by Shelley Poovey

When we hear talk about finding inner peace and living a heart-centered life, it can seem as though the only way that will ever happen is if you run away and join a monastery like Pema Chodron, or else win the lottery and buy an island in Fiji far away from modern society where there’s a jet plane waiting for you if you want to go back for just a moment. I am here to tell you a secret: this is just not true! Inner peace is available to you right now and wrapped in a package that looks exactly like the life you live. In your perfect life, you are able to experience more joy and inner peace without going anywhere or giving up anything other than stress and distractions.

Ask any physicist and they will tell you that time is speeding up. It’s literally true that the space between the second-hand on our watch is getting smaller with every passing day, making it seem harder to accomplish everything there is to do, much less finding the time to enjoy it. As the days add up, so do your stress levels and the ability to keep track of the bigger picture - how to spend more time with the people you love and to be relaxed enough to appreciate it. You can spend years fending off the daily stresses only to wake up later wondering where the time went and why you didn’t enjoy it more.

When we talk about living a heart-centered life, we tend to think of a life where the struggles don’t get to us as much because we know who we are and where we are going. Everyone can agree they would like to do that but how can we bridge the gap between the crazy stressed-out person we are now and that the one who can drive this ship a bit better?

Science is just beginning to understand more about the role the heart plays in helping balance our inner and outer worlds. Scientists are now able to map how the pulsating rhythms of the heartbeat vibrate through our bodies like the conductor of a magnificent orchestra, harmonizing and synchronizing the different organs and body systems that are contained within our structure. The term “body/mind/spirit” can get a little old to hear, it is so overused these days, but we are discovering that the heart is more intelligent than the brain, emitting an electromagnetic field five thousand times stronger than the one coming from the brain.

The heart’s electromagnetic frequency arcs out from the heart and back in a field that extends as far as twelve to fifteen feet from the body. Information can be read from each and every point within that field instantaneously, just like when you are on the internet. That means that when the heart is in charge, every part of us knows what is happening at every other point within our body.

But when the heart is not synchronized, this internal communication system breaks down and information gets lost in a clutter of activity that is confusing. We can sometimes experience this internal confusion as physical pain, foggy thinking, or an inability to function at our optimal level. Other times it shows up in our external world through making decisions that are not really what we want or need, leaving us feeling disconnected from life as if it got derailed in some way without us understanding how it happened. Leaving us wondering exactly what went wrong, when, and why?

Our brain’s job is to organize how we fit into our world. It is in charge of planning and can be seen as the place within where the ego lives and holds a sense of our personal identity. The ego helps us find our mate, choose how we earn a living, and also who we surround ourselves with for support. It is in charge of interpreting our experiences and responding to them.

When our brain is disconnected from the rest of our body, it can start to over-think, over-analyze, and over-plan our life. This can create the stress response which increases blood pressure and triggers the release of hormones that slows digestion and other important organ functions. This creates yet another cycle of disharmony where now there are more systems out of communication with each other! Ideally our heart and our brain are working together so that this breakdown doesn’t happen.

So the question lingers as to how we can restore the heart to its place as our great harmonizer?

There is a very simple but very powerful technique that is the basis of the BodyTalk system which synchronizes the brain and the heart, and helps bring everything back into balance. Lightly tapping the top of the head while exaggerating the breath disrupts the electromagnetic field within the brain. Once that field is disrupted, tapping on the heart reminds the body of who should be in charge. It works just as well as hitting the reset button on your laptop...reboot!

Here’s how to perform your own personal reboot:

First, begin by breathing fully in and out in equal measure.
Inhale from the feet to the top of the head.
Exhale from the top of the head to the feet.

Stay with this until you can get all the way up and down in one breath.

Then, lightly tap the top of your head while breathing in from the feet to the head.
Next, lightly tap the chest around the heart area while breathing out from the head to the feet.

Repeat until the little dramas in your head stop playing out, as if your breath was an emotional tonic to take the edge off. Once  the chatter dies down, notice any sensations within your heart. Can you feel the love pouring in from your family and friends? Can you feel that sense of isolation drifting away and leaving you more calm and centered?

The heart connection is our deepest connection to ourselves. The heart seeks out how your talents can shine in a way that serves your highest joy and fulfillment within your support network, both personal and professional. Without the heart connection, there is no intention to organize all those ideas and discern which choices are the right ones for the life we want to live. When we let our hearts be in charge, the mental clutter fades and it's as if the decisions are being made without effort or conscious thought, leaving us to experience fulfillment of the life we are currently living without going anywhere or giving up anything other than the stress and distractions. The brain is then freed up to sort out only the things put forth that are in your path of joy, and is figuring out how to make that happen for you in the best and simplest way possible.

BodyTalk is a powerful system to address the challenges of living in the 21st Century. It helps empower you to understand your body's unique relationship to the stresses of life. Most illnesses can be traced back as the result of chronic stress, where the body's self-healing systems have broken down and become in need of repair. BodyTalk helps to undo these patterns of illness by integrating a series of tapping, breathing, and focusing techniques to effectively restore the internal communication systems within the body. BodyTalk helps bridge the gap between living as a victim and becoming an empowered co-creator of your life.