Several decades ago, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi studied the experience of creative artists.  This was in the 1960s, and many of them described extraordinary states of creativity during which they felt “in the flow”.  Since then, the science of positive psychology has discovered many surprising things about the power of positive emotions to foster optimal functioning.  Here is a description of a “flow state” from a HeartMath document that is surprisingly similar to the descriptions found in the writings of Sri Aurobindo and Mirra Alfassa regarding the “psychic being” – the inmost consciousness described in the Upanishads as an eternal flame in the heart:

You feel a deep sense of peace and internal balance—you are at harmony with yourself, with others, and with your larger environment. You experience increased buoyancy and vitality. Your senses are enlivened—every aspect of your perceptual experience seems richer, more textured. Surprisingly, you feel invigorated even when you would usually have felt tired and drained. Things that usually would have irked you just don’t “get to you” as much. Your body feels regenerated—your mind clear. At least for a period of time, decisions become obvious as priorities clarify and inner conflict dissolves. Intuitive insight suddenly provides convenient solutions to problems that had previously consumed weeks of restless thought. Your creativity flows freely. You may experience a sense of greater connectedness with others and feelings of deep fulfillment.

This seems to me to be particularly inspiring as it is something most people have experienced.  Most of us may not know of or experience the most profound states of spiritual enlightenment, but most of us have at some moment in our lives experienced something like this.  Often, people who report such experiences say that these are among the most important of their lives – moments occurring when falling in love, when in the midst of a beautiful, natural environment, or when witnessing an act of nobility or heroism.

In the modern world – even in India, where yogic practices have either been set aside in the rush toward modernity or trivialized as physical exercise – there have been few means of cultivating these states. Positive psychologists have incorporated mindfulness and heart-centering practices of various kinds – most of them similar to or directly based on Indian yogic traditions – and many people, from school children, to business executives to athletes, are finding the practices to have a profound impact on virtually every aspect of their lives.

Research on positive emotions and flow states has specifically shown that they:

Positive emotions have been demonstrated to improve health and increase longevity, increase cognitive flexibility and creativity,facilitate “broad-minded coping” and innovative problem solving, and promote helpfulness, generosity, and effective cooperation.

To give a more specific example, the Institute of HeartMath has been researching emotions over two decades, and its studies repeatedly show appreciation is among the most effective – even to the point of being mentally, physically and behaviorally transforming. 

A common experience of people, whether they have expressed appreciation or gratitude for someone or been the recipient, is the feeling of gentle warmth in the area around their hearts. This is a property that is evident during scientific trials with participants who are asked to intentionally feel these emotions.

It’s not quite the magnitude of a yogic practice, but researchers have found that its possible for even beginners to positively affect various systems of the body – including the central and autonomic nervous systems as well as the endocrine and immune systems – simply by spending a few minutes a day intentionally generating feelings of appreciation and gratitude.  Researchers have shown that just 5 minutes of intentional evocation of feelings of appreciation, care of compassion can boos the immune system, and not just temporarily but in a sustained, long-term manner.

Gratitude can even have a protective effect against heart attacks according to researchers at the University of Connecticut. When observing people who had experienced one heart attack, the researchers found that those patients who acknowledged benefits from their heart attack, such as becoming more appreciative of life, experienced a lower risk of having another heart attack.

HeartMath researchers have observed physical and behavioral characteristics of subjects during studies when they feel either positive or negative emotions. Results consistently have shown that heart-focused, sincere, positive feeling states boosted energy, cognitive abilities, the immune system and resiliency for future challenges, while negative emotions tended to suppress or impair these for varying amounts of time.

The Relationship Between the Heart and Emotions

Research on the relationship between the heart and emotions involves many different factors, one of them being the measurement of the rhythm of the heart-beat.  When we measure heart-rhythm patterns, they show variations depending on the emotions a subject is experiencing. One moment, someone could be feeling frustration, anger, fear or another negative emotion and the pattern, might be jagged, or disordered. Within seconds of choosing to feel appreciation, compassion or another positive emotion, the pattern can turn smooth, or ordered.

Smooth heart-rhythm patterns are what scientists call highly ordered or coherent patterns.  Positive emotions in general help foster synchronization between the two branches of the ANS, the sympathetic and parasympathetic.  The higher a person’s coherence is, the likelier the person is enjoying good health and emotional balance. This transformation in heart-rhythm patterns is accessible to most people. A willingness to make a simple commitment to minutes of daily practice of some easily learned techniques can lead to improved heart-rhythm patterns with greater frequency.

Heart Intelligence

Here is a section from a HeartMath research document on what is coming to be known as the “heart intelligences.”

“There… is ample evidence in the writings and oral traditions societies passed down through the generations that they strongly believed in an intelligent heart. 

Research into the idea of heart intelligence began accelerating in the second half of the 20th century. During the 1960s and ’70s pioneer physiologists John and Beatrice Lacey conducted research that showed the heart actually communicates with the brain in ways that greatly affect how we perceive and react to the world around us. In 1991, the year the Institute of HeartMath was established, pioneer neurocardiologist Dr. J. Andrew Armour introduced the term “heart brain.” He said the heart possessed a complex and intrinsic nervous system that is a brain. 

Today, more than a half century after the Laceys began their research, we know a great deal more about the heart:

1. The heart is a very complex information, encoding and processing center, with an extensive intrinsic nervous system… Its circuitry enables it to learn, remember and make functional decisions independent of the cranial brain.  The heart communicates with the brain in such a way as to substantially affect perception and cognition, and by extension, behavior.
2. The heart sends us emotional and intuitive signals to help govern our lives.
3. The heart directs and aligns many systems in the body so that they can function in harmony with one another.
4. The heart is in constant communication with the brain. The heart’s intrinsic brain and nervous system relay information back to the brain in the cranium, creating a two-way communication system between heart and brain.
5. The heart makes many of its own decisions.
6. The heart starts beating in the unborn fetus before the brain has been formed, a process scientists call autorhythmic.
7. Humans form an emotional brain long before a rational one, and a beating heart before either.
8. The heart has its own independent complex nervous system known as “the brain in the heart.”

Based on decades of research regarding the heart-brain, the HeartMath institute has provided scientic evidence – in well planned, well replicated studies – that yogic methods of breathing “in and out of the heart” can evoke these states of optimal functioning – including the awakening and fostering of intuition as well as dramatic improvements in mood and physical health.

This seems to me to be particularly important. We can be told all kinds of interesting facts about the heart brain but simply hearing this isn’t likely to make much difference in our lives. Similarly, we may have heard or read about the importance of “positive thinking”, but anybody who has tried to “positively” think their way out of pain, anxiety, depression or any kind of stressful situation knows how limited that can be.

If we had faith – true faith, deep, profound trust – in what the yogis have taught for thousands of years, we might simply try their methods. However, if we’re honest most of us – yes, including myself, and probably many reading this blog – are strongly conditioned by modern scientific attitudes. To the extent we’re still subject to this conditioning, it can be helpful to know that scientific methods have provided concrete evidence of “real”, indisputable, positive physiological changes that can be made to occur by very simple yogic-type methods that involve focusing in the heart while breathing in a particular manner and intentionally generating positive emotions.

Modern Heart-Centering Exercises vs Yoga (or to put it another, vs. “the real thing”)

Yogis have taught similar practices for thousands of years.  It is wonderful, I think ,that something from the tradition has been shown to have such a powerful effect.  But they’ve taken a tiny, almost infinitesimal fragment of a yogic practice.

If taking only the most superficial aspect of a yogic practice has such powerful effects, imagine how infinitely more powerful it would be if science could understand and make use of the full, unadulterated range of yogic practices?

I hope this blog – and this Indian psychology website – can play at least a minor role in moving science forward to a recognition of the extraordinary untapped potential in Indian, yogic psychological practices.