Here is an uplifting photo of Boulder Creek Volunteer Fire Department (BCFD) firefighters that was posted on Facebook on the morning of August 24th after a light rain came in, which is very unusual for Boulder Creek in the summer, that allowed them to get ahead of the fire. They called this the BCFD "Rain Dance!"

Message from HeartMath Team

Both the HeartMath Institute and HeartMath LLC had to evacuate our office buildings and homes in the beautiful redwood mountains of Boulder Creek, California late in the evening on Tuesday, August 18th due to wildfires.

All HeartMath staff are safe and are sheltering with family, friends, in motels or temporary rental homes. Our buildings are still standing due to the heroic efforts of the firefighters. Yet, the fires are not out, and we so appreciate the continued outpouring of heart being sent from so many of you – our members, clients, certified professionals and all those we work with. We have received comments from around the world filled with love and care.

We are all using our HeartMath tools to navigate through the challenges with a sense of clarity, ease and emotional poise. The HeartMath teams are operating virtually and coming up with new ways to serve you effectively. We are taking orders, if you’ve been thinking of placing an order for yourself or someone else or taking one of our HeartMath training programs. However, there is a delay in shipping products. We expect to be able to access our warehouse within the next couple of weeks so it shouldn’t be too long.

Our hearts go out to our local community residents, especially those who have lost their homes, and to the firefighters from all around California, other states, and even from around the world who are still working day and night to quell the fires.

Here’s a heartfelt reflection we practice each day that we feel is effective, if any of you would like to join us.

Hold the firefighters in your heart and see them surrounded in light, love and safety. Radiate love, compassion and comfort to all who have been affected by the fires.

With love and appreciation,

Sara Childre
President

The post Message from HeartMath Team appeared first on HeartMath Institute.

Researchers studying the effects of stress on employees undertook a new approach in their research to improve upon what they said may be outdated and obsolete tools for evaluating workplace stress. As a result, they said, some of their findings were "astonishing."

The researchers, Adrian Low of the Hong Kong Association of Psychology, and study advisor HeartMath Institute Director of Research Dr. Rollin McCraty, used HeartMath’s emWave^® Pro Plus as a quantitative assessment tool for the study. (Click this link to read the entire study: Emerging Dynamics of Workplace Stress of Employees in a Large Organization in Hong Kong.)

emWave^® Pro Plus. This software program collects pulse data and translates the information from a subject’s heart rhythms into user-friendly graphics, allowing researchers to watch in real-time how thoughts and emotions affect the subject’s heart rhythms. Low and McCraty compared the results of study participants’ heart rate variability (the beat-to-beat changes in heart rate) with the Personal and Organizational Quality Assessment (POQA) and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), both of which have been in use for many years.

Surprise! Of particular surprise among their findings, according to the researchers, were significant positive correlations between both emotional stress and HRV and workers’ intention to quit their jobs and HRV. They said the higher the emotional stress employees who participated in the study faced, the healthier they were, in terms of their HRV. Low and McCraty suggested one indication of the study was that healthier, stressed-out employees report having higher intentions of quitting their jobs than less healthy employees.

Why The Study Matters. The researchers said the importance of this research was that it fulfilled an identified need to validate quantifiable stress measurements, especially in a corporate environment.

"Research on workplace stress measurements varied without much accuracy and effectiveness," they stated in the study. The validity of some tools being used to evaluate workplace stress is questionable, "as some questionnaires and survey questions contain outdated questions and unrepresented data that cannot accurately reflect today’s population of workplace employees."

Many researchers, business executives and organizational development consultants use questionnaires, surveys created and validated more than 25 years ago to assess workplace stress, they said, and some questionnaires still in use were developed more than 30 years ago.

The Participants. Eighty-five employees, about 61% of them female and 39% male, with a 500-employee company in Hong Kong participated in the study.

• All participants were listed as full-time workers, with their weekly hours as follows: 21 percent worked 36 to 40 hours; 47 percent worked 41 to 50 hours; 17.6 percent worked 51 to 59 hours; and 14 percent worked more than 60 hours.
• The ages of participants were as follows: About 43 percent were 21 to 30; 47 percent 31 to 40; about 8 percent 41 to 50; and only one was older than 50.

Why Workplace Stress Matters. The researchers cited the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s (NIOSH) definition of workplace stress, which was "the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or (the) needs of the worker."

This study, which was published in the November issue of the professional journal, Emerald Insights,^† cited the following key facts:

• Work and Stress. The American Psychological Association’s five-year stress study, published in 2011, reported that 70 percent of Americans said work was a contributing factor to stress. A 1999 NIOSH study showed that 40 percent of employees indicated their jobs were very or extremely stressful.
• A Global Problem. A number of developed countries are experiencing workplace stress as an emerging global problem, with Canada and the United Kingdom reporting that workplace stress contributes to diseases, depression, injury and a decrease in organizational productivity.
• Stress’s Cost in the Workplace. Researchers found stress costs businesses and organizations in the United States more than $300 billion annually in productivity loss, absenteeism, turnover, medical, legal and insurance costs. In Canada, workplace stress was found to cost $6 billion in Canadian dollars annually. In the United Kingdom, research focused on lost work days, finding an estimated annual loss of 200 million work days because of illnesses triggered by workplace stress.

† Low and McCraty also authored another article about this study. The professional journal Heart and Mind published the article, Heart Rate Variability: New Perspectives on Assessment of Stress and Health Risk at the Workplace, in its January 2019 edition. Click the link to read it.

Implications for Office Work. In this section of their findings, the researchers explained the overall research implied "an average employee experiences a close to high level of workplace stress on a regular basis." This presents "a universal threat to organizational costs and workplace performance."

Emotional stress and relational tension are inherent in the workplace, they said, and emotional stress may deplete one’s internal resources regardless of whether one is healthy or not. Consequently, because employee turnover may occur when employees are dissatisfied with the workplace environment, it is "very critical to find new and effective tools such as HRV assessments to measure and monitor stress as well as having effective interventions to reduce and prevent workplace stress."

Recommended. Low and McCraty recommended that organizations should "implement organizational resilient strategies such as mindfulness psychology and integrative health coaching programs as an integral part of a strategic framework of change management initiatives. The act of being mindful for employees and leaders within an organization means to be aware in the present moment, having intention in thought and being purposeful in action."

Beneficial Outcomes. The authors said organizations that take steps to address stress in the workplace can realize a number of benefits, including "competitive advantages, employee engagement, decreased attrition, increased productivity, better well-being, leadership development, better collaboration leading to healthier organizational culture, climate, longevity and social coherence."

Going Forward. Low and McCraty said the findings of this study were promising, but advised that "future studies should continue to tap into HRV as an objective measure of mental health and workplace stress."

This study further recommended that a purpose of future related research would be to align various research in this area with the social and global coherence notion posited by HeartMath Institute.

"Future research," they said, "will continue to address topics ranging from stress to reducing violence, reducing health costs, emotional regulation, biofeedback interventions, stress management and even other nonworkplace topics such as the academic performance of children of different ages, PTSD, intuition and much more."

The post Measuring Workplace Stress – In A New Way appeared first on HeartMath Institute.

Thoughts from this year’s Humanitarian Heart Award recipients:

“I live everyday focused on others’ healing journey and living the quote from Albert Einstein "only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”

“My most heartfelt wish for the planet is that we … fulfill our obligation to take care of the whole Earth, including plants, animals and the atmosphere, instead of just looking out for the next way to make a dollar.”

“… it’s the heart that one needs to be educated on, the heart that can bring emotions into alignment, the heart that will take your learning, your community’s learning, our planet’s learning to the next level and beyond.”

HeartMath Institute presented its 2018 Humanitarian Heart Awards to the individuals above in recognition of their energetic care and work toward the healing, enrichment and well-being of others.

Steve Sawyer is a psychotherapist who, after years of working within the confines of HMOs and the space restrictions of traditional office-based outpatient therapy, co-founded an alternative therapy option for youth.

The nonprofit New Vision Wilderness (NVW) Therapy, launched in Wisconsin in 2007 and since expanded to Oregon and North Carolina, combines challenging wilderness experiences that include backcountry backpacking expeditions with intensive clinical immersion for struggling preteens through young adults. NVW’s therapeutic model integrates various body-mind therapies, among them Brainspotting, canine therapy and a HeartMath self-regulation regimen.

Sawyer’s involvement with HeartMath spans many years. "I have supported many populations with implementation of HeartMath," he said, including consulting for five school districts and 15 treatment programs. He was one of the authors of the HeartMath Interventions training program.

"HeartMath is an intervention set that a person can feel and see when using the accompanying additional technology. These tools have helped me help others more effectively in finding their inner world of stress physiology. HeartMath has helped NVW’s clients see their inner turmoil, and most importantly facilitate managing it more effectively."

Ann Linda Baldwin gave up her fulltime tenure nine years ago at the University of Arizona, where she remains a professor of physiology and psychology, to start her business, Mind-Body-Science. She uses Reiki, equine therapy and the latest technologies and techniques of biofeedback and HeartMath to help people and animals reduce stress.

Baldwin, a certified HeartMath coach and trainer, became interested in stress reduction at the university. Why? "Well, it was the rats!" she said. About 16 years ago she moved her labs and the rats became very stressed in their new environs. "They were stressed by the excessive noise and the business of people coming in and out of the rooms all day long."

Baldwin realized the extent to which stress could affect the body and the importance of controlling it.

"… I help people learn how to cope with stress of all types by teaching them how to regulate their emotions, using HeartMath programs and devices, and/or by giving them and teaching them Reiki, an energy-healing modality," Baldwin said.

David P. Parisian, a public school science teacher for 30 years and visiting assistant professor at State University of New York (SUNY), Oswego would like to uproot the notion that human bodies are merely machines and the heart is just a pump.

Parisian said HeartMath research "sheds light as to the energetic nature of who we are. (HeartMath is) quantifying what sages have been saying for thousands of years."

HeartMath tools have helped students in his SUNY teacher-preparation courses and high school science classes. For a sophomore honors biology student experiencing severe test anxiety with a state exam approaching, Parisian described the science behind HeartMath and the fight-or-flight stress response.

"We practiced (HeartMath’s) Quick Coherence Technique using the emWave^® Pro (self-regulation) software," he said. He told the student to do a Quick Coherence before the exam, then at the start, to draw a heart around every fifth question. Upon reaching a "heart" question, she should do another Quick Coherence.

"A couple of weeks later the mother called, thanking me for helping her daughter and going on to say that she earned a 94 on the exam," Parisian said.

We would love to hear stories about the good works you and others are doing.

The post 2018 Humanitarian Heart Award Recipients Named appeared first on HeartMath Institute.

Editor’s note – “Coherence is the state when the heart, mind and emotions are in energetic alignment and cooperation. It is a state that builds resiliency – personal energy is accumulated, not wasted, – leaving more energy to manifest intentions and harmonious outcomes.”

Know someone about to begin or continue college this fall? Naturally, you’ll want to offer encouragement and helpful advice for coping and succeeding in what is sure to be one of the more stressful ventures of his or her life. Think coherence. Even better, think quick coherence:

A newly published study assessing the efficacy of HeartMath’s Quick Coherence Technique^® (QCT) found significant improvements in a group of students’ heart-coherence levels, as measured by heart rate variability (HRV). Study participants were undergraduates at the Universiti Putra Maylasia, in Pahang, Malaysia.

"Based on the results, the use of HRV-biofeedback technology and the QCT had helped to increase the levels of HRV scores and heart coherence of the participants," the authors of the study wrote in a recent issue of Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities.

Students, Tools and Heartbeats

Twenty students at this public technical university between the ages of 18 and 22 participated in the study^† by using the Quick Coherence self-regulation tool and HeartMath’s emWave technology while researchers collected their HRV data. (HRV indicates the time interval changes between the adjoining heartbeats, or more simply put, the beat-to-beat changes in heart rate.

First, the scientists measured a pre-QCT baseline coherence level, one of four stages in the experiment, for each participant.

Next, after the students went through the three stages of the Quick Coherence Technique: heart focus, heart breathing and heart feeling, their coherence levels were measured again.

"The results showed the positive effects of the use of the QCT on the increase of heart coherence among (the) university students."

† Read the complete published study on HeartMath Institute’s website.

Reality of College Stress

College stress is not new. It likely has been prevalent for centuries or longer, but studies tracking it show a clear upward trajectory since the 1950s. Chances are good that something – whether you are a first-year or fourth-year student, are at it for two years or in it for four or more, think you have it together or know that you don’t – will cause you stress.

Whether you are leaving home for a campus dorm room and to be on your own for the first time, commute to school, have financial issues or experience mental block on exams, college can test you in ways you’ve not been tested.

• College stress not unique to four-year students. In a 2016 survey, the American College Health Association found that 34.4% of college students said stress had affected their schoolwork negatively over a 12-month study period.
• College stress not unique to U.S. students. Reporting in 2017, the National Institutes of Health published the findings of a sleep survey among university students in Luxemburg and Germany. The survey showed 45% of respondents indicated elevated stress levels.

Common College Stressors

The University of Minnesota, in an assessment of college stress, notes that "life events," which are among the most common stressors outside of college life, are as likely to be found on campus as well. Following is a list it published of the most common ones.

• Serious illness or injury
• Serious illness, injury, or death of a family member or loved one
• Losing a job or sudden financial catastrophe
• Unwanted pregnancy
• Divorce or ending a long-term relationship (including parents’ divorce)
• Being arrested or convicted of a crime
• Being put on academic probation or suspended

Good News for College Students

The health-care community, especially the mental health sector, has developed solutions and made a plethora resources available to college students who are dealing with stress, both before it becomes a serious concern or after it has begun to take a toll. Moreover, nonprofit organizations like HeartMath, which has studied and developed tools, technology and programs for 32 years to combat stress, are valuable resources on which countless thousands of college students have relied. What could be the most accessible, and certainly affordable, of these resources is the above-discussed Quick Coherence Technique.

"With all of the demands, pressure, anxiety and so many other stressors associated with college life, knowing you have a tool like the Quick Coherence Technique instantly available can be a tremendous confidence booster," said Dr. Rollin McCraty, director of research at the HeartMath Institute. "Doing Quick Coherence for 60 seconds can help you re-center, gain clarity and re-energize mentally, emotionally and physically."

Another free resource HeartMath offers is the College De-stress Handbook. It provides a thorough explanation of stress, how your body warns you, you are stressed and how it affects you. It contains a lot more besides, including three HeartMath self-regulation techniques and exercises, that students and their parents will find invaluable during the college experience.

Quick Coherence Technique^®

Following is a modified version of this powerful technique taken from the College De-Stress Handbook.

Step 1. Heart-Focused Breathing

Imagine your breath is flowing in and out of the heart area or center of your chest to help you calm down and reduce the intensity of a stress-producing reaction. Take slow, deep breaths; inhale for 5 seconds and exhale for 5 seconds.

Step 2. Activate a Positive Feeling

Activate a positive feeling such as appreciation or care for a special person or pet, or you could recall an enjoyable occasion or special place that made you feel good inside. Try to re-experience that feeling now.

The post Study Finds a Little Quick Coherence Good for College Students appeared first on HeartMath Institute.

• Long ago, a Wisconsin woman began helping trauma victims rebuild their lives: At one point, a pastor’s challenge changed her life.
• A 5-year-old boy who loved to play sports at his Canadian elementary school in the 1940s began going to summer camp every year: By age 18, he dreamed of having his own summer camp one day.
• A Northern California graduate in the humanities and arts fell in love with Mexico and its people more than three decades ago: Simultaneously, her heart cried and she prayed for path to help transform her adopted home.

These three deserving individuals are the recipients of HeartMath Institute’s 2017 Humanitarian Heart Awards, now in its second year. Their names are Debbie Lassiter, Katherine Anne Barkley and Dave Grace.

The institute presented the awards during its annual gathering, the Mexico Heart Adventure – Awakening the Global Heart: Facilitating the Planetary Awakening. The recipients were present along with attendees from around the world for Nov. 1-5 event in the Mexican Riviera on the Yucatan Peninsula.

HMI President Sara Childre had great praise for the 2017 honorees. "These three individuals have been doing truly wonderful things to improve people’s lives for such a long time, so it is a great honor for HeartMath to be able to recognize them and their lives of service."

Here are their stories of achievement:

We would love to hear stories about the good works you and others are doing.

The post From Milwaukee to Toronto to Guadalajara, Humanitarian Heart Care appeared first on HeartMath Institute.

Tree Research Project: Phase 2

Something about trees. … a walk in the forest, the spiritual experience of planting a tree, settling down against just about any kind of tree with book in hand. Can these "other beings" sense how humans feel about them? Do trees feel and are they affected by our emotions?

When the HeartMath Research Center launched its tree research project last year, we asked the question, "Why are we so in awe of the old oak and the ancient redwood?" In 2017, we will further explore the mysteries of trees in Phase II of what is now called the Global Tree Monitoring Network. We will expand the number and types of trees and varieties we monitor.

In Phase II, scientists will increase the current half-dozen redwood and oak trees being monitored by an additional 20 trees in the forest around the HeartMath Institute Research Center in the Boulder Creek area of Central California. Among these will be weeping willows, Douglas fir, yucca, madrone, and fruit trees such as apple, orange, pear and persimmon.

In Phase I of this project, which is part of HeartMath Institute’s (HMI) overall interconnectivity research, scientists monitored a half-dozen redwood trees in a grove. To do this, they had to create and test new equipment and software for efficiently and simultaneously measuring tree potentials from multiple trees and develop a way of sending the data to a lab. This preparation work for Phase II included developing low-power-use tree-potential amplifiers, tree electrodes, a data-acquisition system and a communication system.

What We Know Now

Based on observations of oak and redwood trees in different locations of HMI’s California research center, researchers have learned the following:

• Trees, like humans, have a circadian or day-night rhythm.
• Trees can elicit positive feeling states in humans.
• Tree have complex and different overall electrical voltage patterns, almost as if each has its own personality.

Read more about Phase 1: Interconnectivity Tree Research Project.

What We Will Explore

• Do the electrical responses in multiple trees correlate to events that trigger an emotional outpouring in large numbers of people?
• Do trees communicate energetically with each other over large distances?
• Are trees affected by human emotions?
• Does being in the biofields of trees have an uplifting effect on people?
• Can trees help inform us about approaching earthquakes?

Benefits of HMI Tree Research

• Provides a deeper understanding of how people and trees are connected.
• Collects information about how trees respond generally to human emotions and specifically to positive human emotions.
• Gathers important data that may aid in prediction of earthquakes – and saving lives.
• Eventually will establish a global network of tree-monitoring sites and a website^† with live data from a redwood grove.

† When all equipment and systems are in place, our website will display data from all monitored trees, marking the launch of what will be the Citizen Scientist-Based Tree Project in which anyone can participate.

Global Tree Monitoring Network: What’s next?

In the months ahead, researchers will expand and test the network, including monitoring an additional 20 trees at strategic locations in the redwood forest around the HeartMath Institute campus. They will collect data on multiple types of trees, such as key tree stressors: For example, how does location affect the same or different varieties of trees?

Two important next steps are developing communications protocol software and hardware to enable monitoring of many trees worldwide and creating a public website where anyone can see the data from all monitored trees.

This broader scope in Phase II promises an array of interesting new data, which we will be able to collect by further developing communications protocol software and additional hardware.

Scientists will continue observing how temperature, light, gravitational pull on the earth and changes in its magnetic fields and other factors affect tree electrical potentials. We will keep you informed as we continue this fascinating journey.

Did you know, when you participate in HeartMath’s Monthly and Quarterly Giving program, you will receive a one-year membership.

We welcome your comments about the Global Tree Monitoring Network. Care to share a personal uplifting experience you or someone you know has had with trees.

The post Global Tree Monitoring Network appeared first on HeartMath Institute.

Every day, there are compassionate and caring people around the world giving aid, comfort, shelter and hope to millions who are sick, impoverished, homeless, afraid and desperate. Mostly, their good works go unheralded. HeartMath Institute decided recently to recognize several who have been improving people’s lives for many years.

The institute presented its first ever Humanitarian Heart Award to six individuals at its annual Adventure of the Heart! program on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

"The award recognizes the good works people have done," explained HeartMath Institute President Sara Childre. "It was the first time we have given this award and it was a great success. These are just a few of many good works people have shared with us. I hope these stories touch your heart, as they have touched mine."

The honorees are Tammy M. Cunningham, Majd KamAlmaz, Michael J. Nila, Virginia A. Schoenfeld and Christina Sung Aie Choi and Peck Cho. All of them all have employed the HeartMath System of managing stress and self-regulating emotions.

It took five years for Tammy M. Cunningham to recover from the death of her 2½-year-old son and embark on a journey that led to co-founding a nonprofit foundation that has touched thousands of lives.

Cunningham was honored for her and her late husband’s efforts in establishing the nonprofit internationally recognized Cunningham Foundation when they were living in Colorado. The foundation partners with the people of Ethiopia in organizing and initiating sustainable development projects. These include the Hope Bracelet Project, Quarters for Kids, Kids Helping Kids and the Ethiopia Library Project.

In 2012, Majd KamAlmaz, recognized a huge shortage of professionals to help Syrians fleeing their war-ravaged country, so he established refugee aid centers in Lebanon and Jordan.

KamAlmaz, who spent his childhood in Southern California, devoted many years helping people in need in various parts of the world, including war-torn Kosovo and Indonesia, following the devastating 2005 tsunami there. He said he was compelled to help Syrian refugees when their mass exodus became a humanitarian crisis. He has been providing stress-management education to refugee children and adults and helped to build intervention and field work teams among other efforts.

Michael J. Nila worked for nearly three decades in law enforcement, from which he retired as a police commander in Aurora, Ill. He was recognized for that and his years since helping leaders and organizations around the world realize breakthrough solutions and results. He founded Blue Courage, which designs and delivers personal and organizational development solutions worldwide. Nila has trained thousands of employees, including with the United States Department of Justice, the police departments of Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City and the military.

Virginia A. Schoenfeld, after a 20-year career in the Navy, established a community outreach program in 2012 to support Marines stationed at Camp Pendleton in California while also chairing the wellness committee of a nearby community collaborative for nonprofit organizations. Over a three-year stretch, the outreach program provided various services to an average of 90 Marines each month, including in HeartMath De-Stress Workshops, acupuncture and meditation. She continues in her private practice to serve veterans, people below the poverty level and the underserved and introduces HeartMath to all her clients.

Christina Sung AieChoi and Peck Cho, both born in South Korea, met while they were studying in the United States and discovered they shared a dream of returning to their birthplace.

"We each wanted to help underprivileged children and young adults," Christina Choi said.

Utilizing HeartMath workshops, techniques and technology, they have done that and more since 2007, including working with orphans around South Korea. Choi and Cho currently head two nonprofit organizations: The HD Institute of Resilience and Positivity gives workshops and programs to train primarily professional people in counseling, emotion coaching and resilience; and the Association of Emotion Coaching, whose members are graduates of the HD Institute, do the same work as the institute, but with the general/nonprofessional public. The organizations’ mission is "to spread the seeds of happiness," Christina Choi said.

All of the honorees, supported by the institute’s sponsorships program, have been through training in HeartMath interventions and techniques and are certified HeartMath Providers. Thousands children and adults who have experienced trauma and hardship have been shown in studies and clinical settings to have received relief and positive outcomes from the ongoing efforts of these dedicated providers.

We would love to hear stories about the good works you and others are doing.

The post Humanitarian Heart Award Honors Good Works appeared first on HeartMath Institute.