The Institute of Heart Math has discovered that there is a line of communication between the brain and the heart.  Furthermore, the heart has a nervous system that is sufficiently complex to be considered a mini brain.  Also, heart cells entrain each other, meaning they start to oscillate at the same rate.  Here are a few key points I lifted from their research articles.

1. Heart rhythms are the most dynamic and reflective of inner emotional states and stress. Negative emotions lead to increased disorder in the heart’s rhythms and in the autonomic nervous system, thereby adversely affecting the rest of the body. While positive emotions create increased harmony and coherence in the heart rhythms and improve balance in the nervous system.
2. The heart communicates with the brain in ways that significantly affect how we perceive and react to the world.
3. John and Beatrice Lacy discovered that the heart has its own logic that often diverged from the direction of the autonomic nervous system. Those messages could affect a person’s behavior. Neurophysiologists discovered a neural pathway and mechanism whereby input from the heart to the brain would inhibit or facilitate the brain’s activity.
4. Andrew Arman discovered that the heart has a complex intrinsic nervous system that is sufficiently sophisticated to qualify as a little brain. The heart’s brain is an intricate network of several types of neurons, neurotransmitters, proteins, and support cells like those found in the brain proper. Its electric circuitry allows it to act independently of the cranial brain—to learn, remember, and even feel and sense.
5. Coherence is important in helping each of us maintain our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual well-being. Coherence in any system, including the human body, refers to a logical, orderly and harmonious connectedness between parts. Borrowing from physics, when we are in a coherent state, virtually no energy is wasted because our systems are performing optimally. When we speak of heart rhythm coherence, we are referring to smooth, ordered heart rhythm patterns. Some of the benefits of coherence are calmness, good energy levels, clear thinking, and proper immune-system function. Coherence begins when one shifts the location of consciousness from the brain to the heart by focusing on the heartbeat itself or how you are feeling. Not surprisingly, positive feelings—love, compassion, caring, etc. increase coherency. Negative feelings result in incoherence. Examples are: anger, fear, and anxiety.
6. There is a tendency for heart cells to entrain each other because of the proximity of their electromagnetic fields. Just as the electromagnetic fields of two heart cells causes them to begin oscillating together, when the electromagnetic fields of two hearts come together they start beating together. This phenomenon extends even further. When the heart’s electromagnetic field and any other organisms field comes into contact with each other (whether it has a heart or not), the fields synchronize and there is an extremely rapid exchange of information. The result is a significant change in the physiology of both organisms. As the two fields come together and synchronize, they produce a combination field that are in harmony. They produce something more than the sum of their parts. A unique identity comes into being as long as the fields are synchronized. So when you meet someone, the first thing you share is heart space.
   

What are your thoughts on the above?