In this article, Marie-Josée Arel, best-selling author of spiritual books, shares with us the regenerative power of the heart, recognized not only by spirituality, but also by science!
If you have an active spiritual life and this dimension of your being is important to you, you’ve probably already experienced the power of the Sacred Flame in your Heart. Yes, that’s what we like to call this divine essence, this light that inhabits us all.
The heart through spiritual traditions
Whether your influence is Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, aboriginal or other, what happens when you close your eyes to go inward? Do you feel the subtle movement of your heart calling you and drawing you into its center?
Perhaps you find it difficult to silence your mind, and that’s normal. The mind that drives us, that keeps us busy and preoccupied, needs to learn to calm down.
Physically speaking, it’s possible to make the transition from head to heart using precise techniques. Anyone who does so experiences a physical sensation of being in the space of the heart, which can translate into feeling the heartbeat, sensing a warmth or vibration in the area, or experiencing a great sense of calm. Our heart has its own unique way of communicating with us!
In all the great religious and ancestral spiritual traditions, the heart has a special place. For Christians, we need only think of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. For Buddhists, the Heart Sutra is one of their pillar texts. For other traditions, the way of the heart takes the form of intuition.
What sages and mystics have in common is their relationship with their heart and what it contains, i.e. Love in its most universal sense. They have certainly been transformed by this Love through conscious contact with it. Many speak of the Love Fire that consumes them as an image of this active, deeply relational force.
The zenitude, the luminous face, the shining halo, the air of eternal youth that we attribute to great masters and saints is the result of total devotion on their part, but also of a physical practice that science is only just beginning to bring to light.
The heart studied by science
For over thirty years, the HeartMath Institute in the USA has been studying the heart as an energetic organ. Thanks to their work, we now know that the heart is a brain in itself, with 40K neuronal connections and its own intelligence. It sends more information to the brain than vice versa. What’s more, the heart has an electro-magnetic field that can be measured up to 3 meters beyond the human body, and this field changes according to emotions.
Before we get carried away with the mystique of it all, let’s get on with the facts.
Science now explains that heart-brain coherence is one of the most powerful internal technologies we possess. We’re talking about immense benefits such as:
● Reduced arterial hypertension
● Reduced cardiovascular risk
● Regulation of blood sugar levels
● Reduced abdominal circumference
● Better recovery
● Improved concentration and memory
● Reduced attention and hyperactivity disorders
● Improved pain tolerance
● Improved asthmatic disease
● Improvement in inflammatory diseases
● Lowering of cortisol, the main defense hormone secreted during stress.
● Increase in DHEA, the youth hormone that slows aging.
● Increase in salivary IgA, which participates in immune defense.
● Etc. (There’s a lot of information on the Web on this subject).
Cardiac coherence, a powerful tool!
And guess what? We human beings have the ability to regulate our brain and heart through a simple breathing practice called “cardiac coherence”.
This technique consists of breathing in for 5 seconds and out for 5 seconds for 5 minutes, in order to create heart-brain synchronization. If it seems obvious that the heart starts beating faster when we experience stress, fear or excitement, the opposite is also true: when we take the time to breathe slowly, the heart stops racing and our thoughts calm down.
There are apps like RespiRelax to help us do just that. It’s very simple and accessible.
Five minutes of cardiac coherence a day can completely regenerate us in the short, medium and long term. A real fountain of youth! Too good to be true… But we’re talking scientifically proven facts here.
Some police forces and “marines” in the U.S. are equipped to practice cardiac coherence following interventions in which they have witnessed traumatic scenes. As a result, stress hormones remain active in their bodies for much shorter periods, enabling them to quickly return to a state of homeostasis.
If cardiac coherence can lessen the physical and emotional impact of trauma, we can imagine how it can easily evacuate our little daily stresses and avoid their accumulation.
Wisdom and intelligence of the heart
But let’s return to our sages, our mystics, our saints and our great masters… Their life of meditation or prayer leads them to this heart-brain coherence. By breathing peacefully, by bringing their attention to the space of Love within them (the heart), this heart-brain regulation occurs naturally.
This coherence is at once a powerful anchor that guides the movement of interiority. It’s hardly surprising that in this zone where time stands still, where heart and brain work in concert, an important intuition emerges, guidance for the future or a genius idea for solving a problem. Where mental reflection circles without response, the voice of the heart rises to offer its wisdom.
Of course, we can’t all enter a cloister or go and live in an ashram to meditate for several hours a day. But can we do five minutes of cardiac coherence every day? Just let this heart-brain relationship be and observe how it makes us feel?
Chances are, this practice will lead you to become more aware of your connection to your heart. That slowly, this powerful internal technology emancipates certain thorns, certain blockages without your knowing it. The more you are present to your heart, the more you tune in to its power: it teaches you, it advises you, it makes you see things differently, with the eyes of your heart.
And one thing leading to another, this daily regulation affects all your body’s systems, enabling continuous regeneration. Imagine the joy for your cells, organs and muscles of bathing in a harmonious vibration for a few minutes a day, relieving stress and tension. It’s a real celebration for your whole being, which rejoices in simply BEING.
Finally, since we know that the heart’s electro-magnetic field is influenced by our emotions, imagine the impact we can have by cultivating this heart-brain coherence?
This calm, this soothing, this gentleness that spreads around us, unbeknownst to us, thanks to the power of the Heart, touches our environment and spreads like the wind.
So, with a simple breath in the consciousness of Heart energy, not only do we keep ourselves young, we perfume the world with Love, in the image of mystics, sages and saints!
By Marie-Josée Arel,
Âme Sagesse
N.B.: Marie-Josée Arel and Nancy Marcoux will be accompanying a “Serenity at the Heart of Being” healing trip to Tunisia in autumn 2024!
