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Q & A

with Dr. Howard Martin, executive VP of strategic development at Heartmath
and coauthor of the book, The Heartmath Solution.

What role does the heart play in the body?
The heart is the main command center of the body. It actually sends information to the brain and to the rest of the body -- information that is essential to a person's overall health and well-being. As a person learns about the communication between the heart and brain, and how to shift this communication, positive changes in how that person thinks and feels begin to take place. It's really a shift in paradigm to say that it's not just the brain, but that the heart also has a big role in how we think and feel.

What is Heartmath?
Heartmath is a system designed for high performance effective living that consists of concepts, tools, techniques and technology. In general, they all involve heart focus breathing -- really focusing on the area of your heart and making an effort to activate positive feelings.

how did Heartmath come about?
Heartmath's been around for the last 11 years, and began on the initiative of a man named Doc Childre. It started out through self-study. By his own admission, Doc was a relatively undisciplined young man who set about on a course of trying to achieve new levels of self-management. His scientific research along with his understanding of other people and of himself, led him to develop his own philosophy as well as his own tools, techniques and concepts. For 20 years he never externalized anything, working quietly and leading a normal life. It was only in 1990 that he agreed to begin to more formally share some of his information with others. From there the companies were born and we entered into the training programs, books and technology that we have today.

How proven is Heartmath?
We know for sure that the heart does communicate with the brain and the body, and that's beyond a doubt. The field of neurocardiology studies this. The tools, techniques and concepts used in Heartmath are scientifically grounded, with a great amount of biophysical and social scientific proof to back them up.

How does Heartmath differ from other stress reduction techniques such as meditation?
Well first of all let me preface any comments by saying that we never like to be cast as any kind of a competitor, as better or worse than other systems of personal development and personal growth. We like to be seen more as a facilitator of any of those things. That being said, Heartmath is designed to be very interactive, very in the moment, very appropriate for the speed at which we're living in today's modern world. Techniques like meditation can be valuable but sometimes there is a cultural difference. Meditation comes from an Eastern culture and it doesn't necessarily overlay very well on modern western culture. It requires a lot of change in some of the basic stuff involved in a lifestyle and most people aren't willing to do that. Heartmath techniques are very appropriate for modern times, and very interactive with daily life and things that people can do in the moment.

How does Heartmath address individual stressors?
The tools and techniques can be used to create shifts of attitude or shifts in perception that lead to shifts of attitude. To manage stress or to begin to shift stress, you have to learn to shift perception first. It's the perception of the event that really creates the stress. It begins right there, with perception, and changes in perception lead to changes in behavior, how we process things, how we view things, how we act or react around certain issues. Those changes of behavior come relatively quickly once we begin to learn how to at least adopt different kind of perceptions of the stressful events.

Where are Heartmath techniques being used?
We are around the world, providing face-to-face training for over 20,000 people a year. We are focused primarily on large organizational clients, doing training programs in major Fortune 500, and Fortune 100 companies around the world. We deal with the individual customer who is interested in improving health and reducing stress through our books tapes, and freeze-framer software.

This information is an extract from an article titled ‘Listening to the tell tale heart’ by Noel Boivin in February 2006 issue of Your Health.