Heartbeats and Brainwaves: 3 Ways Your Heart’s Neurobiology Guides You
The Emotional and Physical Pulse: Holding The Power Over Your Nervous System
According to nearly every culture in the world, your heart is the centre of your spiritual and emotional realm.
This is not just symbolism, it is science, too.
Your heart is known as “the body’s little brain” and contains more than 40,000 neurons that send and receive messages to and from your nervous system.
It is called “the body’s little brain” because it participates in a network of neurons.. to the brain.
It is your nervous system’s chit-chat with your mind.
Your heart impacts the health and safety of your body and mind because it activates your emotional reactions.
Your heart can easily be the boss of your emotional reactions.
But how exactly does it do it?
Our heartbeat is the rhythm of our life, a force that can be felt throughout our entire body and the first vital sign doctors check to discern the living from the dead.
The Heart-Brain Connection
Your heart and your brain are like best friends who constantly send each other messages.
Your heart, however, is usually chattier — it sends way more messages than it gets back, so it is way more dominant in the way you think and feel.
- Your heart is either pounding away when you are freaking out about the deadline you have tomorrow — telling your brain to make the situation worse and fueling your anxiety.
- Or it is actually enjoying the fact that you are chilling with a good book or meditating, so it sends a “chill out, dude” message to your brain.
Every time our heart beats, it sends neural impulses that alter our brain’s electrical activity, especially in the areas related to emotions.
The Autonomic Nervous System
But as I said, your brain and heart do chit-chat and, together, they determine how your Autonomic Nervous System behaves.
Picture your body as a high-tech spaceship going around in the galaxy called Life. A cheesy anecdote but stay with me.
The Autonomic Nervous System is the autopilot that keeps everything running smoothly — according to its definition (or the way your mom, dad and surroundings programmed it) — while you are busy with more important tasks from the to-do list.
I mean, the Autonomic Nervous System is important but I started thinking about it way later in life, as part of my healing. Nobody added it to my to-do list, or told me how important it is.
It was when I honestly reflected and found that I am genuinely unable to rest that I started to befriend and explore my nervous system and its two modes:
- The Inner Superhero, also known as Sympathetic Nervous System, used to be my go-to mode of action, running, jumping, freaking out about a report I had to submit. It made my heart pump more blood to the muscles and yelled at me “Let’s do this!” (It yelled all the time though, but more on that later).
- The Inner Chill Master, also known as the Parasympathetic Nervous System, is my new friend who allows for rest after the action, allows my food to be digested (literally to rest-and-digest!) and is always there to tell me to chill out and recharge.
Your body works the same way — when you are in superhero mode, the sympathetic system takes charge, when you relax — the parasympathetic steps in.
I was stuck in Superhero Mode
It sounds quite cool, but it really isn’t.
Being stuck in Sympathetic Overdrive (or “Superhero mode”) meant that:
- My heart kept pounding, even when I was just sitting around.
- I was unable to rest because my body was in a constant state of stress (and it kept releasing stress hormones, of course, mostly adrenaline and cortisol).
- I couldn’t sleep or stay asleep — sometimes I would wake up more than 3 times a night. (This lasted for over 5 years and the bags under my eyes were surely not looking Gucci.)
- I was always on edge, waiting for the next thing to react to (most of the time my reaction was, safe to say, regretful or uncalled for).
- I felt exhausted 24/7 because my body never had the time to recharge properly, yet I couldn’t sleep — my former vicious circle.
- In the long term, I am dealing with cold hands and anxiety.
To this day, my hands are cold when I am too stressed: my body sends so much blood to my overthinking, already overworked, brain that there is not enough for the limbs.
It is my blessing in disguise, but I do wish for you to find out the importance of nervous system regulation sooner, with this newsletter, not thanks to a symptom.
The Antithesis: I was not stuck in Chill Mode
As much as the superhero mode sounds cool, so does being constantly relaxed, right?
Think twice as the Parasympathetic Overdrive means:
- that my Antithesis Self might be tired all the time, as well — a result of the heart rate and the blood pressure being constantly low.
- that the body is overly focused on digestion, so my Antithesis Self would struggle with frequent stomach aches
- that my Antithesis Self is sleepy, sluggish and lethargic, even after a full night’s sleep my “superhero” self craved.
- that as much I was so restless, my Antithesis Self had severe trouble concentrating and focusing on a task.
Both my Anrithesis Self and I will end up in the same place:
- Our mind signals us to be distant and irritable.
- Our body says I got ‘burnout’, she got ‘hard to keep up with the world’ freeze mode.
- Our well-being added health implications to the menu: anxiety, depression, heart disease and digestive disorders.
How NOT to be a superhero or a chill addict?
Add “awareness of the autonomic nervous system” to the list because this isn’t yet another minor inconvenience.
It is a big deal (as proven by what feels like an endless battle with cold hands).
It is a big deal that can impact your whole life — without exaggerating.
You are an ecosystem.
You need B-A-L-A-N-C-E.
Firstly, to find where you are now — read this.
The Emotional Tool Kit: Body & Mind Consciousness and the “little brain” in our chest
Secondly, to find the sweet spot of superhero action and chill relaxation, start with the body.
Thirdly, to truly figure this “minor inconvenience” and more, download the Emotional Tool Kit.
Neurotransmitters and Hormones
The Sympathetic branch of the nervous system is the fight-or-flight mode that prepares you for action.
How does it do it? Your heart sends you a good amount of adrenaline and noradrenaline that cranks up your heart rate and emotional intensity (and it doesn’t differentiate between stress and excitement).
The Parasympathetic branch is the rest and digest mode that slows things down for you to chill.
How does it work? Your heart sends you a steady supply of acetylcholine — a relaxation neurotransmitter that brings your heart rate down and makes you calmer.
These cute little scientific names, however, forget to mention something:
You have the power to balance it instead of letting the Autonomic Nervous System do its job in the usual way (especially if the usual way harms you as it used to harm me!)
For example, you have an important presentation tomorrow and — after intentionally doing the body consciousness practice in the printable emotional tool kit — you notice that your heart, pounding thanks to adrenaline, makes you feel every single bit of nervous energy.
One way is to let it be and not sleep before the presentation.
Another is to select a practice that helps the acetylcholine — the Parasympathetic branch’s buddy — to kick in, to slow your rate and let you get the needed break before the big day.
The Tools: Your Breath and Intentionally Holding The Power
The easiest way to regulate your nervous system is with your own breath.
When I say regulate, I mean both to energise and calm down — depending on what you need. (Yes, your breath can do both.)
I want to pause for a second here and highlight something pivotal:
Stress and trauma responses — fight, flight, freeze, fawn, flop — can be helped with breathing exercises but not the same breathing exercise:
Energise your body when it freezes, flops or shuts down in any way.
Calm it when it wants to fight or flee.
Use what works best for you at the moment.
TO CALM: Deep Belling Breathing (Diaphragmic breathing)
- Find a comfortable position.
Sit your butt down or lie on your back — whatever suits you.
You want your feet flat on the ground or your knees up if you are lying down.
Hands on your lap or by your side.
2. Prepare the body
Close your eyes and chill out. I like to shake frantically in the beginning to release all the tension of the day. Don’t force anything, just listen to what the body needs in these first moments.
Once you feel all set, take a moment to notice your natural breathing.
3. We engage your Diaphragm
Breathe in sloooowly through your nose.
Feel that the breath goes all the way down to your gut.
You can place your hand on your belly as you feel it rise (like when we just ate a double cheeseburger).
Your chest should not be doing much.
Exhale through your mouth, nice and slow.
Your stomach falls and you can repeat.
4. Use your hands for feedback
Keeping one hand on your chest and the other — on your stomach is your way of assessing if you are doing the work.
If your chest is moving more than your belly — restart.
Adjust until you get your belly to rise more than your chest.
5. Rhythm it, baby.
A little note here is that, if you feel like your thoughts keep racing, try and have the same duration of each inhale and exhale:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 inhaling,
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 exhaling.
Add numbers and count in your mind — you are distracting it from the to-do list in your head.
6. You can also visualise or listen to someone guiding you through visualisation.
Once you have settled, you can visualise your breath — picture it filling your lungs, expanding your belly, and then gently flowing out.
You can always pick to be “on a beach in Florida”, a That 70’s show reference that we could use to our advantage:
- be patient, grasshopper, because it takes time to master it.
- be mindful, grasshopper, focus on the sensations.
- be chill, grasshopper, and do it every day for 2–3 minutes. (I even do it outside!)
TO ROCKET FUEL YOUR MIND AND BODY: the Wim Hof Method
When Wim Hof, the Iceman, developed this method, he yielded serious benefits: a boosted immune system, increased energy levels, reduced stress and enhanced mental clarity.
How to get there?
- A comfortable position.
As expected, you need to be comfortable and, preferably, not distracted. Turn off your phone, close the door and let’s get energized but zen.
2. The Wim Hof Method in its glory
Inhale: Breathe in deeply through the nose or mouth, expanding your belly first, then chest. It is like inflating a balloon that is in your stomach.
Exhale: Let the breath go effortlessly, without forcing it. Let it flow out. The aim is to take full, deep breaths.
Repeat: You do this for 30–40 breaths. You may start feeling a little light-headed or tingly, it is normal.
3. The HOLD
After the last exhale, let the breath out completely and hold your breath.
Don’t inhale, just hold.
Stay relaxed and hold your breath as long as you can — don’t force yourself to hold it until you pass out, hold it as long as it feels okay.
Your body is oxygenated and relaxed now.
4. The Recovery Breath
When you feel the urge to breathe again, take a deep breath and hold it for 15 seconds.
Let the breath go. Your body is receiving a wave of relaxation now.
Go through this cycle three, tops 4 times.
Each round, you may notice that regulating your breath’s flow and holding your breath a little longer start to be easier and easier — that’s progress.
The first time I did this was on one cold morning and I couldn’t believe how much a not-a-morning-person girl can enjoy this and how warm my 90%-of-the-time-cold hands were.
Treat your body like the ecosystem that it is.
Understand your nervous system and how it works now,
ask yourself: how do you want it to work?
For your sake.
From my little brain to yours,
Katrin
