You’ve probably heard about the indigenous tale about the two wolves. Or the saying “energy flows where attention goes.” I recently came across Rollin McCraty’s question – what are you feeding the field? He is the Director of Research at the Institute of HeartMath which has been doing decades-long studies on heart intelligence. “What are you feeding the field?” is a good question to ask and an essential one to contemplate especially when we face chaos, jarring news, disturbing turn of events…any time we are triggered. With what’s been going on for the past two years, what’s transpiring in Eastern Europe, and the violence and injustice in other parts of the world, have you considered what you are feeding the field?
Here’s the fable:
A boy and his grandfather are hanging out. The boy says to his grandfather, How is it you never seem to get upset? Don’t you ever feel angry?
His grandfather replies, I sometimes feel there are two wolves inside me, each of whom fights to tell me what to do. Whenever something angers me, one of the wolves is full of fire, and wants to attack and act nasty. The other is calmer, thinks clearly, and makes better choices. But they’re both always there.
And the boy asks, But if they are always fighting, how do you know which wolf is going to win?
The grandfather answers, The wolf who wins is the one I choose to feed.
Our emotional Domain
In my HeartMath Resilience training, we learned about our heart and emotional intelligence. We can build and sustain our resilience through managing our energy in four domains. These domains are mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual. Mental resilience includes mental focus and agility. Physical resilience is our physical strength, stamina, and flexibility. Spiritual resilience is reflected in our core values and inclusiveness of others’ beliefs.
Emotional resilience is how we are self-regulate, our emotional flexibility, and our support network. This is the domain where we leak most of our energy. It’s not necessarily the big emotions, the big upsets; it’s the familiar ones that are always just under the surface and feed our chronic stress. It’s the ones we brush off, the emotional stress we habituate to. We can begin to self-regulate by first recognizing these under-the-radar emotions and increasing our emotional intelligence.
Learn more about the domains and HeartMath
Our Heart’s magnetic field
We are electromagnetic beings and we’re intimately linked to the earth’s field. Both our brain and heart generate a magnetic field which broadcasts information patterns based on our emotions. The heart’s magnetic field is 100 times that of the brain’s and can be measured by today’s instruments at three feet from the body. Perhaps when instrument sensitivity increases, we will have a different measurement. Our nervous system, however, is tuned in like an antenna. This is how an out-of-balance nervous system can be regulated by a balanced one.
While what we receive is below the conscious awareness for most people, it has a physiological impact on us. The heart’s magnetic signals do indeed affect people around us.
We receive information about people when we are communicating with them verbally, nonverbally, and energetically. Adding in the Human Design piece, we are also communicating mechanically such as between a defined and undefined energy centre. Is it any wonder misunderstandings happen and communications go awry, despite learning communication tools and fine-tuning our styles? The energetic component is a missing piece.
What are you feeding the field?
What emotions are you broadcasting? How are you responding to the events in your personal life and to the ones on the global stage? Are you aware of the emotions you are experiencing? The ones you are projecting and broadcasting into the field, into the world? How resilient is your emotional intelligence?
According to Human Design, half of the people are emotionally defined. For them, this means waiting for emotional clarity is essential to making correct decisions. Yet, we live in a world that demands immediate (and unwavering) answers. Everyone feels a pressure to do, to act, and to do it now. So half of us aren’t sitting with how we feel, aren’t surfing these waves of highs and lows, and are likely to identify with the emotions. This makes for an energetically chaotic environment. That’s what feeding the field, when we are not aware.
3 Ways to increase your emotional intelligence
Take a Pause
In Art of Contemplation, Richard Rudd teaches about the beauty of taking pauses throughout the day. Pausing is one of three techniques to increase clarity and so revelation in our life. Pausing creates spaciousness for contemplation. These gaps during the day allow us to become aware of our inner and outer environment. The technique of pausing is for the mind. When this deepens, we also become aware of our emotions, and their wave patterns. Within the pause, you can pivot. By recognizing how you are feeling, perhaps where it is uncomfortable, and being honest and taking ownership, a pivot happens on its own. How you feel and your mindset shift.
Rollin McCraty also suggests pausing. In these pauses, ask what you are feeding the field. Is it emotional chaos, anger, rage, fear, or jealousy? Or is it coherence, appreciation, joy, calm, or gratitude? By pausing and pivoting or using a HeartMath technique, you can shift out of a downward spiral.
Increase your Coherence
Coherence is harmony, a synchronization between systems in the body. It reflects ease, flow, and energy efficiency. On the other hand, incoherence reflects erratic activity pattern in the body, as well as stress and energy inefficiency. Coherence also shifts us toward increased vagal tone and more parasympathetic activity.
When our body systems are in coherence, we are more sensitive to the field. We are more aware of the information patterns impacting us. Moreover, we are less negatively affected.
Research by the Institute of HeartMath shows that we can maintain sustained periods of coherence by activating renewing emotions. These are what we often label as “positive” – appreciation and gratitude. Their research also shows that just recalling anger and frustration for five minutes negatively affects our immune system and takes us eight hours to return to our baseline.
Learn how to release tensions and increase coherence. Book your complimentary discovery call.
Understand your conditioning Forces
We live in a world full of conditioning forces and pressures that pull us away from who we truly are. Understanding our Human Design bodygraph gives you insights on where we are most vulnerable to them. With 50% of people being emotionally defined, that leaves half of us with an undefined solar plexus. If you are unfamiliar with Human Design, this will all sound foreign. So a brief intro – we are beings with nine energy centres which can be defined or undefined, depending on planetary activations at the time of our birth and at approximately 3 months prior. Energy consistently flows to defined centres and we have a certain way of processing this energy. With undefined centres, there is inconsistent energy flow and access. In aura, the energy of a defined centre flows into the undefined centre, which also amplifies this energy. The person with the undefined centre can be overwhelmed. As a result, this person develops strategies to avoid this pain, this pressure, this unease.
Whether you have your solar plexus defined or not, understanding these mechanics helps with awareness of relationship dynamics. It also helps us understand how the emotional waves function, how to move through emotions, and the patterns we’ve adopted to survive. It allows us to tap into our emotional intelligence.
If you are curious and interested, book your intro Love Your Design reading or a full reading.
You can learn more about our energetic field, the link between anger and immune dysfunction, and how to access the energetic heart’s intelligence for healing with Rollin McCraty, along with over 30 other experts, in the free Healing with Vibration Summit. Register for this free event and receive your free gifts to get started right away. This event is live April 4 – 10, 2022. Learn about our emotional intelligence and other ways to heal with vibration and the different modalities.
