Heart Dynamics
Here we will explore the role that the heart plays in psychophysiological coherence, cognitive clarity and general well-being, and with emphasis on the role of meditation.
We first introduce the reader to a broader understanding of the complexities associated with cognitive clarity, psychophysiological coherence and inner peace, presumably related to meditative states and the creation of knowledge and meaning in the brain associated with positive emotions.
A good beginning is to remind the reader that cognitive clarity, also associated with cognitive performance, pertains to mental processes and states in the acquisition and application of knowledge with clarity (ease and fluidity) while being aware of thought, experience and sensory information. When we refer to clarity we should also consider spiritual or subjective states where the quality of being coherent and intelligible becomes salient, as for example, when a human being displays clarity of purpose and intention or qualitatively the purity of thoughts and relatedness when in appreciation of others.
Sensory wise we can also add the capacity of appreciating beauty, colour and melody for example, where the scenery or the environment becomes very salient, sharp and clear. It is with a combination of these subjective and objective cognitive states where we can imagine and experience that, which is a desirable cognitive performance as when an artist plays on an open stage in nature and the moment becomes very enjoyable, beautiful and strikingly memorable, something that we could relate to a peak experience à la Maslow as well as his reflections on plateau experiences towards the end of his life.
However, what in the world has that got to do with Heart Rate Variable, psychophysiological coherence and inner peace?
Briefly, we must say that psychophysiological coherence has been associated with cognitive performance and emotional stability and very well explained by McCraty and colleagues.
Measures for psychophysiological coherence can be derived from Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and they are associated with stress reduction, something that could be intuitively and subjectively also associated to some form of inner stability, accompanied with a sense of inner peace and harmony, an experience which is common to most humans, even if for brief moments in life. It seems to us that there are good grounds to think that psychophysiological coherence is somehow associated with cognitive clarity, general well-being and inner peace.
It has been proposed that brain, heart and respiration dynamics are highly interdependent, particularly in mediating coherent states and also certain cognitive states. Also, these oscillatory systems could display some form of metastability as observed in brain dynamics associated with different cognitive states as explained be Kelso, Freeman and Werner amongst others. As an integral part to a brief review and comprehension of perception, awareness and spiritual experience as explained by Davis, we have turned our consideration to the cooperation between the brain and the heart which is mediated by respiration, keeping in mind the end goal, to do equity to the expansive assemblage of ancient wisdom, philosophical thought and logical hypotheses which bolster the theory that the “heart” plays a principle part in “basic leadership” and decision-making and the handling of “more profound” spiritual implications, some of the time related to feelings and Universal Values, similar to Love and Compassion. In most recent years Kozma and Davis have propelled the improvement of a methodology to study brain dynamics inspired by the work of Walter Freeman and others. Freeman and others have already suggested that meaning creation requires previous and new knowledge and in turn the brain also needs to derive meaning from internal and external events in order to create or produce new knowledge. However, even with the advent of the era of information technology, how the brain and now presumably the heart takes part in the creation of our most intimate meanings or even the trivial ones still remains a mystery, and perhaps the time has come to attempt genuine endeavours to explore more deeply such a mystery.
With this in mind we aim at a deeper understanding of the role of the heart in the embodiment of Spiritual Values in intentional behaviour.
We first introduce the reader to a broader understanding of the complexities associated with cognitive clarity, psychophysiological coherence and inner peace, presumably related to meditative states and the creation of knowledge and meaning in the brain associated with positive emotions.
A good beginning is to remind the reader that cognitive clarity, also associated with cognitive performance, pertains to mental processes and states in the acquisition and application of knowledge with clarity (ease and fluidity) while being aware of thought, experience and sensory information. When we refer to clarity we should also consider spiritual or subjective states where the quality of being coherent and intelligible becomes salient, as for example, when a human being displays clarity of purpose and intention or qualitatively the purity of thoughts and relatedness when in appreciation of others.
Sensory wise we can also add the capacity of appreciating beauty, colour and melody for example, where the scenery or the environment becomes very salient, sharp and clear. It is with a combination of these subjective and objective cognitive states where we can imagine and experience that, which is a desirable cognitive performance as when an artist plays on an open stage in nature and the moment becomes very enjoyable, beautiful and strikingly memorable, something that we could relate to a peak experience à la Maslow as well as his reflections on plateau experiences towards the end of his life.
However, what in the world has that got to do with Heart Rate Variable, psychophysiological coherence and inner peace?
Briefly, we must say that psychophysiological coherence has been associated with cognitive performance and emotional stability and very well explained by McCraty and colleagues.
Measures for psychophysiological coherence can be derived from Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and they are associated with stress reduction, something that could be intuitively and subjectively also associated to some form of inner stability, accompanied with a sense of inner peace and harmony, an experience which is common to most humans, even if for brief moments in life. It seems to us that there are good grounds to think that psychophysiological coherence is somehow associated with cognitive clarity, general well-being and inner peace.
It has been proposed that brain, heart and respiration dynamics are highly interdependent, particularly in mediating coherent states and also certain cognitive states. Also, these oscillatory systems could display some form of metastability as observed in brain dynamics associated with different cognitive states as explained be Kelso, Freeman and Werner amongst others. As an integral part to a brief review and comprehension of perception, awareness and spiritual experience as explained by Davis, we have turned our consideration to the cooperation between the brain and the heart which is mediated by respiration, keeping in mind the end goal, to do equity to the expansive assemblage of ancient wisdom, philosophical thought and logical hypotheses which bolster the theory that the “heart” plays a principle part in “basic leadership” and decision-making and the handling of “more profound” spiritual implications, some of the time related to feelings and Universal Values, similar to Love and Compassion. In most recent years Kozma and Davis have propelled the improvement of a methodology to study brain dynamics inspired by the work of Walter Freeman and others. Freeman and others have already suggested that meaning creation requires previous and new knowledge and in turn the brain also needs to derive meaning from internal and external events in order to create or produce new knowledge. However, even with the advent of the era of information technology, how the brain and now presumably the heart takes part in the creation of our most intimate meanings or even the trivial ones still remains a mystery, and perhaps the time has come to attempt genuine endeavours to explore more deeply such a mystery.
With this in mind we aim at a deeper understanding of the role of the heart in the embodiment of Spiritual Values in intentional behaviour.