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A Gift of Art For Donors Members and donors are enjoying the first of three pieces of lively art by painter Lois Eby as a thank-you gift from the Institute of HeartMath for their past contributions.

Scientific Monographs Positive emotions such as caring and happiness – what they mean, where they originate and how they’re generated – are central to two new scientific monographs.

Emotional Self-Management You hear this term a lot from the Institute of HeartMath, and it is widely referred to in a broad cross section of professional fields, including psychology/therapy and other areas of the medical community, business and corporate circles, education and others.

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Emotional Self-Management

You hear this term a lot from the Institute of HeartMath, and it is widely referred to in a broad cross section of professional fields, including psychology/therapy and other areas of the medical community, business and corporate circles, education and others. Today emotional self-management, also commonly referred to as emotional self-regulation, is viewed by many as one of the most important skills people in the modern world can possess.

For a term of such great importance, its meaning is quite self-evident. It is simply defined as managing one’s own emotions, a process that has been a focal point of research at IHM since its founding in 1991 by Doc Childre and one that remains at the core of its research, education and development today. Enlightening and teaching people about emotional self-management is an integral element in all HeartMath tools, techniques, programs, services and technology.

HeartMath has conducted numerous studies on the physiology of emotions and the profound positive influences people can have on their lives by learning to manage their own emotions. Among the many thousands of people who’ve participated in these studies are educators, students, health-care providers, corporate executives as well hourly wage earners and corrections, law enforcement and military personnel, including combat veterans.

Many years ago when the idea that learning to self-manage one’s emotions could be beneficial was gaining in popularity, researchers at HeartMath took that concept to a new level. In study after study their findings demonstrated that learning to self-manage emotions could in fact be life-changing in all sorts of ways when individuals intentionally experienced positive emotions such as care, compassion and/or love for someone or something. Their research showed that study participants even realized benefits from simply recollecting positive, happy or pleasant experiences.

The flip side of this research helped to solidify the findings regarding positive emotions: Some study subjects who were angry or recalled something that angered them or experienced any number of other negative emotions, actually exhibited undesirable physical symptoms. Not surprising were the elevated stress levels negative emotions caused for many. But especially noteworthy is that heart-rate-variability analyses for these subjects commonly showed jagged or unbalanced heart-rhythm patterns, which can and frequently do result in physical problems, deteriorating health or exacerbation of existing problems.

Learn more about emotional self-management, stress management and solutions for stress, click here.