Customer Reviews

Heartmath Solution

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a synthesis of all I have learned, known, and intuited throughout my 30 years in the mental health field, including over 20 years as a psychotherapist.

The material is presented in a concise, readable manner, and the HeartMath exercises are simple and easily learned, especially Freeze Frame.

I am personally utilizing the Freeze Frame and Cut-Through exercises and am amazed at how quickly one gets to the"heart" of feelings, problems, etc. Although I have been a meditator for 17 years, the methods described in this book have opened up new and creative aspects of myself.

My clients have experienced equally exciting and insightful results.

I would unqualifiedly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in stress reduction, better health, personal growth, and a more peaceful way of being in this increasingly complex and fast-paced culture.

Earlene Miller Sneller, MSW,CSW, Certified Body/Energy Practitioner.

"Care is an oil that lubricates the entire mental, emotional, and physical system. If you run your system without care, it's like running your car without oil - resulting in friction and breakdown."

If you've read many personal development books, you know that to find a truly original idea is rare. The best authors have the gift of saying something old in a new way that makes it more accessible; the worst simply have the temerity to say something old the way it's always been said and stick their names on the front cover.

What sets Doc Childre and the Heartmath team aside is that they actually came up with something new, and then back it up with a set of simple techniques to put their findings into practice.

Their discovery is that the physical heart has a lot more to do with our health and well-being than we ever thought possible, and that the simple act of "activating heart energy" by focusing attention on your physical heart and feeling sincere feelings of love, care, and appreciation reduces stress, strengthens our immune system, and gives us a reliable means to access our intuition.

The Heartmath Solution is a great overview of their work, yet practical enough to begin benefitting from immediately. As an added bonus for those of you tired of the "fuzzy science" that many new-age tomes use to "prove" reincarnation, alien abduction, and the existence of Lemuria, the "math" part of heartmath actually stands up to some examination. Studies measuring ECG, HRV, IGA, DHEA and just about every other set of initials you can think of help satisfy the part of our brain that cries out for a rational explanation for something we all intuitively know - that love is good!

Highly recommended.

This book offers three practices. The practices all begin with "breathing through the heart" and then apply the resulting state in various ways:

- "Freeze Frame" interrupts and redirects useless thought-feeling patterns

- "Cut-Thru" slowly or quickly dissolves longstanding problems

- "Heart Lock-In" allows one to rest in, and to share, profoundly good experience

Each of these practices ends with "listening to the intuition of the heart," which may give either insights or next steps to take.

All three work with "the heart," which seems to be both the physical heart whose rhythms can be measured and the experiential heart. Heartmath both works with subjective experience and measures it objectively. From that both-ness comes the surprising name, Heartmath.

I find from trying them that all three practices work. The Freezeframe interruptor really does break into unfortunate cycles of thought and feeling. CutThru does give an easing of long-term issues, though it does not undo them suddenly. And the unfortunately-named Heart Lock-In does seem to be a resting and recharging meditation.

The practices have all been tested empirically. The book is full of graphs of the results, and some of the studies has been published in journals. The authors have been careful to use business-language, speaking of the "efficiency" and "coherence" of different feeling states.

The language and the testing seem to be ways of making very old spiritual practices palatable to skeptical people of our time. Christianity, Judaism and Islam all understand the importance of the breath and the heart to the living being, and so do Hinduism and Buddhism. It appears the creators of Heartmath have translated old wisdom into new and practical forms for our times. Bravo to them!

The Institute of HeartMath is at the cutting edge of systems theory research as it applies to human physiology and behaviour. Their ideas challenge many old belief structures in science. As such their views form part of a much broader and rising awareness amongst scientists that the old assumptions on which much of science and medicine is based requires a significant review. The HeartMath Solution is perhaps their clearest exposition to date of their views, and is rightly supported by their own research. The books is perhaps insufficiently supported by the sizeable body of evidence which indicates that emotions are critical to health and in particular positive emotions can play a very significant role in enhancing health and well being. As an MD and HRV researcher myself I welcome HeartMath's attempt to promote this understanding. If only more scientists would concentrate on what human beings can do to help themselves rather than chart the detrimental impacts of poor health practices and disease we might be further forward in our fight to promote a healthier and more balanced world. I recommend this book to all open-minded scientists and clinicians.

Down to earth. The HeartMath Solution is easy for me. I shift to what really matters to me and then respond to the situation. Shifting to my physical heart was was simpler than I thought. I actually am able to slow down enough in the moment to get some new perspectives.I recomend this book to anyone needing to revisit the fun that counts in their life.

The HeartMath Solution is an admirable work generated for the "self-help" audience. As a researcher in heart rate variability, I found it unfortunate that the real value of this work is lost in its self-serving style. A great deal of the research cited was generated "in-house" and provides the bulk of the scientific "validation" for the highly trade-marked and copyrighted procedures presented. Additionally, as a reader,I was very disappointed at the overt marketing content which seems to reduce the perceived value of this potentially important area of study. The HeartMath Solution falls short on hard science and, because of its self-referential style, is reduced to a very long brochure for the HeartMath Institute's follow-on commercial programs. Considering the altruistic nature of the subject, I can't believe that this is the book that HeartMath really intended to produce.

The Heartmath Solution outlines the important role that our hearts play in our emotional lives, especially with regard to stress, anger, and anxiety. The Heartmath Solution is several exercises that use the heart, not the head, as the key to controlling emotional wellbeing, both for acute and chronic emotional situations.

The science behind the theory is well documented and quite compelling, and the techniques are easy to learn and practice. Do yourself a big favor and BUY THIS BOOK, then buy several copies for friends and family, like I did.

This is a very well thought out and presented book on the nature of the heart, and has many implications for the body/mind principle.

Someone mentioned that the authors did not provide research outside their own internal findings. That doesn't mean that the research is wrong.

Someone mentioned the focus on marketing their own products. I'm 80% done with the book and not one mention of buying any products, although I'm already aware of their personal biofeedback devices which by themselves have great value.

The information provided in this book will enable anyone to step back and reassess how they are responding and reacting to the world around them and inside them. It is a great first step for many of us looking to eliminate our reactions to the stress we experience, and is complimentary to every other form of self-help stress reducing techniques out there.

The hard part is, as with any type of improvement course, is to find the courage in yourself to take action and to actually PRACTICE the methods that may have benefit for you. And then to maintain that practice until you have reached the point it becomes automatic, and practice has become perfection.

If you have read or watched "The Secret" which has garnered worldwide media attention, then this book will answer many of the "whys" we are left with after being introduced to the power of intentions.

I have only tried to put into effect the techniques in the book for a few days and already have seen improvement in how my own stress is being handled. Granted, it will take many days and weeks, maybe months, to rewire my automatic responses to my outside AND inside world - but I'm confident that this little book will be a great roadmap in addition to all my other traveling tools.

A+

I've been interested in Doc Childre's HeartMath approach for several years now. "The HeartMath Solution" does an impressive job of tying the various techniques together and summarizing the underlying research. (The research, some of which has been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, is one of the things that distinguishes this approach from many other popular discussions of stress management.) The book also presents some real-life stories of people whose stress goes far beyond that of daily deadlines and demands for attention: people who are coping with an alcoholic parent, for example, or trying to deal with the death of a spouse. (A footnote of interest to those who are already familiar with this approach: the instructions for "Cut-Thru," one of the more powerful HeartMath techniques, have been significantly revised since they were first put out in book form a couple of years ago; the new instructions are much improved.)

"The HeartMath Solution" is readable, credible, and helpful. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a way to take the edge off their daily stress quotient.

There are 3 techniques to HeartMath these are discussed on the PBS website. You can read the article by the author if you search for "HeartMath PBS".

I found the techniques to be very good in my own life. They have helped me to focus on good feelings and become more relaxed. If you meditate the techniques are a good addition to a meditation routine. HeartMath is more than just visualization.

That being said the techniques 5 Star. The 3 techniques can fit on one sheet of paper. Since it is public information on the PBS site I posted those steps below. The book stars off with some good scientific information that is eye opening, but you will get the feeling right away that the books is really full of "filler" information talking about the same thing over, and over, and over again. The book could have been a 10 page pamphlet with supporting information about the steps listed below.

HeartMath Techniques (from PBS website)

The core of the HeartMath philosophy is that the heart, physically and metaphorically, is the key to tapping into an intelligence that can provide us with fulfillment. Science has shown that the heart communicates with the body and brain on various different levels.

1. Freeze-Frame - is the simplest of the HeartMath tools. It is a one-minute technique that allows a major shift in perception. More than positive thinking, it creates a definitive, heartfelt shift in how we view a situation, an individual or ourselves. When under stress:

* Shift out of the head, and focus on the area around your heart. Keep your attention there for at least ten seconds. Continue* to breathe normally.
* Recall a positive time or feeling you had in your life, and attempt to re-experience it. Remember, try not simply to visualize it, but rather to feel it fully.
* Ask a question from the heart: "What can I do in this situation to make it different?" or "What can I do to minimize stress?"
* Listen to the response of your heart. You may hear nothing, but perhaps feel calmer. You may receive verification of something you already know, or you may experience a complete perspective shift, seeing the crisis in a more balanced way. Although we may not have control over the event, we do have control over our perception of it.

2. Cut-Thru is a technique developed to help us better manage our emotions. It gives us the ability to "cut through" complex, long-standing emotions, and dynamically move from one place to another.

* Be aware of how you feel about the issue. Focus in on your heart.
* Assume objectivity. Act as though it were someone else's problem. What kind of advice would you give this person who's just been slighted by a co-worker? You'd probably say, "Hey, relax, it's no big deal."
* Take the distorted feelings, the emotional energy that is out of balance, and bring it to the heart. Let it soak there, as if you were soaking in a warm bath. Practice letting the heart do the work for you.
* Cut-Thru tends to require more mature contemplation than Freeze-Frame. But it is also more useful with deeper, and more complicated issues. Long-standing emotions have been stored in us through our life experience. Cut-Thru gives us the ability to transform instead of repress.

3. Heart Lock-In - Rather than fixing something, Heart Lock-In is about experiencing your heart at a deeper level.

* Shift your attention away from your mind and focus on your heart.
* Remember the feeling of love or care you have for someone whom it's easy for you to love. Focus on a feeling of appreciation for someone or something positive. Try to stay with that feeling for five to fifteen minutes.
* Gently send that feeling of love or appreciation to yourself and others.
In fifteen minutes, a Heart Lock-In can provide physical, mental and spiritual regeneration.