally. The more we do this the better we’re able to ward off stress and energy drains in the future. Heartfelt positive feelings fortify our energy systems and nourish the body at the cellular level. At HeartMath we call these emotions quantum nutrients.

We live in deeds, not years: In thoughts not breaths; in feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heartthrobs. He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.

Aristotle

A short HeartMath exercise

Take a few minutes with this simple Asset/Deficit Balance Sheet to track your emotions and thoughts to see where you’re spending your energy.

• On the top half of a sheet of paper, write “Assets.” On the bottom half, write “Deficits.” As you make your lists, be prepared to consider the effects on family, work and personal balance, and the negative consequences of each event.
• Under Assets, list the positive events, conversations and interactions of the past few days, things that made you happy and gave you energy. Write how each asset, including ongoing ones – the quality of interactions with your friends, family, working environment, etc. – made you feel.
• Under Deficits, list issues, conflicts and events in the period that were negative or draining, including conversations and events that turned from good to bad, for whatever reason, and how they made you feel.
• Now, step back and, from the heart, note which deficits could have been neutralized or turned into assets at the time and still could be turned into assets, look or repeating patterns and write your insights and conclusions.

Adapted from the Asset/Deficit Balance Sheet available in various HeartMath materials, including the book The HeartMath Solution, by Doc Childre and Howard Martin, with Donna Beech.

You and Your Energy: Key Points

Our mental and emotional diets determine our energy levels, health and well-being much more than most people realize.

Look at life as an energy economy game. Each day, ask, “Are my energy expenditures – actions, reactions, thoughts and feelings – productive or nonproductive? During the course of my day, have I accumulated more stress or more peace?

Keeping an asset/deficit balance sheet even for a few days will give you an extremely clear picture of where and how you’re adding to your energy account and where and how you’re overdrawing it.

When we consciously evoke core heart feelings, we nourish our bodies at every level. Like quantum nutrients, core heart feelings keep our cells regenerating.

At the HeartMath Institute, our goal is to help you learn to generate emotional and mental coherence deliberately and on demand, so you ultimately spend more of your day at an optimal, regenerative level of energy efficiency.

Benefits of Intentional Emotions and Thoughts

• Energy used for positive purposes and constantly replenished.
• Look and feel mentally, physically, emotionally healthier.
• Mental, physical aging reversed.
• Outlook transformed to positive one.
• Stress levels reduced.
• Conversations, other interactions with people more relaxed, not draining.

Tools For Increasing Energy

emWave?

Regular use of this scientifically validated, stress-relief technology has proven to be a vital tool in reducing anxiety, stress, anger, emotional chaos and boosting energy and vitality. The emWave technology is easy to use and noninvasive. It will help you achieve heart coherence – synchronization between the heart and brain – and reach your optimal physical, mental and emotional balance. When your emotions are in balance, you stop the energy drain and start the energy gain. Then, by practicing the easy-to-learn techniques you’ll receive with your emWave only minutes a day will help you revitalize and re-energize your mind, body and spirit anytime, anywhere.

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Transforming Anxiety

The HeartMath Solution for Overcoming Fear and Worry and Creating Serenity: by Doc Childre and Deborah Rozman. When you consider that most people have some anxiety about themselves, family, future and for other reasons, it helps explain why overweight and obesity are so prevalent. That’s because anxiety is a leading contributor to these conditions: Millions of people try to escape their anxieties through overeating, binge-eating and consumption of comfort foods. Transforming Anxiety provides proven solutions to help you overcome your fears and worries and create more serenity and a sense of well-being in your life. Based on IHM’s 16 years of research into the physiology of emotions, the book includes the scientifically proven Attitude Breathing? tool and Cut-thru? and Heart Lock-In? techniques to help you release your anxieties and replace them with new, positive feelings.

Transforming Stress

The HeartMath Solution for Relieving Worry, Fatigue and Tension – Childre, Rozman, 2004. Learn more about the warning signs of chronic stress and what you should know about your “intelligent heart” and how it can help you immediately begin reducing the stress in your life. You’ll learn several key HeartMath tools and techniques, including the complete details of the Attitude Breathing? tool and step-by-step instructions on how and when to use it.

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