Heart Signals Precede Brain Responses

Rollin McCraty, Ph.D. is Director of Research of the HeartMath Research Center at the HeartMath Institute. As a psycho-physiologist, Dr. McCraty's research interests include the physiology of emotion, heart-brain communication and the global interconnectivity between people and the earth's energetic systems. Findings from this research have been applied to the development of tools and technology to optimize individual and organizational health, performance, and quality of life. Dr. McCraty has acted as Principal Investigator in numerous studies examining the effects of emotions on heart–brain interactions and on autonomic, cardiovascular, hormonal, and immune system function, and outcome studies to determine the benefits of positive emotion-focused interventions and heart rhythm coherence feedback in diverse organizational, educational and various clinical populations. He has been featured in a number of documentary films such as I am, The Truth, The Joy of Sox move, The Power of the Heart, Solar Revolution, and The Living Matrix among many others. To learn more about HeartMath, go to HeartMath.com. Dr. McCraty had so much wisdom to share about the science behind heart intelligence and on today's topic of intuition. While this is a longer episode, I can't recommend this interview enough. You will get a better understanding of how our heart is really what leads our brain and then body's response. Here are some of the most powerful takeaways: Things We Learned From This Episode

• The biggest stress point in the world is because of a lack of alignment of our heart (where intuition is found) and our mind.
• There are three kinds of intuition:
  1. Implicit Knowledge - what most of us are aware of, as this is our unconscious memory, otherwise known as 'dual process theory'. A secondary kind is known as Insight. This is what we'd refer to as our 'ah-ha' moments, meaning our unconscious is still at work just in a slower manner than with implicit knowledge.
  2. Energetic Sensitivity - This is our nervous system's ability to detect and respond to signals in the environment. The commonly used phrase, 'the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife', refers to this idea of being able to sense other's energy. We know scientifically that our heart radiates in a magnetic field that is at least 3 feet past our body. Empaths and those with deep empathy and sensitivity to energy can feel what others are feeling.
  3. Non-local Intuition - this is the kind of intuition we can't explain as it's across time or space.
• Any human being with a heart can learn to better tune in and connect with their heart intelligence. What we know from research and scientific data is that contrary to common thought our heart is the predictor of reaction before our brain. Our heart shifts first, then on to the brain, and lastly, we get effects in our body like a gut reaction, chills or stress response.
• A beautiful unifying factor is that all religions regard to the heart as the seat of intelligence. We are starting to understand from a scientific standpoint how and why this happens.
• The language of intuition is emotion. Comments like 'this feels right' is actually right on point. It is our feelings, whether it be joy, peace, overwhelm, frustration, etc. that allows us to tune into our intuition.

A few great books to start with if interested to dive deeper: Heart Intelligence, The Science of the Heart and A Business Plan for Peace

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Connect with Rollin McCraty

• Linkedin: Rollin McCraty

Download our podcast interview with Rollin McCraty here on iTunes

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