Experience
Increased Energy by Synchronizing your Brain with your Heart.
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Introduction“Doctor, I don’t have any energy!”
I practiced medicine for almost twenty years and heard this complaint from thousands of patients. Patients of all ages saying, “Doctor, I don’t have any energy!” Patients from all socioeconomic backgrounds and nationalities would come to me with the same problem. They were living in an energy slump, hoping I could make a difference.
Energy deficiency is a symptom that can be attributed to many different phenomenons. Various acute and chronic physical conditions are accompanied by fatigue: diabetes, heart diseases, cancers, and anemia, to name only a few. Lethargic energy levels often alert medical professionals to the possibility of mental conditions such as depression, chronic anxiety and stress related disorders.
My work as a physician was to diagnose and treat those physical and emotional problems. However, in many cases, after a thorough examination and investigation, no medical problem could be identified to explain the lack of energy. This was always very disappointing and frustrating for both the patient and myself. Very often I had to admit my powerlessness in treating this symptom.
In my practice I saw that many times, energy depletion had very little to do with a medical condition. Chronic fatigue was more often linked to painful relationships. People were being energy depleted from circumstances either at home with a spouse, a child or a parent, or at work with a coworker or an employer.
Lack of energy, at other times, was caused by a lack of passion in the patient’s life, a lack of drive or purposefulness. Some cases of energy shortage were associated with a pessimistic or cynical view of life, which deprived these persons from the capacity to hope for and enjoy a happy existence. In the end, it does not matter whether the cause of fatigue is physical, mental or spiritual; lack of energy is always a very debilitating quality-of-life factor for those who experience it.
Western medicine is most efficient in acute situations, those where the advances of pharmacotherapy and new computerized-imaging-enhanced surgery are saving lives every day. However, for chronic disease, the results are very limited because of the limits of western medicine to efficiently deal with energy deficiencies. For these reasons, I decided to investigate energy management systems and research alternatives.
Increasing my own Personal Energy
We are all born with curious minds hungering to learn. Some people are like me and thrive on learning more about science, how the world functions and how the human body works. With an undergraduate degree in biochemistry, a doctorate in medicine and my love for brain functioning, it was an easy jump into the relatively new field of Addiction Medicine; an enjoyable, challenging and immensely gratifying new area of medicine.
I am an avid reader, fodder to an insatiable intellectual appetite. Many authors have been my greatest teachers in fields like science, philosophy and metaphysics. One in particular, was Ralph Waldo Emerson. In his famous inspiring essay “Self-Reliance”2, he exhorts us to think by ourselves and not let authorities dictate what should be held as truth. I still identify with this “rebellious mindset” today. I like doing my own thinking and having the option of choosing what is right for me on my own. I never buy into mainstream ideas without investigation.
We all should reassess the ‘normal’ and never comply in order to adapt to what others may call the ‘real’ world. Values and codes of ethics must never become dogma. Organized religious groups and political parties are often inflexible institutions with a fixed set of codes; they usually do not welcome in their ranks those who challenge the norms.
We must prioritize our lives according to what matters to us, not to what is important to some outside authority. From time to time, we need to start going through the process of identifying the values that drive us and re-prioritize our lives accordingly. Soul-searching is a very private endeavor; a never-ending quest which leads to personal answers, personal truth and personal meaning.
Western Medicine has lost its fascination. It has become too restrictive as if it were wearing a coat that it had outgrown. Caring is no longer valued in the health industry. Moreover, an ineffective decision making process totally excludes caregiver input. People with no medical training and no concern for patient needs are pressuring policy makers into making many important treatment decisions; like the length of time a patient is allowed to stay in the hospital, for instance. The big winners in the health industry are the shareholders of medical service companies or pharmaceutical companies. The biggest losers are the patients.
Institutions will never be changed from within. New tools must be researched outside conservative circles of western medicine and political power in order to find ways to improve the quality of healthcare. Researchers must look for solutions down paths less traveled. There are many optimistic physicians who believe that “there must be a better way” and there must be an answer to energy depletion.
Most physicians are already suggesting complementary approaches to conventional medical practices to their patients. New therapeutic options, especially those tested under rigorous research protocol, are considered and recommended more everyday. In cases of many chronic diseases where western medicine has demonstrated limited results, alternative techniques have been shown to be very helpful adjuvant treatments.
Medical training has been aimed at treating diseases and alleviating symptoms. However, health is much more than the absence of disease. Doctors are trained to make a sick person symptom-free and not to bring a symptom-free person to a state of radiant health. But, it is radiant health that patients deserve! New tools have to be found for managing personal energy, tools that will help people reach this very real state of radiant health.
Information is being gathered from various fields concerned with some aspect of energy, like quantum physics, cosmology’s dark matter and dark energy, the new neurosciences and oriental theories about “Qi” energy . Recent developments in understanding what consciousness is and how it works and metaphysical studies of that which lies beyond the physical world are being meticulously perused and contemplated.
The field of Energy Medicine has emerged.
Energy medicine is based on the premises that our physical bodies possess an intangible energy field, and that problems at the physical level need to be corrected at the energy level. Traditional oriental medicine is based on this approach. In the West, we are beginning to familiarize ourselves with energy-based techniques like acupuncture and ‘therapeutic touch’.
Meditation has also become a popular stress management technique, which enhances personal energy quality. Many studies have shown the benefits of regular meditation in reducing stress related illnesses. However, people and doctors still resist using meditation techniques because of the time factor involved and the need for a quiet solitary place to practice. Meditation can take 20 to 30 minutes in a quiet place on a daily basis to practice.
In the 90’s, discoveries in neuroscience paved the way to new understandings of brain functioning and the respective roles of the emotional brain and the intellect. During this same period, Daniel Goleman introduced the notion of EQ: Emotional Intelligence. The clinical applications of Emotional Intelligence concepts have been developed to foster better integration of intellect and emotion in order to promote a fuller life experience.
More recent research has shown that the heart has its own intelligence and can communicate and influence the brain and other organs. Research in the area of the heart-brain connection has thrown light onto the benefits of “cardiac coherence”, a physical state where brain and heart work in synchronicity to help balance all bodily function.
With personal energy as a challenge, the importance of applying this new knowledge of proven scientific concepts to the area of health and energy management has become undeniable. This book presents the findings of my research on personal energy management and hopes to enlighten and familiarize you with the latest techniques I have gleaned from various areas of study. The techniques presented here offer tremendous possibilities for healthier lives, regained energy and personal transformation.
The study of the heart is a new frontier. The latest research in this area re-explores the heart’s role in the human experience and the consequential implications for human potential development. These scientific discoveries are shared in the first part of this book: “The Heart, a New Frontier”.
The second part is entitled “Heart-Smiling” and describes a simple but powerful technique that uses energy generated by the heart to influence and modulate cerebral activity.
The third section of this book, “Applications of ‘Heart-Smiling’ in Personal Energy Management”, identifies different applications of heart-brain synchronization in everyday life. Because “Heart-Smiling” is effective at transforming perceptions and attitudes, it can be successfully used to manage personal energy.
People who have used cardiac coherence techniques report increased energy and enhanced quality of life in the areas of health, work and relationships.
These new scientific findings have the potential to tremendously impact your life. When people learn to willfully engage their heart, they can transform their experience of any situation into harmonious energy flow.
In offering you the energizing technique of “Heart-Smiling”, I join the ranks of many physicians who recommend complementary medical approaches for augmenting the well being of their patients. Doctors like Deepak Chopra, Bernie Siegel, Andrew Weil, David Servan-Schreiber and Dean Ornish are all pioneers in the field of global medicine and ardent proselytes of radiant health.
I sincerely hope that by learning to connect your brain with your heart, you will not only improve your energy levels but the quality of your life, your family’s and your community’s.
I invite you now to use “Heart-Smiling” to access the amazing source of energy in your own heart. In your heart lies the power of love, compassion, and gratitude. Using this technique will help you come to the realization that you are “Love-powered”.
Take an active part in the evolution of the human race by bringing the higher energies of your heart into play and live from a place of understanding, appreciation and cooperation. The world desperately needs your heartfelt smiles. Give generously!
Nathalie Campeau, MD
Fort Lauderdale, FL
2004
Sample
Chapter 7 - What is Energy?
At the beginning of this book, we discussed the principles of personal energy management and presented the seven levels of personal energy. We mentioned that these different forms of energy are intertwined and that “All is energy”.
Later, we introduced Heart-Smiling, an energy-based technique, which harnesses the powerful energies generated by a state of cardiac coherence and makes them available for our personal use. Since this book addresses personal energy management, let us now consider the nature of energy.
The Nature of Energy
Energy is a natural force, often synonymous with power. Physicists define energy as a force that can produce work. Kinetic energy, for example, makes objects move in space. Other types of energy are electric, chemical, nuclear, gravitational, etc. One of the fundamental principles in physics confirms that during a reaction, no matter what form it takes, the total amount of energy stays the same.
Einstein’s famous equation E=mc2 describes the relation between matter and energy. The material world and the non-material world of energy are interrelated; matter can produce energy and inversely. One of the applications of this law of mass-energy transformation was the creation of the atomic bomb.
The subatomic nature of the world, as described by modern physicists, is very difficult to grasp. Niels Bohr wrote: “Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it.”
The continuous exchange between energy and matter at the subatomic level is difficult to imagine because direct observation is impossible. Even more difficult to accept is the notion that observing a reaction affects it, implying that objectivity is a myth in elementary levels.
What is Reality?
Reality described at that subatomic level seems to be at odds with macroscopic reality. We have been conditioned during our childhood to see reality in a certain way. In his book “Ageless Body, Timeless Mind” , Deepak Chopra names this enculturation phenomenon “the hypnotic state of our collective conditioning.”
We have been conditioned by the society in which we grew up to perceive reality according to norms accepted by the majority. In the time of Galileo, for example, majority perception was that the universe gravitated around the earth. Before Columbus, according to majority perception, reality was that the earth was flat. Reality changes as the majority accepts new discoveries. What is considered a miracle at one era becomes scientific fact in the next.
There is usually a 150-year delay between a scientific discovery and its general acceptance. Discoveries made by quantum physicists at the beginning of the twentieth century, including the theory of relativity, will not be endorsed by our culture for another 50 years.
Only then will “reality” include concepts like Heisenberg’s principle of incertitude, based on statistics and not on direct observation; and the principle of subjectivity (not objectivity), which stipulates that observing an experience influences the outcome. The sacrosanct “objective reality” still venerated today is outdated; it is slowly crumbling under the emergence of a new quantum subjective reality.
The Universe and Beyond
Subatomic physicists (studying the “very small”) and astrophysicists (studying the “very large”) are the new modern explorers. They push forward the frontiers of the unknown by describing a world that we, lay people, cannot even imagine. Cosmology, the science researching the creation of the universe, is fascinating because of the questions it raises. Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking and Hubert Reeves have followed the evolution of cosmologic discoveries and tryied to find answers to questions that have puzzled human beings since the beginning of time: How did the universe begin? What is the future of the universe? How did the universe evolve from an element as simple as the hydrogen atom to such a huge and complex system inhabited by self-aware conscious beings?
The familiar concepts of time and space are at the core of this exploration. The “Big Bang” theory suggests that the universe was born suddenly and that time, space and matter/anti-matter were created in a sudden flash. “Before” the Big Bang (an oxymoron because the notion of time begins with the Big Bang) was “Singularity”, a state not anterior but beyond the created universe.
Singularity is a “pre”-creation state where temperature, density and energy are infinite; it is an infinite state of oneness that our human brain could never comprehend. In this state, entropy is infinitely negative, which means that disorder is maximum, chaos reigns and creative potential is infinite. Singularity is out of time and space; therefore, it is eternal, always in the present moment, omnipresent and in a state of oneness.
The words we use to describe singularity like: infinite, eternal, omnipresent, unknowable, and unlimited creative potential, are attributes that traditionally have been the hallmark of spiritual terminology. These terms have been used by different religions to describe the deity, the Absolute.
By using a similar terminology, quantum physicists have shed a new light on the relationship between science and spirituality. Paul Davies wrote: “Modern science is now closer to God than religion is.”
The similarity of terms is evident when describing the pre-creation state. Many modern physicists, cosmologists and astronauts are people who developed an interest for metaphysics “what lies beyond”. When asked what was the question he most wanted an answer to, Einstein said: “I want to know how God created this universe.”
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Description: 208 pages full color softcover book, richly illustrated with scientific graphics and supporting color photographs.Price: $24.95 plus $3.95 S&H
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The heart-Smiling technique described in this book is not an approved derivative from any HeartMath technique nor has it been researched by the Institute of HeartMath, The author did not mean to imply that the results of the research done by HeartMath apply to the Heart-Smiling technique.
