How to More Clearly Discern Your Emotions’ Messages

How are you doing in recognizing the message your emotions are bringing to you? Are you getting the hang of it? Are you feeling the shift in your life yet? Or are you getting stuck?

I remember when I first learned about the purpose in our emotions—that they bring us an important message of something we need to do. I loved this idea! But I wondered . . . how on earth do I find out what the message is?

PROBLEM: Discerning the message in our emotions is hard! How can we decipher it more clearly?

If you are practicing the steps (identify your emotion, ask the questions to discover the action item, and then accomplish the task), then over time, it will get easier and faster. But is there anything else you can do?

Yes!

It’s a simple practice called Heart Breathing.

Your heart plays a vital role in discerning the messages from your emotions! You see, for a long time, the world of science thought the brain controlled everything—including the beating of the heart. But now, they say that the heart actually has its own brain. (Which is why heart transplants work!) The brain does not tell the heart to beat. The heart knows to do it on its own. And actually, as well as the brain sending messages to the body, the heart also sends information to the brain and then the brain sends out those signals to the rest of the body telling it how to act.

What happens is this: when the heart feels anxiety or stress or fear or anger (or any other emotion), it sends out signals to the brain. The brain then shifts to functioning in the fight or flight area. There, that awareness to the emotion the heart feels, triggers responses in our body. Recognizing how our body responds to different emotions can help us discern what emotion we are feeling. Once we know the emotion, we can start asking questions to get some answers.

(By the way, did you know the heart produces three times the electrical frequencies, or energy, that the brain does?!? It is so strong that it can be measured at six feet away from an adult. So if you are within six feet of that person, you are receiving the frequencies from their heart. If that person is mad, you can sense that. If that person is at peace, you get those vibrations too. Those vibes influence you and me! Carrying other people’s emotions makes a little more sense now, doesn’t it???)

Anyway . . .

Strengthening our sensitivity to our heart will strengthen our sensitivity to our emotion’s messages.

I learned all of this when when my daughter (who was seven at the time) was seeing a neurotherapist and doing biofeedback with him to help her extend her short attention span and diminish her autistic-like symptoms. During these visits, he would have her do about five minutes of Heart Breathing. I attended the appointments as well, and since I could see the benefits in the Heart Breathing, I did it along with her.

I began to do it at home as well, and because I was doing Heart Breathing multiple times a week, I started to feel the sensitivity and clarity in the way my emotions communicated with me.

Want to increase your sensitivity and clarity to discern your emotion’s messages too?

SOLUTION: Do the simple process of Heart Breathing.

The three steps to Heart Breathing are heart focus, heart breathing, and heart feeling.

1) Heart Focus.

Focus on your heart. Feel it in there. Be aware of it. Can you feel it beating? If not, imagine seeing it beating. Imagine feeling it pumping blood.

2) Heart Breathing.

Breathe deeply in and out. Imagine all the air you are breathing in is going straight through you to your heart. Then as you breathe out, all the air is going out of your heart.

3) Heart Feeling.

Recall a time when you felt at peace/happy/etc. Imagine you are reliving it so you can feel those things in your body (continue breathing through your heart). If you can’t recall a time, find something you are grateful for. Exude that gratitude from your heart to that thing, being, or experience.

Practicing this Heart Breathing—if only for five minutes a day—brings great benefits! Doc Childre, founder of Heart Math Institute, calls this heightened state of communication between your heart and your mind Heart Coherence. In this state, your heart and brain are able to operate synergistically. Creating Heart Coherence also helps prevent stress producing patterns, increases mental clarity and discernment capacity, and gives you more intuitive access and flow to your soul’s wisdom and guidance.

Sounds good, doesn’t it?

Watch this 7-minute video describing Heart Coherence. It’s created from Heart Math Institute where their goal is to encourage individuals to create Heart Coherence, then to come together as communities in coherence, and then globally as well.

Try it out! The first few times might not seem like anything is happening. But trust that it is! Keep doing it! Don’t quit. Your heart will thank you!

As I practiced my heart breathing, I began to be more aware of my specific emotions, and as I worked through them, I received their messages more clearly and more quickly. I know that this can happen for you too!

My challenge to you is to do Heart Breathing for five minutes every day for the next fourteen days.

Leave a comment below if you accept the challenge! And send this post to anyone else you think might benefit from heart breathing! Imagine the change in the world if we could achieve Heart Coherence together!