Heartmath™
Heartmath™ is a scientifically-proven method of cultivating optimal cognitive function, self-regulatory capacity, emotional stability, and resilience through mental focus techniques that foster coherence in brain-heart communication.
Traditionally, the study of communication pathways 
between the head and heart has been approached from a rather one-sided perspective, with scientists focusing primarily on the heart's responses to the brain's commands. We have learned, however, that communication between the heart and brain is actually a dynamic, ongoing, two-way dialogue, with each organ continuously influencing the other's function. For more than 25 years, the Heartmath™ Institute Research Center (HMI) has explored the physiological mechanisms by which the heart and brain communicate, and how the activity of the heart influences our perceptions, emotions, intuition and health. Their studies have shown that the heart communicates to the brain in four major ways:
- neurologically (through the transmission of nerve impulses)
- biochemically (via hormones and neurotransmitters)
- biophysically (through pressure waves)
- energetically (through electromagnetic field interactions)
Communication along all these conduits significantly affects the brain's activity, and can also affect performance.
HMI studies have also shown that the single most significant index of the heart-brain relationship is the beat-to-beat changes in our heart rate, called Heart Rate Variability. Through techniques that let you optimize coherence in your Heart Rate Variability (HRV), you can improve the heart's communication with the brain, thereby cultivating palpable benefits such as reducing stress and improving your health, your ability to focus, to communicate better, to be more creative, and to foster more balance in your interactions, which in turn improves relationships.
Heartmath™ training programs are being used by:
- Nationally recognized healthcare institutions, Fortune 100 companies, hospitals and government agencies to help them with important business outcomes such as employee retention, reduction of health care costs, and increasing productivity. These programs create work environments that have less stress, better communication and improved employee health all which of impact profitability.
- Thousands of health professionals to address the stress associated with many health conditions, such as anxiety, depression, hypertension and PTSD disorders in order to improve health outcomes with the patients they care for.
- Tens of thousands of people on four continents to gain a new sense of empowerment, more awareness and intelligence, and less stress.
For more information about HMI studies of heart-brain communication, visit Heartmath.org