The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur

May 23Heart and Mind

We must earn our bread by the sweat of our brow, truly, but also by the sweat of our brain within that brow. The body can feed the body only. I have tasted but little bread in my life. It has been mere grub and provender for the most part. Of bread that nourished the brain and the heart, scarcely any.

Henry David Thoreau—Familiar Letters (1865)

Today's reading from Thoreau is a logical place to consider an overlap between science and spirituality.

One of the jobs of the heart is to send electrical signals to the brain telling it what chemicals to release. Many positive and negative physical and emotional states are triggered by this connection.

This is a bit of the science behind peace and happiness as well as stress and anxiety.

This is also why several minutes of slow, rhythmic breathing can immediately reduce stress and calm other emotions. It's in this moment that we send the highest quality signals to our brain.

But this messaging never turns off. All day long we are sending subconscious signals, including the self-loathing, self-doubting, self-sabotaging monologue going on behind the scenes. (Not you, but you probably know people like this.)

By routinely creating a state of what Rollin McCraty, research director at the Institute of HeartMath, calls coherence—the state when the heart, mind, and emotions are in energetic alignment—“we find that personal energy is accumulated, not wasted—leaving more energy to manifest intentions and harmonious outcomes.” ...