Howard Martin: The Purpose of Your Heart
You talked about people who don’t know who they are and they get programmed with being something that other people think they want to be. The only way around this is to go to the core of your authentic self and begin to manifest more of that in your daily life. To me, that core of our authentic self is the heart. That’s where we find our true self and the self-security to be our true self. That’s when we move beyond some of the personal and societal programs which allow us to incorporate more of that essence of who we truly are. It’s a heart related process and it’s something that most of us are always going to be working on – the unfolding of who we truly are.
OMTimes: Do you have some techniques or methods you can share that would help our readers increase their “heart intelligence?”
Howard Martin: The HeartMath system is a complete system of tools, techniques and methods. All underpinned with scientific research and even supported with technology. It starts with simple things like learning to shift your emotional state. We have a technique called Attitude Breathing. It’s a very simple technique, but when you use it with sincerity it has a lot of benefits. The way it works is that you become the observer of your own emotions.
Most people allow emotions just to run under the surface and they don’t really pay much attention to what they’re truly feeling. We often avoid trying to identify what we’re feeling, because it can be painful. But when you get past that, you begin to look at your emotions objectively and you determine what you’re feeling at any given moment. You’re seeing it now and you want to shift it. The way you shift it is to choose a replacement attitude. Let’s say I’m feeling frustrated and stressed. My replacement for that might be something as simple as ‘calm and peaceful’. You then focus on the area of your heart and you breathe in and out through that area. You pretend as if your breath is coming in and out through the area of the heart. And as you breathe, you try to feel, as best you can, the feeling of the replacement attitude. When you do that for a little while, you will feel that things begin to shift. You now ground it out and take it forward into your next daily activities. This is how you shift your emotional state.
