It is the week before Christmas, and I am off to the shops. Despite the crowd I arrive to find a parking spot right out the front waiting for me. I get out of the car and find $20 on the ground. I pick it up and head to the coffee shop. I order my coffee, and go to pay, but they tell me it is free. I am feeling lucky, but I still have one last thing to do. I am looking for a toy that seems to be sold out…there are none anywhere. Wow, except the one that I find randomly in another part of the store… I am feeling very special now, what a great day, everything seems easy.
Within this set of circumstances, we are a very good chance of experiencing a feeling of gratitude, or appreciation whereby we are thankful for what has happened. But what about when the planets don’t align so perfectly?
Last time we introduced the concept of neural-emotional patterns, whilst also exploring the way the heart communicates with the brain. It is through this practice of creating new baseline patterns that we can begin to self-generate renewing, positive, regenerative, and healthy emotional states. An example is learning to have a baseline emotional state of appreciation, despite the external set of circumstances. This can replace feelings of frustration or anxiety, and this shift has a major impact on how we view and interact with others. We do this, not by just thinking appreciation, it is done by bringing our thinking and feeling into alignment. We do this by placing our attention on the area of the heart to access this as a feeling, not just a thought.
It is via this process, we can learn to self-regulate our nervous system, reducing high cortisol levels in the blood and begin to experience more coherent heart rhythm patterns, which all help to align the signals between the heart and the brain
Craig Logan