And as I mentioned earlier, this rhythm directly impacts the brain. Note how your breath and heart move in a more synchronized rhythm. For example, be in the moment and highly aware of what your body feels like when caring for someone. To strengthen your heart-brain connection, start with practicing intentional positive emotions. To bring a low HRV back to a healthy level, you can decrease stress-produced wear and tear on your nervous system and support your body’s natural regenerative processes. An abnormally low HRV is connected to a higher risk of health problems and premature mortality. A healthy heart will be able to adjust to each new situation and feeling without being thrown off too much from its major patterns and rhythms.Īs we move forward in life, the range of variation in your resting heart rate decreases. It reveals the body’s ability to flexibly adjust to stressful experiences and emotions. Your HRV is a major indicator of your fitness and health, especially as we age. ![]() While at rest, your heart beats at various intervals, known as heart rate variability, or HRV. It’s important to understand that even healthy hearts beat at a somewhat irregular rates. Heart rate variability: a major indicator of health and fitness It’s empowering to realize we can take steps that will have such a positive impact on our health. On the flip side, positive emotions send powerful messages of support from your heart to your brain that encourage cognitive and emotional functioning. The way your heart signals your brain during period of high stress also intensifies the emotional effect on your brain. This is why we suffer from foggy thinking, poor memory and concentration when we’re under stress. This irregular, erratic beating causes the neural signals moving from your heart to your brain to obstruct your higher cognitive functions. When you are particularly stressed, the heart’s rhythm will be more erratic. Specifically, the data shows intense stress directly affects your cognitive abilities. Research shows that different heart activity patterns have specific effects on emotional and cognitive function. ![]() Science behind the heart-brain connection Finding a way to allow the heart and mind to work together most effectively is the key to heart-brain health. Did you know the heart sends more notifications to the brain than the brain sends to the heart? And true to metaphor, the heart is especially important when it involves emotional processing. I’m continuing my campaign for Go Red For Women with the American Heart Association to support heart health and awareness. I’ve long been interested in how our responses to stress affect our brains and our hearts.
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