Reprinted below is the tenth in a series of articles from our newest client, HeartMath, LLC, that deals with how stress impacts our lives and what can be done to relieve it. Do you get a knot in your stomach when you sit down to pay the bills each month? Wake up in the middle of the night wondering how you’re ever going to get out of debt? Get a feeling of helplessness and hopelessness when you read headlines about the housing crisis, oil prices, soaring healthcare costs, inflation, recession and unemployment? If you’re feeling worried and anxious about money, you’re not alone. For millions of people, financial stress is eating away at their basic sense of security and well-being. And it’s not just bank accounts that are being drained, but also physical and emotional resources, which in turn impact health, relationships, productivity and happiness. Most of us believe if we just work harder, think harder and try harder, we can resolve our financial issues. But what if focusing more brainpower and effort in these problems actually gets us even further away from finding solutions? Instead of trying even harder to think our way through these problems, here’s an alternative approach to consider. A different method for resolving your challenges involves releasing stress and allowing your intuition to help guide your thoughts and actions. By using tools to stop the continual loop of anxiety and fear, we actually free up energy to find new answers to old problems. Even when we can’t control our external situation, creating a balanced connection between the heart and brain helps reduce the internal taxes of scarcity and insecurity and opens new pathways in the problem-solving process. Here are nine practical and affordable tips for relieving financial stress: Take advantage of new technology. You may already use a sophisticated computer program to manage your personal and professional finances, but did you know there’s innovative stress reduction software available, too? Much like cell phones, PDA’s and mp3 players make life easier and more enjoyable, there are handheld biofeedback devices that help you relieve stress. Why not use the latest digital tools to improve your quality of life? Sit down and make a list of what you’re grateful for. It’s hard to feel anxious or scared while focusing on feelings of gratitude. Think about someone you appreciate, then, take a moment in your heart to feel appreciation for them. If you choose to, tell him or her. You’ll be surprised by the new energy you bring back to solving money issues by cultivating gratitude and expressing appreciation. Approach your financial problems more objectively. If you were going to give advice to a person who was in a similar situation, what would it be? Stepping outside yourself enables you to see things more dispassionately, without being as invested in the outcome. Shift your focus. Stop and remember the basic conveniences and luxuries you may take for granted. Much of the world lives in poverty and while it may sound simplistic, when we stop to think about someone much less fortunate, it puts our financial situations in a larger wholeness perspective. Get to the heart of the matter. If you feel like you’re in an endless cycle of worry and angst, try the Cut-Thru® technique to help gradually release the accumulated anxiety caused by financial stress. To gain some immediate relief, you don’t need to sort through all the details of the issues you’re facing; simply address the perceptions, feelings and thoughts that come up while using this technique. Don’t over-saturate yourself with bad news about the economy. While staying informed is important, taking in so much disturbing news day after day can lead to a growing sense of pessimism. Try to watch or read the financial news without getting lost in a negative mindset and look for stories that help stimulate more creative, optimistic thinking about money. Don’t keep everything to yourself. Reach out to a friend who can help you gain a clearer perspective, but not necessarily one who will simply sympathize with your pain. Or find an expert you can talk to about your money issues who is knowledgeable and unbiased. Financial advisors and credit counselors can help take off some of the pressure and there are many free resources for financial advice. Give some money away. It doesn’t matter how much. Whatever the amount, giving to someone in need or to a cause or charity you feel aligned with takes you out of self-centeredness and focuses compassion and caring on someone else. Knowing you have enough to share builds your own sense of personal empowerment. Don’t punish yourself with blame or shame. Having financial difficulties does not equate to failure. Many times the circumstances are beyond your control. Freeing yourself from these disapproving feelings enhances your perception and intuition, allowing you to think better and more clearly. Despite a sense that things may always be this way, your current condition is not permanent. Change is constant and that includes your finances. While money issues are real, they don’t have to destroy you. Letting go of stress, even for just a few minutes, can lead towards fresh ideas and new solutions. If you’re looking for greater prosperity and peace of mind, reducing stress is a risk-free financial strategy. Copyright © HeartMath. Since 1991 HeartMath has been dedicated to decoding the underlying mechanics of stress. HeartMath is internationally recognized for their solutions to transform the stress of change and uncertainty, and bring coherence and renewed energy into people’s lives. Research and clinical studies conducted by HeartMath have examined emotional physiology, heart-brain interactions, and the physiology of learning and performance. Through their research they have demonstrated the critical link between emotions, heart function, and cognitive performance. HeartMath’s work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals such as American Journal of Cardiology, Stress Medicine, and Preventive Cardiology, as well as business journals such as Harvard Business Review and Leadership Excellence. HeartMath’s organizational clients include NASA, BP, Duke University Health System, Stanford Business School, Redken, Kaiser Permanente, Boeing, and Cisco Systems, as well as dozens of school systems and thousands of health professionals around the world. To learn more about HeartMath, go to www.heartmath.com.
Reprinted below is the ninth in a series of articles from our newest client, HeartMath, LLC, that deals with how stress impacts our lives and what can be done to relieve it. Leaders face unprecedented demands to manage extreme pressures, while maintaining some semblance of effectiveness and well-being. Add to that the stunning complexity of the global economy, and many leaders are short of breath and short of hope. Yet the picture is far from hopeless. There’s a striking capacity within the human system to transform stress and regain lost energy and vitality. This has been the focus of HeartMath for the past 15 years. In the mid-1970s, I developed a strong desire to learn how to enhance performance while reducing stress. I was an actor, singer and dancer in New York, and I knew that managing my emotional state was key to my success. If I was too nervous, preoccupied or arrogant, my performance suffered. As I learned to transform emotion and act more from my heart, my performance improved dramatically. In 1980 I met Doc Childre, founder of HeartMath, and realized he had addressed the problem of stress on the personal, team, and organizational levels. I became inspired by the prospect of helping people learn to transform the daily stresses that burden our spirits and rob us of the passion to care. Stress affects all aspects of life. Just as the boundaries between personal and work life grow blurry, so does stress carry over from one event to the next. We recognized that to reduce the stress overload, we needed to understand the stress impact on human physiology and organizational effectiveness and create a simple set of valid tools to apply before, during, or after stressful experiences. From research, we know that stressful emotions—such as anxiety, time pressure, and feeling overwhelmed— create chaotic patterns in the rhythms of the heart, which are transmitted to the cortical areas of the brain and other parts of our bodies, diminishing our effectiveness, well-being, and performance. Changing this stress response changes the physiology. This can be done in the moment. When you give people practical tools to transform the stress response and to be more supportive of colleagues, you can achieve remarkable improvements in staff and customer retention and satisfaction. Commit to reducing stress as part of your performance and talent management. Through the 1990s, many leaders prided themselves on being “stress athletes,” believing they could forever withstand the barrage of stress and emotional turmoil unscathed. Today we have a healthier respect for the effects of chronic stress. Which part of business is not adversely affected by stress? We see it manifest in soaring healthcare costs; in the alarming rise in use of medications for sleep and anxiety disorders; in the loss of key employees who aren’t willing to ruin their health and vitality in an unappreciative culture; and in the defection of key customers annoyed by a lack of responsiveness to their concerns. A sensible program for transforming stress can be justified in four ways: more customer satisfaction, less staff turnover, reduced healthcare costs, and improved staff well-being and performance. All managers know they need to get better at execution and innovation. Many see the link between stress, performance, and innovation. Staff retention is also a big concern, as well as health care costs. Several companies have achieved seven-digit cost savings within the first year as a result of implementing HeartMath’s stress programs. As you give your staff tools to neutralize stress, you gain a more efficient, effective, and inspired workforce. Many organizations have seen reductions in fatigue, insomnia, anxiety and depression, as well as improvements in employee productivity, communication, and satisfaction. To enable people to recognize and transform the stress response quickly, we developed interactive exercises (built on the principle of learning to regulate the heart’s rhythmic patterns) and a handheld Personal Stress Reliever. Many organizations now provide these tools to staff to boost performance and health while reducing anxiety. Bruce Cryer is President and CEO of HeartMath LLC, an innovative performance improvement firm. HeartMath works with several top 10 U.S. hospital systems, as well as Britain’s NHS, and its research-based program has received the Management Innovations Award from the American College of Healthcare Executives. Bruce is on the faculty of several leadership programs including the Stanford Executive Program and the Center for the Health Professions at UCSF. His article, “Pull the Plug on Stress,” was published in the Harvard Business Review. He is the co-author (with Doc Childre) of “From Chaos to Coherence: the Power to Change Performance.” Copyright © HeartMath. Since 1991 HeartMath has been dedicated to decoding the underlying mechanics of stress. HeartMath is internationally recognized for their solutions to transform the stress of change and uncertainty, and bring coherence and renewed energy into people’s lives. Research and clinical studies conducted by HeartMath have examined emotional physiology, heart-brain interactions, and the physiology of learning and performance. Through their research they have demonstrated the critical link between emotions, heart function, and cognitive performance. HeartMath’s work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals such as American Journal of Cardiology, Stress Medicine, and Preventive Cardiology, as well as business journals such as Harvard Business Review and Leadership Excellence. HeartMath’s organizational clients include NASA, BP, Duke University Health System, Stanford Business School, Redken, Kaiser Permanente, Boeing, and Cisco Systems, as well as dozens of school systems and thousands of health professionals around the world. To learn more about HeartMath, go to www.heartmath.com.
Reprinted below is the eighth in a series of articles from our newest client, HeartMath, LLC, that deals with how stress impacts our lives and what can be done to relieve it. Will acts of kindness and generosity enhance our health, increase our longevity and make us happier? Can genuine altruism be a remedy for stress? When we act on behalf of other people, research shows we feel better and more secure and experience less stress. Does altruism have a physiological basis? Using MRI scans, scientists have identified specific regions of the brain that are very active during deeply and compassionate emotions. Stephen Post, Ph.D., head of the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love, told WebMD: “This is the care-and-connection part of the brain. States of joy and delight come from giving to others. It doesn’t come from any dry action – where the act is out of duty in the narrowest sense.” What Post is describing is heartfelt giving. Neurochemicals also enter into this picture of altruism. A recent study has identified high levels of the hormone oxytocin in people who are very charitable toward others. But what about the heart? The Institute of HeartMath, a nonprofit research and education organization in California, has studied the physiology of and relationship between the heart, stress, and emotions for 17 years. Dr. J. Andrew Armour, a leading neurocardiologist on the Institute of HeartMath’s Scientific Advisory Board, has found the heart contains cells that synthesize and release hormones such as epinephrine (adrenaline) and dopamine, among others. More recently it was discovered that the heart also secretes oxytocin, commonly referred to as the “love” or “bonding” hormone. Remarkably, concentrations of oxytocin produced in the heart are as high as those found in the brain. When you are altruistic – lending a helping hand – your oxytocin level goes up, which helps relieve your stress. Altruistic behavior also may trigger the brain’s reward circuitry – the feel-good chemicals such as dopamine and endorphins. However, the hormonal benefits of the good deed depend on the genuine intent of the act of altruism. Research shows that altruistic people are healthier and live longer. In one study that followed over 400 women for 30 years, researchers found that 52% of those who did not engage in volunteer work experienced a major illness – compared with only 36% of those who did volunteer. In a British poll of volunteers, half of those surveyed said their health had improved over the course of volunteering. One in five even said that volunteering had helped them lose weight. Another large research study found a 44% reduction in early death among those who volunteered – a greater effect than exercising four times a week. And a recent investigation conducted by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research found that older people who are helpful to others reduce their risk of dying by nearly 60% compared to peers who provide neither practical help nor emotional support to relatives, neighbors or friends. You can learn to cultivate altruism using the HeartMath® System. HeartMath experts say that giving to others should be balanced with self-care so you don’t burn yourself out. Giving is most effective when it comes from a genuine sense of heartfelt care rather than a feeling of duty or “I should.” The heart-focused techniques of the HeartMath System help people to align themselves more fully with their core values and to actualize more care and compassion in their daily lives. Practice of these techniques has also been linked to beneficial changes in hormones that profoundly affect our health, happiness and longevity. Integrating HeartMath practices into your life helps you reduce stress while increasing your generosity from the heart. Benefits of Altruism: · Promotes emotional, physical, mental and spiritual health. · Boosts your self-esteem and confidence. · Increases your longevity. · Givers are more open to receiving gifts and experiencing appreciation. · Provides a way to express your feelings about someone or an issue. · Builds connections and relationships with others. · People gain knowledge about the cause and issue they give to. · Giving to a community or globally is caring that uplifts consciousness. For more scientific information go to: www.heartmath.org. Copyright © HeartMath. Since 1991 HeartMath has been dedicated to decoding the underlying mechanics of stress. HeartMath is internationally recognized for their solutions to transform the stress of change and uncertainty, and bring coherence and renewed energy into people’s lives. Research and clinical studies conducted by HeartMath have examined emotional physiology, heart-brain interactions, and the physiology of learning and performance. Through their research they have demonstrated the critical link between emotions, heart function, and cognitive performance. HeartMath’s work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals such as American Journal of Cardiology, Stress Medicine, and Preventive Cardiology, as well as business journals such as Harvard Business Review and Leadership Excellence. HeartMath’s organizational clients include NASA, BP, Duke University Health System, Stanford Business School, Redken, Kaiser Permanente, Boeing, and Cisco Systems, as well as dozens of school systems and thousands of health professionals around the world. To learn more about HeartMath, go to www.heartmath.com.
Reprinted below is the seventh in a series of articles from our newest client, HeartMath, LLC, that deals with how stress impacts our lives and what can be done to relieve it. Psychologists once maintained that emotions were purely mental expressions generated by the brain alone. We now know that this is not true – emotions have as much to do with the heart and body as they do with the brain. Of the bodily organs, the heart plays a particularly important role in our emotional experience. The experience of an emotion results from the brain, heart, and body acting in concert. The Institute of HeartMath (www.heartmath.org), a research center dedicated to the study of the heart and the physiology of emotions, has conducted numerous studies identifying the relationship between emotions and the heart. A number of their studies have provided new insight into understanding how the activity of the heart is indeed linked to our emotions and our health, vitality and well-being. Emotions and the Heart Recent HeartMath studies define a critical link between the heart and brain. The heart is in a constant two-way dialog with the brain – our emotions change the signals the brain sends to the heart and the heart responds in complex ways. However, we now know that the heart sends more information to the brain than the brain sends to the heart. And the brain responds to the heart in many important ways. This research explains how the heart responds to emotional and mental reactions and why certain emotions stress the body and drain our energy. As we experience feelings like anger, frustration, anxiety and insecurity, our heart rhythm patterns become more erratic. These erratic patterns are sent to the emotional centers in the brain which it recognizes as negative or stressful feelings. These signals create the actual feelings we experience in heart area and body. The erratic heart rhythms also block our ability to think clearly. Many studies have found that the risk of developing heart disease is significantly increased for people who often experience stressful emotions such as irritation, anger or frustration. These emotions create a chain reaction in the body – stress hormone levels increase, blood vessels constrict, blood pressure rises, and the immune system is weakened. If we consistently experience these emotions, it can put a strain on the heart and other organs, and eventually lead to serious health problems. Conversely, HeartMath’s research shows that when we experience heart-felt emotions like love, care, appreciation and compassion the heart produces a very different rhythm. In this case it is a smooth pattern that looks like gently rolling hills. Harmonious heart rhythms, which reflect positive emotions, are considered to be indicators of cardiovascular efficiency and nervous system balance. This lets the brain know that the heart feels good and often creates a gentle warm feeling in the area of the heart. Learning to shift out of stressful emotional reactions to these heartfelt emotions can have profound positive effects on the cardiovascular system and our overall health. It is easy to see how our heart and emotions are linked and how we can shift our heart into a more efficient state by monitoring its rhythms. Benefits Come From Being Appreciative The feeling of appreciation is one of the most concrete and easiest positive emotions for individuals to self-generate and sustain for longer periods. Almost anyone can find something to genuinely appreciate. By simply recalling a time when you felt sincere appreciation and recreating that feeling, you can increase your heart rhythm coherence, reduce emotional stress and improve your health. For people for who may initially find it difficult to self-generate a feeling of appreciation in the present moment, experts suggest that they recall a past memory that elicits warm feelings. With practice, most people are able to self-generate feelings of appreciation in real time and no longer need the past time reference. Dr. Rollin McCraty, Director of Research for the Institute of HeartMath, says, “It’s important to emphasize that it is not a mental image of a memory that creates a shift in our heart rhythm, but rather the emotions associated with the memory. Mental images alone usually do not produce the same significant results that we’ve observed when someone focuses on a positive feeling.” Positive emotion-focused techniques, like those developed by HeartMath, can help individuals effectively replace stressful thoughts and emotional patterns with more positive perceptions and emotions. One of the long-term benefits to be gained from the practice of these kinds of techniques is increased emotional awareness. This increased awareness can help individuals maintain a more consistent emotional balance, a fundamental step in the process of improving cardiovascular health. Diet and exercise will continue to be an important factor in keeping the heart healthy. However, there is increasing awareness of the importance of maintaining a healthy emotional state for those recovering from heart-related illnesses, as well as for maintaining heart health. Studies have shown that HeartMath’s positive emotion-focused techniques reduce stress and anxiety, which is a safe and effective way to lower blood pressure and increase functional capacity in heart failure patients. This approach is currently being used in a number of hospitals and cardiac rehabilitation programs around the country. Copyright © HeartMath. Since 1991 HeartMath has been dedicated to decoding the underlying mechanics of stress. HeartMath is internationally recognized for their solutions to transform the stress of change and uncertainty, and bring coherence and renewed energy into people’s lives. Research and clinical studies conducted by HeartMath have examined emotional physiology, heart-brain interactions, and the physiology of learning and performance. Through their research they have demonstrated the critical link between emotions, heart function, and cognitive performance. HeartMath’s work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals such as American Journal of Cardiology, Stress Medicine, and Preventive Cardiology, as well as business journals such as Harvard Business Review and Leadership Excellence. HeartMath’s organizational clients include NASA, BP, Duke University Health System, Stanford Business School, Redken, Kaiser Permanente, Boeing, and Cisco Systems, as well as dozens of school systems and thousands of health professionals around the world. To learn more about HeartMath, go to www.heartmath.com.
HeartMath Stress Experts Say We Can Significantly Reduce Our Stress By Understanding How Our Emotions Work. Reprinted below is the sixth in a series of articles from our newest client, HeartMath, LLC, that deals with how stress impacts our lives and what can be done to relieve it. In the 1950’s a noted researcher named Hans Selye popularized the term stress for the first time. Selye said: “Everyone knows what stress is, but in reality nobody knows.” Today, however, we are learning more about the underlying mechanics of stress as science helps to unravel the mysteries of emotions. HeartMath, a globally recognized authority on the physiology of and relationship between stress and emotions, has spent the last 17 years decoding the underlying mechanics of stress. HeartMath experts say the subtler day-to-day stressors are breeding an attitude of resignation towards stress. Stress can become engrained in our brain’s neural circuitry, forming unhealthy habits that drain us emotionally. HeartMath studies show we can significantly reduce the amount of stress we experience by understanding how our emotions work (www.heartmath.com). Our accelerated lifestyle has contributed to a mindset that living with daily irritations, anger, frustration, low-grade anxiety, and hopeless feelings is normal. After all, many people you know feel this way. A recent survey conducted by the National Consumers League shows that adults are considerably more stressed now than they were five years ago or even one year ago. Most of us have tried different approaches to dealing with our stress, but find we don’t have the time to stick with it, or maybe we feel a temporary relief but the stress returns soon after. Feeling we’ve run out of options, we tend to defer stress with the mind by talking ourselves into believing that’s just the way life is. Deferring stress is the same as resigning to stress or believing it’s a force we can’t change. In a recent study conducted by Dr. Jean Twenge of San Diego State University and her colleagues, researchers observed a significant resignation in young people, with many kids feeling like nothing they do matters. The project studied more than 25,000 young people and found a strong increase in cynicism, helplessness and general negativity. Stress affects everyone from young children to adults, and experts are concerned that if we don’t put more emphasis on stress and the core emotional causes, we could be looking at a generation that will progressively develop a crystallized “whatever” attitude towards life. HeartMath researchers say stress and emotions cannot be separated. Dr. Rollin McCraty, director of research for the Institute of HeartMath, says, “Ongoing low-grade stress can do more harm to the body, mind, and emotions than one large stressful event can. “We’ve studied the physiology of stress in thousands of people of all ages over the last seventeen years. One common factor we’ve observed is that although someone can ‘think’ they’re not stressed or defer it as just an irritation or a low-grade anxiety, the stress reaction has already been triggered. The body is responding more strongly to what the person really feels; the body registers even the subtler everyday irks and frustrations as stress.” Psychologist Deborah Rozman, Ph.D., founding partner of the HeartMath System and co-author of Transforming Stress: The HeartMath Solution for Relieving Worry, Fatigue, and Tension, says, “The majority of people believe that emotions just happen to them. We haven’t been taught that we can shift out of stressful emotions. But it’s important to understand that stress is accumulated by carrying around unsettled or negative feelings without resolving them. The lack of understanding about how to address our emotions is one of the real causes for today’s stress epidemic.” Our brain’s neural circuitry is designed to create habits to make it easier to perform tasks without having to think much about them. Each time you repeat a habit, whether an attitude, a behavior, or a repetitive task like driving a car, it becomes more reinforced and automatic. According to HeartMath researchers, the same is true with stress. The subtler or more mechanical everyday emotional reactions tend to go unnoticed and accumulate. Experts say this eventually this leads to resignation, low-grade anxiety, and low-grade depression. Dr. Rozman says, “Stress accumulates because we keep storage bins of emotional reactions to people and situations. These storage bins keep us reacting in the same old way over and over. We resign and feel that’s just the way it is, and continue to fill these storage bins with frustrations, hurts and resentments.” The subtle stressors we tend to ignore are generally everyday occurrences. Dr. McCraty gives this example: “Have you ever received an email from someone you recently had a frustrating conversation with? As soon as you see the sender’s name you experience feelings of dread and irritation. The past experience triggers unresolved feelings about that person. The reason you feel this is because you’ve stored these feelings in your amygdala.” McCraty explains that the amygdala is an almond-shaped neuro-structure in the brain. It stores emotional memories to help you make instant decisions and cross-references these memories to help you avoid a threat. For instance, if you were bitten by a dog as a child you might feel anxiety in the future when you see another dog. Or if you have accumulated feelings about a certain relative who treats you with disrespect, then each time they call, a feeling of irk gets triggered and you experience that accumulated stress all over again. One way HeartMath experts say you can stop the negative emotional experiences from accumulating is to learn to track the more subtle emotional reactions. They suggest thinking of the emotions as sound effects. Your outer sound effects, such as sighs, swear words, negative humor, and expressions whispered under your breath can give you clues to the real feelings underneath. Your “inner sonics” like ugh, silent swear words, and feeling that things have “gone south” go on all the time and affect your next thoughts and choices. Many people believe that the mind rules. But HeartMath results show that it’s our emotions that are shaping much of our thinking and, more often than not, determining our choices and behaviors. Accumulated stress can actually prevent us from finding the creative solutions we need to better deal with stress. Whether an irritation triggered by a relative or co-worker, or low-grade anxiety triggered by current news events, HeartMath’s research shows that stress compromises our cognitive abilities. We can’t think as clearly or as creatively and we have a harder time making decisions. Becoming more aware of the subtler or more mechanical everyday stressors – and learning to release the stress so it doesn’t accumulate in an emotional storage bin – will go a long way in helping people feel less emotional drain, stress, and anxiety. HeartMath research has been distilled into simple strategies and learning programs that can significantly help to reduce stress. Fortune 100 companies are using HeartMath’s techniques and technologies to improve employee performance and lower organizational healthcare costs. Hospitals and healthcare organizations around the country are using the techniques and technologies to help employees and patients alike. HeartMath’s corporate and healthcare clients include Cisco Systems, Duke University Health System, Boeing, Liz Claiborne, Shell, Unilever, Ohio Hospital Association, and the Stanford Business School, among others. One of HeartMath’s award-winning programs is called the emWave® PC Stress Relief System. This patented software program uses a special finger sensor that allows you to see in real-time on your computer monitor how your emotions are affecting you. The program’s tutorial teaches the user HeartMath’s scientifically validated techniques. HeartMath results show that with even a little practice you’ll quickly learn to recognize the more subtle and mechanical stress reactions and how to transform them into productive and creative energy and solutions. HeartMath also offers a handheld technology called emWave Personal Stress Reliever®, which also gives you the same real-time benefits with the convenience of being a mobile technology (www.emwave.com). For more on the emWave PC Stress Relief System go to www.emwavepc.com. Copyright © HeartMath. Since 1991 HeartMath has been dedicated to decoding the underlying mechanics of stress. HeartMath is internationally recognized for their solutions to transform the stress of change and uncertainty, and bring coherence and renewed energy into people’s lives. Research and clinical studies conducted by HeartMath have examined emotional physiology, heart-brain interactions, and the physiology of learning and performance. Through their research they have demonstrated the critical link between emotions, heart function, and cognitive performance. HeartMath’s work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals such as American Journal of Cardiology, Stress Medicine, and Preventive Cardiology, as well as business journals such as Harvard Business Review and Leadership Excellence. HeartMath’s organizational clients include NASA, BP, Duke University Health System, Stanford Business School, Redken, Kaiser Permanente, Boeing, and Cisco Systems, as well as dozens of school systems and thousands of health professionals around the world. To learn more about HeartMath, go to www.heartmath.com.
Reprinted below is the fifth in a series of articles from our newest client, HeartMath, LLC, that deals with how stress impacts our lives and what can be done to relieve it. Recreational therapist Diane Groff, Ed.D., and exercise physiologist Claudio Battaglini, Ph.D., both of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, recently completed an exploratory study on the role of recreation therapy in facilitating well-being in survivors of breast cancer using HeartMath’s handheld emWave Personal Stress Reliever® (www.emwave.com). HeartMath® is internationally known for their research on the heart, stress, and emotions and the effects of stress on health. Their award-winning emWave Personal Stress Reliever (PSR) essentially mirrors one’s emotional state by reading heart rhythms and providing real-time feedback so one can more effectively manage stress. The two UNC researchers are strong advocates of developing patients’ psychological and physical strength, which are needed to combat the debilitating side effects of cancer treatment. Since October 2006, Groff and Battaglini have reviewed a series of case histories in which 29 survivors within six months of post-treatment for breast cancer participated in the “Get REAL & HEEL” program, which consisted of a variety of leisure therapy interventions. This program was offered to patients at no cost, thanks to the NC Triangle Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Foundation. In addition to strength-based physical exercise with a personal trainer, the Get REAL & HEEL program offered recreational therapy activities such as cognitive and behavioral interventions for stress management, relaxation training, creative and journal writing, expressive arts, leisure counseling and biofeedback (HeartMath’s emWave Personal Stress Reliever, and Wild Divine Healing Rhythms.) Group recreational interventions included dance, expressive arts, group outings and exercise activities with other women in the group. In the research study, participants were able to choose which type of real-time feedback intervention they primarily used. The preferred intervention was HeartMath’s emWave Personal Stress Reliever. Participants were given instruction on HeartMath’s Quick Coherence® technique – a scientifically validated process for stress relief that facilitates heart-rhythm coherence. One unique aspect of the HeartMath intervention is its focus on heart-rhythm coherence, a measurable state that occurs when the heart, brain, and nervous system are working in harmony. Study participants all were loaned emWave PSR devices so they could practice at home. Participants stated that they really liked how easy and convenient the emWave PSR was to use. It is worth noting that the device includes an animated instructional CD-Rom that guides the user through instruction on the Quick Coherence technique. The study participants stated that they really liked how easy and convenient emWave PSR was to use. Soon an unexpected compliance problem was discovered, one which researchers don’t commonly encounter. Several participants were reluctant to return their emWave PSR units when the Get REAL & HEEL program ended because they were somewhat attached to using them. Fortunately, the staff at HeartMath kindly offered these participants a special discount and many participants purchased their own device so they could continue their practices after the study ended. This unusual scenario led the HeartMath Research Team to investigate this research endeavor more closely. Institute of HeartMath Research Coordinator Tani Shaffer, Ph.D., recently interviewed Dr. Groff about the research results and here discusses her participants’ enthusiasm for the HeartMath intervention: Dr. Groff said the HeartMath emWave PSR and Wild Divine Healing Rhythms programs offered unique aspects to the participants’ understanding of the benefits of biofeedback and HeartMath’s heart-rhythm feedback. According to Dr. Groff, the participants expressed a particular preference for the emWave Personal Stress Reliever because this type of intervention, with its heart-rhythm feedback, demonstrated a clear relationship between emotions and physiology. As women learned HeartMath skills in the intervention, they began reflecting on their stress-management styles before the onset of their illness. Many began to question the relationship between their disease and stress, as they realized that they had been living with a serious deficit of exercise, poor nutrition, excessive stress, ineffective coping mechanisms or little awareness of the impact of chronic stress on their overall health. Further, Dr. Groff states that it was especially striking to her and her colleagues that the majority of the participants were able to reach heart coherence with ease and within the first five minutes of instruction. In the context of managed care and hospital visits, it is truly remarkable to discover an intervention that can be taught and mastered in such a short amount of time. Dr. Groff and her team were especially pleased to witness the participants’ thrill of discovery and the warm glow of feeling empowered by learning this new skill to regulate their emotions and physiology.Although these women generally responded enthusiastically to the idea of a personal trainer and lifestyle coach after completing their cancer treatment, it also was beneficial to learn they had the inner resources necessary to master their own coping and self-regulation, thus giving them a sense of control over their bodies – something that had been surrendered to others for a considerable amount of time. As one participant stated in her therapy journal, “If nothing else, I am learning to control my emotions and that is having a tremendous impact on my life.” Indeed, feelings of empowerment such as these can have a tremendous impact on one’s entire life, and the lessons that can be learned from HeartMath’s tools continue to offer wellness and hope to counter and more effectively manage illness and stress. For the full research paper go to: www.heartmath.org/LessonsfromSurvivors. Copyright © HeartMath. Since 1991 HeartMath has been dedicated to decoding the underlying mechanics of stress. HeartMath is internationally recognized for their solutions to transform the stress of change and uncertainty, and bring coherence and renewed energy into people’s lives. Research and clinical studies conducted by HeartMath have examined emotional physiology, heart-brain interactions, and the physiology of learning and performance. Through their research they have demonstrated the critical link between emotions, heart function, and cognitive performance. HeartMath’s work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals such as American Journal of Cardiology, Stress Medicine, and Preventive Cardiology, as well as business journals such as Harvard Business Review and Leadership Excellence. HeartMath’s organizational clients include NASA, BP, Duke University Health System, Stanford Business School, Redken, Kaiser Permanente, Boeing, and Cisco Systems, as well as dozens of school systems and thousands of health professionals around the world. To learn more about HeartMath, go to www.heartmath.com.
Reprinted below is the fourth in a series of articles from our newest client, HeartMath, LLC, that deals with how stress impacts our lives and what can be done to relieve it. Whether you struggle falling asleep at bedtime or wake up in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep, lack of sleep – known as insomnia – whether it lasts a few days or persists for a few weeks or longer, is a serious disorder. Sleeplessness robs your body of the rest it needs to reenergize you physically, mentally and emotionally. Sleeplessness affects all age groups. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, about 60 million Americans suffer from insomnia each year. The National Sleep Foundation reports that sleeplessness affects nearly two-thirds of American adults at some point and stems most commonly from stress. Research shows stress is a common trigger for both short-term and acute insomnia. In fact, according to a survey conducted by the Better Sleep Council, sixty-five percent of Americans are losing sleep due to stress. Studies estimate that sleep deprivation currently costs U.S. businesses nearly $150 billion annually in absenteeism and lost productivity. There is a wide range of stressors that contribute to sleeplessness: the stress of day-to-day living, finances, health concerns, depression and anxiety, to name a few. One typical form of insomnia occurs when people wake up during the night, realize they are wide awake when they should be sleeping, and then become anxious. Anxiety causes adrenaline to flood the system and adrenaline prompts the body into action – the opposite of what’s needed for effective sleep. The occurrence of insomnia is believed to increase with age. More than half of older Americans have trouble sleeping and accept it as a normal part of aging. “Sleep problems in the elderly are not a normal part of aging,” says Dr. Julie Gammack, assistant professor of geriatrics at Saint Louis University and author of a review article published in the American Journal of Medicine. “It contributes to an increased risk of accidents, falls and chronic fatigue.” Our children and teens are having many sleepless nights, too. Trouble falling asleep is their most common complaint. In a national survey on the sleep patterns of U.S. adolescents ages 11-17, the 2006 Sleep in America poll by the National Sleep Foundation found only 20% of adolescents were getting the recommended nine hours of sleep on school nights and 45% slept less than eight hours. Although most students in the survey knew they were not getting the sleep they needed, 90% of parents polled believed they were. The inability to sleep at night is challenging enough, but then those who suffer from sleeplessness must grapple with the many resulting daytime symptoms of stress: not feeling refreshed or rested; poor concentration and focus; feeling tired, irritable, dull, apathetic and forgetful; a reduction in motor skills and coordination. Many of our nation’s adolescents are falling asleep in class or during homework and arriving late or missing school altogether because of oversleeping, which can result from irregular sleep patterns. When students don’t get sufficient rest they are unable to focus, their grades fall, and they become moody and down. If insomnia becomes chronic, it can lead to mental health problems such as depression, or misuse of alcohol and medications as they search for things to help them sleep. Stress accumulates during the day and often we take it to bed with us. The body’s systems just won’t shut down, leading to difficulty in sleeping or staying asleep. Deep, restful sleep, which you enter from a coherent heart state (when the mind, heart and nervous system are in sync), can help you stay balanced and energized, leaving you more able to be effective in your day-to-day life. Since 1991 HeartMath, internationally recognized for their scientifically validated stress solutions, has conducted research on the physiology of and relationship between the heart, stress, and emotions, as well as the effects of stress on health and performance. There are a variety of materials available from HeartMath on how to effectively deal with stress. They also offer a program for those needing relief from sleep problems. The emWave® Solution for Better Sleep Guide is a simple five-step Easy Plan program that works in conjunction with the emWave Personal Stress Reliever (www.emwave.com). The program helps you reset your body's natural rhythms so you can sleep deeply again and wake up feeling more refreshed. Copyright © HeartMath. Since 1991 HeartMath has been dedicated to decoding the underlying mechanics of stress. HeartMath is internationally recognized for their solutions to transform the stress of change and uncertainty, and bring coherence and renewed energy into people’s lives. Research and clinical studies conducted by HeartMath have examined emotional physiology, heart-brain interactions, and the physiology of learning and performance. Through their research they have demonstrated the critical link between emotions, heart function, and cognitive performance. HeartMath’s work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals such as American Journal of Cardiology, Stress Medicine, and Preventive Cardiology, as well as business journals such as Harvard Business Review and Leadership Excellence. HeartMath’s organizational clients include NASA, BP, Duke University Health System, Stanford Business School, Redken, Kaiser Permanente, Boeing, and Cisco Systems, as well as dozens of school systems and thousands of health professionals around the world. To learn more about HeartMath, go to www.heartmath.com.
Reprinted below is the third in a series of articles from our newest client, HeartMath, LLC, that deals with how stress impacts our lives and what can be done to relieve it. Did you know that stress affects what we choose to eat? A recent Harris poll showed that 46% of Americans are less careful about food choices when stressed. Some eat too much. Others don’t feel like eating much at all. Many go for fast food on the run – or reach for “comfort foods” that are high in sugar, starch, and fats. These can have a temporary calming effect. But they can also cause us to put on the pounds. There are other reasons to be careful with your fat intake. Researchers at Ohio State University found that short periods of emotional stress can slow down the body’s process of clearing some fats from the bloodstream. If fat is allowed to circulate in the bloodstream too long, it may end up being deposited in the arteries, increasing your risk of heart attacks. What can you do? For 17 years HeartMath® has conducted research on the physiology of and relationship between the heart, stress, and emotions, as well as the effects of stress on health and wellbeing. They have developed simple but highly effective techniques that facilitate heart rhythm coherence. Simply stated, coherence is a measurable state that occurs when the heart, brain, and nervous system are working in harmony. When stress levels are low, using techniques like HeartMath’s scientifically validated Quick Coherence® can help you build emotional buoyancy. Using these techniques regularly, even if you’re not stressed out, helps you to build and accumulate more emotional balance and flexibility so you can better handle stress when it does arise. Another helpful tool to manage stress is the emWave Personal Stress Reliever®. This small handheld device can be used to help you shift out of the stress that fuels the urge to overindulge, and into a more balanced state of mind and heart where you’re more likely to make healthy choices (see www.emwave.com). Creating a self-care plan that you can stick with five days a week helps you build positive habits that support you during times of stress. Your plan can include exercise, nutritious meals, and regular use of the HeartMath techniques that you enjoy the most. When stress hits: If you have the urge to overindulge, asking yourself one simple question can be helpful – are you physically hungry or eating to feed “emotional hunger?” If it’s your feeling world that has a craving, you can use the HeartMath techniques to nurture yourself. Research shows that feelings of love or appreciation create a cascade of biochemical events that nourish the body and the mind. That’s why love feels so good. It supports the body’s optimal state. Whether you tend to eat too much or too little, try asking yourself what’s underneath the stress. Being “heart vulnerable” with yourself – admitting what you’re really feeling – is the start of taking better care of yourself. Physical exercise can help you integrate your mind and emotions with your body making it easier to get your eating back on track. If eating problems persist, seek professional help. Copyright © HeartMath. Since 1991 HeartMath has been dedicated to decoding the underlying mechanics of stress. HeartMath is internationally recognized for their solutions to transform the stress of change and uncertainty, and bring coherence and renewed energy into people’s lives. Research and clinical studies conducted by HeartMath have examined emotional physiology, heart-brain interactions, and the physiology of learning and performance. Through their research they have demonstrated the critical link between emotions, heart function, and cognitive performance. HeartMath’s work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals such as American Journal of Cardiology, Stress Medicine, and Preventive Cardiology, as well as business journals such as Harvard Business Review and Leadership Excellence. HeartMath’s organizational clients include NASA, BP, Duke University Health System, Stanford Business School, Redken, Kaiser Permanente, Boeing, and Cisco Systems, as well as dozens of school systems and thousands of health professionals around the world. To learn more about HeartMath, go to www.heartmath.com.
Reprinted below is the second in a series of articles from our newest client, HeartMath, LLC, that deals with how stress impacts our lives and what can be done to relieve it. What Is Contemporary Stress?A response to stress expresses itself as resistance, tension, strain, or frustration that throws off our equilibrium, keeping us out of sync. Two people in identical circumstances may respond in very different ways (e.g., one gets stressed, the other inspired) depending upon how they perceive the situation. What contributes to Contemporary Stress? We have always had earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods, but the increasing volume and severity of these events has become alarming. Weather devastation generates economic stress in skyrocketing prices for gasoline, heating fuel, and food. Epidemics of influenza and other infectious diseases aren’t new, but drug-resistant strains of virulent organisms are new and threatening. The history of humankind is full of examples of conflicts, wars, and acts of terrorism. However, never before has there been such a great threat of death and potential mass destruction due to terrorist acts as there is now. The public is understandably stressedby constant reminders from the media that any of these contemporary stressors could easily affect you or a loved one at any time. It is therefore not surprising that 8 or 9 out of every 10 visits to primary care physicians are for stress-related complaints. The World Health Organization estimated that by 2020, clinical depression will outrank cancer and follow only heart disease as the second leading cause of disability in the world. Is it because contemporary stress is somehow different and more dangerous? What people want to know is what they can do about any of this. How can they learn to avoid and cope with this avalanche of stress that seems to surround today’s world? Stress is often misunderstood.Many people look at outside events as the source of stress, but, in fact, the experience of stress is actually caused by our emotional reactions to events. We can break the vicious stress cycle by taking a proactive role in managing our reactions. Actively self-generating positive emotions when you start to react can favorably affect your physiological and psychological processes. Positive emotions help shift stress-producing perceptions, counterbalance the effects of stress reactions, and promote regeneration at both the psychological and physiological levels (see Science of the Heart). As you gain increased management of emotions, the experience of stress then truly becomes more a choice than an automatic reaction. In learning to address and transform stress from within, you become an active contributor to your own health, balance, and fulfillment. Copyright © HeartMath. Since 1991 HeartMath has been dedicated to decoding the underlying mechanics of stress. HeartMath is internationally recognized for their solutions to transform the stress of change and uncertainty, and bring coherence and renewed energy into people’s lives. Research and clinical studies conducted by HeartMath have examined emotional physiology, heart-brain interactions, and the physiology of learning and performance. Through their research they have demonstrated the critical link between emotions, heart function, and cognitive performance. HeartMath’s work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals such as American Journal of Cardiology, Stress Medicine, and Preventive Cardiology, as well as business journals such as Harvard Business Review and Leadership Excellence. HeartMath’s organizational clients include NASA, BP, Duke University Health System, Stanford Business School, Redken, Kaiser Permanente, Boeing, and Cisco Systems, as well as dozens of school systems and thousands of health professionals around the world. To learn more about HeartMath, go to www.heartmath.com.
Reprinted below is the first in a series of articles from our newest client, HeartMath, LLC, that deals with how stress impacts our lives and what can be done to relieve it. Saving Nurse RyanBruce C. Wilson, MD Stress is killing us – usually slowly, but not always so. Research in this area over the past 17 years has shed quite a bit of light on what happens when the human stress response is turned on. You should first understand that the human stress response was built into us about 200,000 years ago when we were walking around in the same zip code as saber-toothed tigers. It was important to have a system that was activated immediately so that we could avoid becoming the tiger's lunch. Until recently, we've viewed the stress response as rather simple. The nervous system squirts adrenaline into bloodstream causing heart rate and blood pressure to go up, which is good, because it allows you to run faster and potentially avoid your body parts ending up in the tiger's mouth. This is commonly called the "fight or flight" response. In the last few years, research has revealed that it's not so simple – 1400 biochemical reactions are now known to occur in the cascade of the human stress response. We now know that many diseases are directly or indirectly associated with stress. In a recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, there were three detailed articles on how stress is directly and causatively linked to the very diseases that are killing most of us. A couple of things are striking about that. First, there are no more tigers. Other than a very occasional threat to our survival (drunk drivers, criminals with guns, etc.), we don't live in an environment where we might be killed at any turn. But our nervous systems continue to express this stress response, and for lots of little things like traffic jams, family issues, budget decisions, people in front of us in checkout lines at the grocery store – you fill in the blanks. That's the second paradox; that our survival chemistry is actually killing us. Further, we've learned that chronic stress changes our emotions, our perceptions and our performance. Job satisfaction, customer satisfaction, days off work, employee health care expenditures, occupational errors and many other things are now seen to be directly related to stress. The Institute of HeartMath in California has done much of the research you've just read about. And they've developed scientifically based, very easily learned tools to reverse stress in the moment, which is unique in that all of our other stress-breakers need to wait until later to be engaged in, leaving us to bathe in the stress response almost continually. HeartMath tools have been taught through programs in many healthcare institutions as well as Fortune 100 companies (www.heartmath.com). Delnor Community-Hospital in suburban Chicago dropped their nurse turnover rates from 28% to 6%, saving over $800,000 in the first year and every year since (they are in their sixth year of the program). Swedish Hospital in Denver saved roughly $4M the first year. Duke, Stanford, University of North Carolina, and many other hospitals of all sizes and types are now using the HeartMath programs with similar results. The stresses in healthcare are only going to get worse. Teaching people in the field (or any other field) to respond differently has lowered absenteeism and healthcare costs, improved job satisfaction and performance, resulted in fewer errors, and created more balance in people's lives. About Dr. Wilson Bruce Wilson, MD, FACC, was director of acute cardiac care at the University of Minnesota before going to the University of Pittsburgh to direct the University of Pittsburgh Heart Institute. In 1991 he returned to his home town of Milwaukee, WI, where he started a private practice in cardiology, and was chief of cardiology and director of medical education at Columbia Hospital. He is clinical associate professor of medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Dr. Wilson has been giving lectures and teaching seminars on the HeartMath tools for stress reduction and better health since 1997, and helped develop HeartMath’s healthcare division. To contact Dr. Wilson go to www.heartmatters.md. About HeartMath Research and clinical studies conducted by HeartMath have examined emotional physiology, heart-brain interactions, and the physiology of learning and performance. Through their research they have demonstrated the critical link between emotions, heart function, and cognitive performance. HeartMath’s work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals such as American Journal of Cardiology, Stress Medicine, and Preventive Cardiology. HeartMath’s organizational clients include NASA, BP, Duke University Health System, Kaiser Permanente, Stanford Business School, Unilever, and Cisco Systems, as well as dozens of school systems and thousands of health professionals in the US, Australia, and Europe. To learn more about HeartMath’s scientifically validated solutions for stress or learn more about their research, explore www.heartmath.com.
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