Love is in the air…. (that I breathe)

Today is Valentine’s Day. A day to celebrate and honor love. Traditionally we know that love is associated with the heart and while the heart may seem like a symbol of love, research is showing how important the heart is from a biochemical perspective. The heart-brain connection is a two way highway, and it is believed that the heart actually sends more information to the brain, than the other way around. The HeartMath Institute has been researching this for decades looking at how the heart-brain connection influences our perceptions, emotions, intuition and health. What we know is that the biochemistry of the body changes when we are balanced and “coherent”. Coherence creates balance your mind and body so that you can see things more clearly, and not from the space of an emotion-only lens.

It’s a simple technique of breathing that can invite this balance, and consistent practice can rewire our bodies and minds and help rewrite our stories. Spending time in stillness, in a place of pause and reflect, has an impact of releasing us from the conditioned habits of overthinking. Additionally, the breath itself is one way of regulating our overworked nervous systems so that we move from the fright/flight/freeze to one of rest/repair/restore. Not only does this help us get mental and emotional space, but we can also help our bodies to calm down, help our cardiovascular and nervous systems to relax and repair, and over the long term add years to our lives.

So, today, bring love to yourself, by pausing and breathing to balance yourself. Get out of your mind and into your body. Know that you have everything you need right now, to bring calm and joy and an open heart to life, and then give it away from that place of wholeness.