A WHITE PAPER
WOMEN
LEAD WITH THEIR HEARTS
Intui-Technology® -- The New Paradigm and New
Solution
For
the 21st Century
by
Doc Lew Childre President and CEO of the Institute of
HeartMath
Edited
by Deborah Rozman, Ph.D., Executive Director
Part
1
Empowerment
The
empowerment of women is a global issue in the '90s. The
concept of empowerment evokes many reactions. It's viewed
as increased freedom but is also met with fear and threat.
Often "empowerment" in business has meant bestowing someone
with responsibility and authority - but not necessarily
giving them the training or resources needed to carry out
that responsibility. This frequently has resulted in an
overload of stress, exhaustion, and burnout - the very
opposite of what "empowerment" programs were trying to
achieve. The root problem is this: Real empowerment comes
from within - it cannot be given to another. "Powering up"
is an internal process which is why I call it
self-empowerment. Self-empowerment is receiving the power
to amplify awareness and clear perception so you can take
personal responsibility and control over your life. It
involves recognizing the inner power available to you and
directing your energy in ways beneficial to yourself and
the whole.
In
my book,
Self Empowerment, I
discuss what's involved in "powering-up" and provide simple
tools to achieve it. Intuitive skills have to be developed
to access inner power. This is the first paradigm shift -
inside oneself. Simple, proven tools that anyone can use
are required to make that internal shift. Wholeness power
impacts what counts - in terms of personal, family, work,
social benefits, health, clarity, and time effectiveness.
As women make the inner paradigm shift, a multitude of
difficult issues facing women in the '90s can be resolved.
Key
Issues
Women's
rights have advanced in many nations, yet for most of the
globe, women are still second class citizens.
Underdeveloped countries look to the West for leadership.
Yet the breakdown of the modern American family and the
challenges American women face today are not necessarily
the future that developing countries envision nor want to
embrace. How women in the U.S. address these issues will
determine whether or not they will be a positive role model
for the rest of the world. Key issues which impact the
modern woman include time conflicts between personal,
family, and work demands; equal pay for equal work; lack of
day care; lack of elder care; the "glass ceiling";
conflicts with co-workers; sexual harassment and abuse;
repeal of Affirmative Action; increased anxiety,
depression, fatigue, burn-out, and other health problems
such as hypertension, heart disease, and breast cancer.
Rapid and profound individual and social change in the U.S.
over the past decade has brought rising poverty, crime,
violence, a deteriorating educational system, environmental
problems, and a society in crisis and confusion. Many women
feel out of control and losing their grip on life. Other
women who have made it to the top are asking themselves,
"is this all there is?" How the modern woman addresses
these issues now, will be critical to everyone's future.
Let's take a deeper look at some of the key
issues.
Life
feels like it's continually speeding up and many say they
can't keep up. According to a nationwide poll of women in
the U.S. ages 18 to 55 by the Families and Work Institute,
88% of women are experiencing a "time
famine" and feel
heavily pressed for time. Most mention not having enough
time with family as their greatest concern. Polls also
revealed that in 45% of dual-earner households,
now
earn half or more of the family
income. But
being the top money earner was not what interested most
women. Nearly a third wished they could trade full-time
work for part-time. Institute director Ellen Galinsky
commented, "The women's movement has been too focused on
equal pay," arguing that we have to make life work better
for women and their families.
Although
many women say things are going pretty well on the home
front, they admit that always rushing, stress, and personal
struggles have lowered their threshold of fulfillment. The
inner weather report is "partly cloudy" and most women have
become so used to that, it seems normal the sun's not out.
Many are adapted to foggy being a good day. Expectations of
what should be different are just mind-attempts to change
the inner weather, but it's not going to change until women
learn self empowerment.
The
"glass ceiling" in business refers to the high
expectations, but frustrating limits, that women (and other
minorities) experience in promotions. Although more women
are climbing the corporate ladder, there remains a gender
bias in promotions. Many feel they can only advance so far,
then men in control put a cap on it. Men complain that
women want it both ways. They want to be taken care of,
have their car doors opened - and also have all the
corporate perks and control as well. This is seen by many
men as a double message that is confusing and often
threatening to the male ego. Sexual harassment, physical
aggression, rape, and abuse are all on the rise. The '90s
have become a period of frustration and rage between the
sexes. "Crude, rude, anger, let it all hang out," have
become social release valves. However, release is not
relief. The ongoing trend of women and women's groups has
been to blame men, parents, government, society, or anyone
for these problems. But blame is disempowering and
increases feelings of victimization.
The
preferential hiring of women under Affirmative Action is
being repealed, creating fear that the uphill progress
women have made toward equality will be in jeopardy. For
every dollar men earn, women now earn 70 cents. While women
make up 46% of the U.S. workforce, the percentage of women
occupying top level jobs is still only 5%. Most women have
no choice but to be both breadwinners and housewives, yet
the price they pay is often lack of job satisfaction along
with the exhausting merry-go-round of trying to juggle
work, family, household, and personal needs. As a result, a
recent CNN/USA Today Gallup poll reports that 48% of women
think the "progressive" changes brought on by the Women's
Movement have actually made things harder for women; 41% of
men agree. Why is this?
More
people working creates more spending, generating more
demand for products and services, driving up prices and the
cost of living. That's why most women have to work - to pay
bills. Yet they still do the majority of the cooking,
cleaning, shopping, household chores, and child-rearing.
While some men share these tasks, most still retreat to the
TV and let their wives do the work. It's understandable why
women are emotionally and physically drained. In response
to a poll announcing that exhaustion among women is at an
all time high and taking a toll on women's health, one
woman exclaimed, "They had to do a poll to figure that out?
Ask most any woman and she'll tell you she's burning
out!"
Millions
are also single working mothers or welfare mothers who feel
the added burden of raising children alone with inadequate
child care. Many feel tremendous guilt. Society has blamed
working mothers, welfare mothers and absentee fathers for
the cascading rate of juvenile crime, violence, sexual
promiscuity, drug and alcohol abuse, and illiteracy, that
plague today's teens. There is no quick fix to these
complex issues. "Cut-thru" solutions demand new
intelligence.
Heart
Intelligence
The
importance of taking personal responsibility for one's own
balance and empowerment is acknowledged by many women, but
without tools to achieve that, it will remain an idealistic
concept.Institute
of HeartMath, a
nonprofit research and educational organization and
think-tank in Boulder Creek, California, has uncovered
scientific evidence on how women can generate the balance
and the power they need to take control over their lives.
What's required are tools that activate the power of the
heart and creative intelligence. Common sense says it will
take a power and intelligence stronger than people's
habitual thoughts and perceptions to transform our personal
and our social stresses. New
research is
showing that within the heart resides the place of contact
for this source of power and intelligence.
Heart
power is the electricity of one's inner strength and
potential. This is
the power that activates intuitive clarity and establishes
the self-motivating ability to manifest and complete
oneself in achieving balance and fulfillment. The new
paradigm is a joint venture between head and heart
intelligence, which generates a continuity of intuitive
creative intelligence. Intuition cuts time and effort. As
you gain intuitive intelligence, you become more energy and
time effective.
Women's
intuition is not just an old wives' tale. It's inner power,
once women know how to access it with continuity. This
increases magnetic effectiveness, particularly in a
male-dominated environment. Power doesn't just come from an
increase in ego drive. It comes from developing the power
of your whole system, especially the power of your heart.
The negative backlash associated with power comes from
strong ego drive without the heart directing the intention.
To power-up the whole system involves learning to bring the
heart and mind into a creative joint venture. Heart
intelligence supplies balanced ego strength and allows more
of your individual spirit to come "on line" regarding
male/female issues, work issues, family issues, health
issues, or social issues. Heart power is the conduit for
real spirit to manifest in any area.
Learning
techniques to develop heart power frees the spirit of the
complete woman, which is the real affirmative action.
Attempts to activate spirit from the mind alone often
create more problems while attempting to solve one and this
represents the current psychic environment of male/female
muddle and disarray. Both genders are trying to be
achievers but fall short because of trying to activate the
spirit from the mind alone without the heart. This
activates unbalanced ego drive, without the needed
sensitivities and mutual respect. While women dislike
insensitive male ego drive, they have to be careful not to
copy the same method in their efforts to achieve equality.
Equality without "quality" equals fatigue and stress. This
is no real achievement. What's the use of trying to achieve
if you lose balance, fulfillment and health? Then you're
just living to survive, which is not really living. New
scientific research is showing that through increasing
heart intuition, women can generate the power, magnetism
and intuitive intelligence that draws respect and
cooperation, rather than trying to force respect through
stance-taking.
Heart
Balance
Balance
is the missing social keynote. Women seem to have come out
last in the past, but that's an advantage in the new.
There's really nowhere else for women to go, but to
self-empower and come on line. It's time. The problem is
that women can't come on line through taking a "mind
stance." That's having a goal in mind of what changes are
needed and fighting your way to achieve that goal. That's
just more of the same male-dominant approach. It's been
tried and many women are weathered and worn and torn. This
is why people fear a new aggressive women's movement would
make things even harder. Most women agree on the need for
personal empowerment. However, they don't agree on the
method. There are women's groups who don't want to be
lumped together and resent each other speaking as if their
particular views represent all women. Some feel if they
don't agree with the loudest group's methods, they're
viewed as betraying women. To avoid repeating the same
energy-draining fights and accomplish more, the
self-empowered woman learns to bypass the reactive,
energy-draining mind stance. She recognizes it's more
intelligent and effective to do so. Taking a "heart stand"
goes into a whole new level of power and renewal by
actualizing much-talked-about core values or family values.
Family values have broken down in society and need to be
restored. Taking a heart stand comes from conscious heart
intention instead of mental and emotional reactiveness.
Conscious heart intention is derived from the intuitive
link and balance between mind and heart, increasing the
power of both. A heart stand may not change laws right away
or change men or society overnight, but men will take a
new, respectful "stop, look, listen" approach.
The
balancing approach to male/female issues is achieved
through the intuitive domain. That's where women will have
their time. As a man, I don't believe women are trying to
take over, just asking men to move over and let both drive
and point the way together. I'm dedicated to the
manifestation of equalization, while respecting the
different strengths of both genders. Women want to be
players not conquerors, and have an equal part in the
scheme of things. This doesn't need to be a threat to the
male ego. The female fruit is not a registration of female
supremacy. It's the fruit of recognition of balance. It
takes both female and male to make the whole. Women's
nurturing sensitivities tend to use power and intelligence
to try to make a difference in the lives of other people
and the world. Men tend to be more absorbed in structures
and plans. Men are not bad. Men are learning just like
women are. They're just having to mature into releasing a
handed-down old dinosaur of convenience - the
male-dominated society. The mark of the new players are
those who have the capacity to use the strengths of both
male and female potentials for the betterment of the whole
through balance. That would be new intelligence. Future
balance dictates empowerment for all concerned. That is the
new paradigm from which new solutions will be born and
there is a scientific basis for this and scientific
research to support it. Understanding
and actualizing the science of empowerment is crucial to
the future of women, society, and the
globe.
The
Science of Empowerment
The
heart has generally been considered just a mechanical pump;
however, this view is being seriously re-evaluated by
scientists. When the electrical patterns of the brain
entrain to the electrical patterns of the heart, more power
and intuitive intelligence become available to the
brain.
Research at
the
Institute of HeartMath is
showing that the heart has unusual perceptual and intuitive
information-processing capabilities. The heart has its own
frequency range of intelligence that is not controlled by
the brain or the autonomic nervous system. The heart is
autorhythmic, which means that it beats on its own without
requiring input from the brain or nervous system. It is
well known that the brain communicates to the heart via the
autonomic nervous system and hormonal system. What is not
so well known is that the
heart also communicates back to the brain providing a
two-way communication system that directly affects
perception, reaction speeds, balance, intuition and
decision-making ability. There
are nerves and hormones that originate in the heart which
carry information to the brain and this two-way information
system forms an information highway between heart and
brain. If there is gridlock on the inner information
highway, you have stress. If the electrical signals between
heart and brain are ordered and coherent, you have mental
clarity and intuitive perception. The real paradigm shift
is an inner one first, aligning heart and mind in balance.
This will lead to the outer paradigm shift that will
beneficially transform society.
The
Inner Information Highway
Breakthrough
research is showing that feeling and emotional perceptions
are communicated from heart to brain through the
baroreceptor system and magnetic fields, where they are
integrated into subconscious and conscious awareness,
triggering chemical changes in neurotransmitters and
hormones throughout the body. Emotions cause the most
direct and measurable changes in both the electrical
rhythms of the heart and hormonal responses. Emotions such
as anger and anxiety result in disorganized flows of
internal energy, which in turn result in a chaotic response
in the brain and physiology of the body. As negative
emotions are not resolved, they distort perception, create
hormonal imbalances, and can lead to anxiety or depression.
Studies show that 1 in 5 women now have a history of
depression. Heartfelt emotions such as care, love, and
appreciation, on the other hand, have been shown to create
organized, coherent energy flows, resulting in clarity,
increased intuition, and renewal in the physiology of the
body.
Changing
one's standing wave frequency to more heart coherence
generates the power necessary to change behavioral
patterns. For example, by increasing balanced care and
releasing worry and overcare, you shift the body's
electrical flows into more efficient and coherent rhythms
that benefit the entire system. The more balanced care we
feel, the more coherence there is in the system, which
increases the coherent power flowing through the whole
system. This coherent power is your spirit and the more it
flows through you, the more your entire system is
regenerated and renewed. This allows you to carry out your
objectives with more coherence, self-confidence and
completion. You work smarter, not harder, and are more
productive.
Entrainment
Getting
the head and heart electrical systems in sync (entrainment)
causes a perceptual shift into a wider range of options.
More importantly, entrainment is a physiological state of
peak performance that increases the intuitive connection
within yourself. In my book
Freeze-Frame, the
concept of entrainment is explained. There I show how the
biological oscillators or inner clocks that time the body
and affect blood pressure, respiration, heart rate, brain
waves, etc., can be either in or out of sync with each
other. By learning to self-manage-but not suppress-our
mental and emotional reactions, we balance and entrain the
rhythms and timings of these bodily functions, which
improves health and decision-making. Leading psychologists
and scientists are excited because the increasing body of
evidence that intuitive feelings commence in the heart and
then are transmitted to the brain provides a missing link
and answers questions relative to creativity and the
transformation of human consciousness. Business leaders are
interested because intuition increases performance and
productivity while improving job satisfaction. As a CEO
stated recently in Business
Week magazine,
"Ultimately the combination of head and heart will be the
competitive advantage." Women who have been using tools to
activate their heart intelligence have seen profound
improvements in family, work and personal interactions.
Businesses and government offices have seen work teams
entrain to achieve goals in record time with less stress
and more harmonious cooperation.
Head/Heart
Entrainment
Figure 1
(below) shows where the EEG (electroencephalograph) or
brain waves have entrained to the heart at the HRV (heart
rate variability) frequency. This state is accompanied by
clearer perception and heightened intuitive awareness. This
heart/brain entrainment occurs at a very low frequency
region in the brain waves. It is the region well below the
alpha and theta regions most people are familiar with. This
is the region where most of the power resides in the brain
waves.
Changes
in heart rate and blood pressure are fed back to the brain
via the baroreceptor system. The baroreceptor input to the
brain has numerous effects on brain function. For example,
when one's mental or emotional state is causing the
sympathetic nervous system to go into overdrive in
stressful situations, the baroreceptor feedback inhibits
sympathetic outflow, increases parasympathetic neuronal
activity, and causes brain wave slowing to help to protect
the overall body. This is the body's defense mechanism
against stress to allow an immediate "fight or flight"
reaction, but it also inhibits higher perceptual brain
function.
Emotions
Emotions
and the heart have been equated for centuries. Sir William
Harvey, who was the first to demonstrate the function of
the heart and how blood circulates in the body, noted in
1628 that, "every affection of the mind that is attended
to, either with pain or pleasure hope or fear, is the cause
of an agitation whose influence extends to the heart."
Emotions flow through the body at a subtle electrical
level, much faster than information flows along nerve
pathways. Research is showing that when we
qualify
our
perceptions and feelings from the heart, the mind guides a
different energy flow than if we perceive and react from
the mind alone. Emotions qualified or directed only through
the mind often act like water that floods your kitchen,
whereas heart-directed emotions use that same water to
quench your thirst and give substance to life.
Self-empowerment is learning to call the shots on the water
distribution and disempowerment is being a victim of the
random flows of the emotional spills.
Women
are often accused by men of being overly emotional and
sentimental, which colors their decision-making ability.
This is feeling sensitivity without self-management and
balance. When balanced through the heart, women's
sensitivities enhance intuitive clarity and
decision-making. The feeling world is critical to
intelligent decision-making. Without feeling, the mind and
all its reasoning and thinking ability are not enough.
Antonio Damasio, a professor of neurology whose laboratory
is recognized worldwide for its research, has been looking
for the neural underpinnings of reason. He found that when
the parts of the brain which integrate feelings and reason
are damaged, then personal and social behavior are severely
compromised even though all the logical and other aspects
of the mind are unaffected. It's the balanced integration
of feeling and reason that brings the highest intelligence,
wisdom, clarity, and fulfillment.
Hormones
Hormones
are also associated with emotions. As emotions change, so
do hormones, and as hormones change, so do emotions and
perception. Hormones are chemical messengers that help
regulate most of the body's functions, including the way
the brain processes information. Hormones are involved in
digestion, mucus and milk synthesis, sweat production,
muscle contraction and relaxation, the reproductive
processes, growth, and sexual and aggressive behaviors.
When I refer to "hormones," this includes
neurotransmitters, neuromodulators and neurohormones, such
as serotonin. Prozac, a popular prescription drug used by
millions, affects serotonin uptake and helps relieve
depression. Due to stress-induced imbalances, increasing
numbers of women are suffering from anxiety and depression
and taking a variety of drugs to feel better. Stress,
anxiety (especially performance anxiety), fatigue, and
exhaustion are now the reason behind 80% or more of all
doctor's visits, increasing health care costs for all. But
drugs do not resolve the underlying problem and drug
dependency is not the answer for a healthy future.
Scientific research indicates that women and men need to
dramatically increase the time they spend in positive
emotional states and attitudes to balance the autonomic
nervous system and heart rhythms which control most of the
body's hormonal functions. Women or men who maintain
balanced attitudes also balance their internal hormonal
prescriptions. They are less likely to become ill and are
more likely to heal faster when ill than those with
negative attitudes.
We
can look at the human system as having three primary
hormonal zones. The lower body produces steroid hormones
which deal with responses to stress; DHEA; and also the sex
hormones estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. The
upper body produces brain hormones such as noradrenaline,
serotonin, and dopamine. Many of these brain hormones
affect feelings, perception, and attitude. For example, the
pituitary gland releases oxytocin and vasopressin which
relate to emotional bonding. Oxytocin has a longer lasting
effect than most hormones. Oxytocin is released when you
fall in love. That's why your first love is often so hard
to get over. In mammals that secrete high levels of
oxytocin at first mating, the emotional bonding created is
for life. In mammals with low levels of oxytocin, there's
high promiscuity.
Upper
and lower body hormones impact the entire body. Cortisol is
released from the adrenals in the lower body. It is called
a "stress" hormone because it rises when we feel stress,
especially emotional stress such as anger, irritation,
frustration or anxiety. Too much cortisol is known to
destroy brain cells. The amount of cortisol produced is
regulated by the sympathetic nervous system and
hypothalamus, which are both activated by stress. An
astounding 30% of women and men say they experience "high
stress" nearly every day. Under stress, your glands churn
out adrenaline and cortisol which cause a rise in blood
pressure, a speedup of breathing and heart rate, and a
release of sugar and fats in the body. Under chronic
stress, hypertension (high blood pressure) can set in. It
is now estimated that 1 in 4 women (and men) aged 18 and
older have hypertension, the leading risk factor for heart
disease and stroke-and over half of those with hypertension
are overweight.
The
third primary hormonal zone, the heart, lies right in the
middle-between the upper and lower zones. The heart also
produces two hormones, BNP (brain natriuretic factor) and
ANP (atrial natriuretic factor). ANP is often referred to
as "the balancing hormone" by scientists. ANP has receptors
in both upper and lower body. ANP impacts the brain's
pituitary gland and the kidneys. The heart helps to balance
the upper and lower hormonal zones. The parasympathetic and
sympathetic branches of the nervous system which travel
from upper to lower body are also balanced by the heart.
Studies have shown that positive heart-felt emotional
states, such as love, care and appreciation, balance the
nervous system and are an antidote to stress. These
positive feelings significantly reduce the sympathetic
signals from the brain and increase the parasympathetic
signals which protect the heart and body, lower blood
pressure and increase immune system activity.
Inner
Quality Management
The
hopeful news is that simple, scientifically-proven
self-empowerment tools for "inner quality management" are
available that allow us to take charge of our mental and
emotional states. These tools do not require hours of
practice or withdrawal from the world. For instance,
studies have shown that the stress-relief tool
Freeze-Frame lowers
blood pressure, balances heart rhythms, and improves the
balance of the autonomic nervous system and immune system.
This can all be done in less than one minute with just a
little practice of this tool. Freeze-Frame is designed to
prevent stress reactions in the moment and create more
effective responses to stressful events, resulting in
increased mental clarity, productivity, and satisfaction.
Learning how to Freeze-Frame, as stress is happening, helps
you take charge of yourself by bringing the heart and head
into entrainment.
Cut-Thru
is
another scientifically-tested tool that rids your system of
emotional baggage and residue, such as energy-draining
overcare, anxiety, self-judgment, guilt, recrimination,
blame, jealousy, depression, even hatred. This is a long
list of negative attitudes and emotions that, if not
resolved, affect perception and health. People who
experience negative feelings and attitudes repeatedly,
often are trapped in "mind loops," recycling through a past
event over and over, arousing and amplifying the negative
feeling and stress reaction each time. This imprisons you
in self-victimization and a sense of
hopelessness.
Cut-Thru
is a scientifically-proven technology on how to care
without becoming a victim. Laboratory studies have shown
that as women and men practice Cut-Thru, their hormonal
system comes more into balance. In a controlled study,
people practicing Cut-Thru significantly reduced stress,
anxiety and guilt by over 30% and depression by 22%.
Distress during PMS (nervous tension, mood swings,
irritation, worry, depression and inability to concentrate)
was lower in women after practicing Cut-Thru. Researchers
observed a significant increase in the anti-stress and
anti-aging hormone DHEA (average 100% increase),
accompanied by a corresponding decrease in the stress
hormone Cortisol (average 23% decrease) in both men and
women. Dr. Norman Shealy, a well-known stress researcher
and expert in DHEA believes, "DHEA is the single most
important hormone in the body; a measure of vitality and
life force." DHEA is a precursor to estrogen and
testosterone, the sex hormones. Clinical tests carried out
at the University of California, San Diego, have shown that
increased levels of DHEA produce increased feelings of
well-being and vitality. Dr. Etienne-Emile Baulieu, a
French researcher, isolated DHEA more than 30 years ago
while working with testosterone and estrogen. DHEA has
since been linked with aging.
This
white paper is available from the Institute of HeartMath
for $5.00 per copy, including postage for U.S. purchases.
Call 408-338-8700 to order.
The
Institute of HeartMath offers a variety of workshops and
seminars where individuals can learn how to stop emotional
drain and transform their lives.
Authentic Leadership: Inner Quality Solutions for
Women helps
women discover how to use leveraged intelligence to:
• Stop
inefficient mental and emotional "loops" to accelerate
self-security
• Slow the aging process, increase your vitality and
improve overall health and well-being
• Build and sustain personal power to make choices that
align with your personal mission
• Increase personal magnetism and effectiveness
• Improve the quality of all relationships, especially the
one with yourself
• Use intuition -- the conduit for your real spirit -- to
cut through mental and emotional patterns and time
constraints
• Map out a plan of action for personal and professional
success
Contact
IHM about registration information at 408-338-8700 or
contact Christiana Bramlet
cbramlet@heartmath.org at the
Institute.
White Paper, Part 2
Stopping
the Emotional Drain
Sustainable
Heart Power
Rethinking
Self-Esteem
Interview
with Doc Lew Childre - On the Next Step for
Women
About
the Author and Editor
Women's
Stories About Using HeartMath Tools
Articles
Page |
Insitute of HeartMath Main Page
since
05/14/97
HeartMath
LLC
14700 West Park Ave.
Boulder Creek, CA 95006
408-338-8700 / fax 408-338-9861/
info@heartmath.com
Last updated 07/23/97
© Copyright 1997Institute of HeartMath
http://www.heartmath.org/Articles/WWP/WWP1.html
