In this blog, I share how you can tap into the intelligence of your heart by engaging consciously with your senses to come home to yourself and find your inner peace after an upsetting event or news story or simply after a stressful day.

And what’s more, it also helps you, help your beloved, stressed animal feel better and calm her nervous system after an accident or epileptic episode. As I did with our newly adopted cat Uma who suffers from a neurological condition.

Uma’s story

It all happened around 'cat' dinner time. Uma suffered a short circuit in her brain, resulting in a seizure that manifested as epilepsy and hyperventilation. She spent hours between heaven and earth. We took turns watching over her. Halfway through the night, she wanted to move. She stood weakly on her feet. I could see her panic. She had no idea where she was or who she was. She couldn’t recognize her scent anymore. So she kept walking, stumbling, and bumping into everything. At one point she was so exhausted that her legs couldn’t carry her anymore, but she wouldn’t lie down. She was so scared. And so were we for her. By sunrise, we were dead on our feet. We didn’t know what else we could do to calm her down.

And then my heart took over from my mind and sent my senses out to play. I sat down next to her, with my feet well on the ground. And my eyes wandered around the room and lingered on a floor tile. From the corner of my left eye, I could see Uma. And as my eyes took in the floor tile, my ears received the sounds of the early morning-the heavy hum of a plane high in the sky, birds singing, the wind, my dog’s snoring, the murmuring of the trees, and Uma’s fast, pumping breath. I felt the movement of my breath, which carried silent grief, while a gentle breeze stroked the skin of my arm. The heavy summer heat pressed down on me. Drops of sweat ran down my back. While sensing, my thoughts became quieter and quieter. Time stopped. I felt my weight rest heavier on the cough, my feet spreading out into the ground. My gaze softened and widened. I could feel Uma very clearly now.

From the corner of my eye, I saw that she had laid down. And while we were together in silence, receiving the surroundings in our hearts, I saw her breathing becoming quieter and quieter. Her eyes slowly fell shut. She began to doze off quietly into a deep, restorative sleep.

How aware are you in your heart?

All living beings have an energy field within and around their bodies. When these fields contact each other there is a subtle, very complex exchange of electromagnetic energy encoded with information. It is the language of all life.

One of the most mind-blowing books I've read is a book called ‘The Secret Teachings of Plants’ by Stephen Harrod Buhner. He states that the physical heart is the most powerful organ of perception in both humans and many animals because it generates the strongest electromagnetic energy field in the body. And the heart becomes even more perceptive when it is in a harmonious connection with the rhythms in the rest of the body and brain and with the rhythms of the universe, and Mother Earth. This is called heart coherence. It happens when we shift our consciousness from our mind to our heart.

The more coherence the stronger the information exchange can be. A coherent heart has variability in heart rhythm so that it can easily adjust to movement intensity, emotional experiences, and other internal and external processes. This has beneficial effects on brain processes, our physical-emotional vitality, connection to others, openness to learning, and the neuroplastic capacity of our brains. It helps every part of our system work together harmoniously, and function efficiently. This creates space for auto-regulation, healing, resilience, and growth.

Did you know that your physical heart is a highly sophisticated communicator?

The physical heart has a huge amount of highly specialized cells that receive and transmit electric magnetic energy waves filled with information, much like a radio transmitter and receiver carries the music. These specialized heart cells group to form many finely tuned antennas with a very broad reach. This way the heart receives infinitely many different energy frequencies at the same time. No other part of the body and brain has this extraordinary quality. When the heart’s electromagnetic field meets another electromagnetic field, interaction and synchronization start to happen. In this process, information is exchanged.

The heart decodes this deep information by altering its beating pattern, pulse wave, electric output, hormonal functioning, and neurochemical release. These changes in function send information to the rest of the body and the different parts of our nervous system. It also acts directly with our nervous system through neurochemical releases in the brain that directly alter nervous system functions.

What does this have to do with the senses?

Our heart enters a state of *coherence when we shift from analyzing, thinking, setting expectations, and commenting to what we perceive through feeling and sensing. When we leave our senses free to wander around and take in the surroundings, we enter into our hearts. We re-member ourselves as part of our natural family. Resulting in our heart rate starting to slow down. Also, our eyes soften, our breath slows down and deepens, and a cascade of transformational chemical processes take place in the brain that controls the autonomic nervous system, emotions, and cognitive functions. As our hearts are both sending and receiving, this state of coherence is then exchanged with another Being when our energy fields touch.

And so by the simple act of sensing my surroundings and listening to my sensations, and feelings, I could help Uma feel more peaceful and start resting her exhausted body.

When was the last time you took the time to let your senses wander freely without any expectation?