how our hearts trade love

Did you know that your heart generates the strongest electromagnetic field produced by the body, one that is sixty times higher in amplitude than the field of the brain? Your ten-ounce heart also emits an energy field five thousand times stronger than your brain's, and this force can be measured more than ten feet from your body.

Using electrocardiograms (ECG) and electroencephelograms (EEG) to measure cardiac energy and track cardiac energy trades, researchers at the Institute of HeartMath in Boulder Creek, CA. have confirmed what lovers have felt in their hearts for ages-- that an exchange of feeling occurs when caring people touch, or are within close proximity to one another. This feeling helps create the heart's electromagnetic field, and thus can be measured as electromagnetic energy. Researchers have documented that this field becomes stronger when a person consciously adopts a loving or caring attitude.

Signal averaging techniques used in the HeartMath study show that one's electrocardiogram ECG signal is registered in another's EEG and elsewhere on his or her body. While this signal is strongest when people are consciously feeling love or care while in physical contact, it is also detectable when subjects are within a few feet of one another. In other words, we can literally "touch" each other's hearts just by standing nearby. And, we can feel the concern from the hearts of co-workers, family members, friends or lovers in our bodies and minds.

The HeartMath study comprises one of the first investigations that directly measures an energy exchange between people. It also presents a strong and testable theory to illuminate the observed effects of various healing modalities, such as Reiki or therapeutic touch, which are based upon the assumption that an energy exchange takes place. The study authors theorize that the energetic force of nonlinear stochastic resonance is the mechanism by which coherent electromagnetic fields, such as those generated by the heart of an individual in a caring state, may be felt and amplified by our bodies, and thus potentially produce measurable effects in us.

An exciting implication of these findings is that the effects of healing techniques employing contact or proximity between practitioner and the client (e.g., acupuncture, massage, Reiki healing, therapeutic touch) could be strengthened by practitioners consciously feeling profound caring, thereby introducing extra coherence into their cardiac field.

You can use the concept of cardiac energy exchange to improve the quality of your relationships every day in various ways.

*Consciously fill your heart with care the next time a co-worker experiences a setback on the job.

*Feel love flowing from your heart into the heart of an ailing friend.

*Give a loved one a back rub while you visualize their heart filling with the golden light of your love.

*Calm a child by kissing a bruised knee, stroking their head or hugging them. However you choose to activate cardiac energy exchange, you will be transmitting love and calming energy that will make others (and their hearts) feel more loved, balanced and strong.