How to Align the Head and the Heart

Our greatest strength lies in our ability to operate from our heads and our heart. Both the brain and that thumping organ in our chest are powerful tools that not only sustain life, but they can both help us experience the world in a profound way. Research now tells us (as discussed in the last post) that we can “think” with both our brains and our hearts when we do that, we will make better decisions, gain clarity,  feel more resilient and live more balanced and peaceful lives.

It happens when we create coherence. Coherence is, according to Dr. Rollin McCraty at The Institute of HeartMath which studies, teaches and trains people about resilience, emotion regulation and stress reduction “the state when the heart, mind and emotions are in energetic alignment and cooperation.”

Coherence is the synchronization of our emotional, physical, and mental systems creating an optimal, high-energy state that can foster positive outcomes.

It means we feel good. We do good. We engage in life. We are less stressed and more energetic. We have greater clarity and make better decisions, and we can get all this by drawing from the synchronous power of our heads and our hearts.

Here are three ways to do it:

1. Hear your heartbeat, breathe from your heart space.  First, just slow down and notice the marvel that you are. Do this by sitting quietly, taking deep breaths and listening to your own heartbeat. Feel it pulsing, try to hear it working away. The HeartMath Institute also recommends that you breathe from the heart center. Breathe normally, but imagine that each breath is coming in and out of the heart center. This pulls you from the head into the heart space and engages the two.

2. Act with compassion. This quality is something that manifests on a heart and head level. It’s a deep feeling, precipitated by thought and understanding and it’s one way to create coherence. Act compassionately and imagine that emotion swelling out of your heart until your head and heart align.

3. Listen to what the heart has to say. So often, we hear the inner voices coming from our head. They tend to be analytical, critical, sometimes disparaging. Well, next time, listen up to what the heart is saying. These are kind, compassionate, supportive words. Imagine it speaking to you.  In reality it’s giving us signals all the time.

There are lots of ways to create coherence by aligning your head and heart. Next time you feel like you are too “in-your-head” about something. Pause, take a deep breath and merge your thoughts with the emotions from your heart center. Imagine the two aligning, and creating a cooperative force designed to help ease your stress so that you can create a better-feeling experience.