"Think of entrainment as being "in sync." When your head and heart, thoughts and feelings, are working harmoniously together, you have more clarity and inner balance–and you feel better."
-HeartMath's Freeze-Framer
Now that I have gotten over my disillusionment, I have to say that I like the entrainment piece best of all. Muller speaks of entrainment, finding a partiular rhythm, a natural rhythm as essential to life. We as creatures will entrain to a new environment...up to a point. If the day were, as Muller suggests, 26 hours and not 24, we would simply compensate. It's kind of interesting to think about.
But I want to take it in another direction. I wrote about entrainment when I was working in the hospital. Music therapists use this idea a great deal in their work. The therapist gets "in sync" with the patient. Songs are played to the rhythm of the patient's breathing. The pacing is never forced. And, at least in my very limited experience (as confirmed by the therapist I worked with) even my experience of time shifted as my breathing did. My intuition about what questions to ask, how to perceive the Holy etc all shifted a bit. Sometimes it seems that we have to actively participate in entrainment. It is not always a natural sort of shifting. It may actually be an activity.
This is why Muller's breathing exercises work so well. Call it Zen. Think of it as Merton's "contemplative prayer." Breathe in God. Breathe out sin. Do what you will with it. But do take time to breathe. I like to stop in the morning and smell the coffee brewing.
What is interesting to note, however, is that the breathing may cause one to weep. Not everyone. But sometimes I find that when I have been flying around trying to get everything done, the moment I stop...take that breath...the tears flow. Gratitude. Sadness. Exhaustion. I have never really figured out why. But I saw this often in the retreat center in others as well. So many people would come to Richmond Hill and take that breath Muller speaks of in the prayer service...and then they would weep. These would be quiet tears, not sobs. From time to time I would sit with these people and they would tell me about their tears. They would recount something that happened (It would be good or bad, no rule to this.) to them in the past week or month. And in sitting still they would finally feel the effects, finally feel what had happened. And they would weep.
Breathe on me, breath of God,
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love what Thou dost love,
And do what Thou wouldst do.
Breathe on me, breath of God,
Until my heart is pure,
Until with Thee I will one will,
To do and to endure.
Breathe on me, breath of God,
Blend all my soul with Thine,
Until this earthly part of me
Glows with Thy fire divine.
Breathe on me, breath of God,
So shall I never die,
But live with Thee the perfect life
Of Thine eternity.
I discovered HeartMath in 1997. I had been experiencing many life threatening illnesses during the previous several years, including a couple of heart attacks, a burst artery in my heart and a triple bypass. Learning and practicing HeartMath's tools and technologies literally saved my life. Getting the head in sync with the heart first is The Key... If you are interested in learning more about how HeartMath can enable you to prevent, manage and reverse the effects of stress in your life, in-the-moment, achieve better health, more energy and improved mental and emotional clarity, and learn about their emWave Personal Stress Reducer, please go to www.emotionalmastery.com.
That is one of the better ads I have seen in my comments, so I am leaving it in there. Enjoy the plug and thanks, John.
Posted by: Tripp at January 17, 2007 08:37 AM