Brain-Heart Coherence – BionicOldGuy

I’ve been doing well with meditation lately and have achieved an important first step of “calming the default mode network” (which I’ve discussed). Here). But something seemed to be missing. At times I felt calm and still, but also a little dull or empty. I had seen meditation teachers talking about the mind-heart connection and thought maybe that was what was missing, but hadn’t made much progress with it. I got some tips from the book “The Heart of Centering Prayer” by Cynthia Borgeault. I’ll talk about the book in more detail later. But the breakthrough for me was when Cynthia talked about the neuroscientific implications of the mind-heart connection. I had often thought that “heart” was metaphorical in this context, but she insisted that it was physical. The book was written in 2016, so neuroscience research on the topic was sparse, but compelling nonetheless. Since then it has exploded and there is now a whole field of “neurocardiology”. The brain and heart communicate strongly via the vagus nerve, and it is beneficial for mental and physical health when they “synchronize.”

To understand this better, I asked Google Gemini to conduct extensive research and the resulting report is Here. There’s a lot out there now about things like “vagal tone,” which I thought just meant doing things that cause the brain to slow the heart rate. However, it turns out that 80% of traffic along the vagus nerve travels from the heart to the brain, while only 20% travels from the brain to the heart. The bottom line is that when the heart and brain can work in harmony, it is a healthy and relaxing state. The details are summarized in the infographic:

I have already used one of the suggested techniques for this, which is to breathe about 10 breaths per minute while meditating. That was a coincidence, it’s completely natural to the breathing rate that I get used to. Doing things to “open the heart” is also recommended. In my case, thinking about my loved ones works well. Adding this to my meditation was a night and day difference. No longer a feeling of silence, but of emptiness. Now when the mental chatter stops, it is quiet but full, with the fullness being a pleasant feeling in the heart region.

“The Heart of Centering Prayer” is highly recommended for anyone interested in meditation techniques and theory. Centering prayer is a technique that has its origins in the Christian tradition but is generally useful. It is a kind of combination of open mindfulness and mantra meditation. Instead of repeating a mantra over and over again, use the word only occasionally to remind you to recenter yourself when your attention wanders. This summary doesn’t do it justice, because to understand the nuances you have to read the book.