This study was recently published in the ‘Scientific Reports’ section of ‘Nature’. Nature is a British multidisciplinary scientific journal, first published on 4 November 1869.
This long-term study examined relationships between solar and magnetic factors and the autonomic nervous system (ANS) responses to changes in solar and geomagnetic activity.
The impact of nature on our well-being
Heart rate variability was recorded for 72 consecutive hours each week over a five-month period in 16 participants in order to examine ANS responses during normal background environmental periods.
Heart rate variability (HRV), which is the measurement of beat-to-beat changes in heart rate, is used as an indicator of ANS function and dynamics. Use of HRV has substantially increased in recent decades in research and clinical treatment applications
Overall, the study confirms that daily ANS activity responds to changes in geomagnetic and solar activity during periods of normal undisturbed activity and it is initiated at different times after the changes in the various environmental factors and persist over varying time periods.
Increase in solar wind intensity was correlated with increases in heart rate, which we interpret as a biological stress response. Increase in cosmic rays, solar radio flux, and Schumann resonance power was all associated with increased HRV and parasympathetic activity. The findings support the hypothesis that energetic environmental phenomena affect psychophysical processes that can affect people in different ways depending on their sensitivity, health status and capacity for self-regulation.
It appears that sharp or sudden variations in geomagnetic and solar activity as well as geomagnetic storms can act as stressors, which alter regulatory processes such as melatonin/serotonin balance, blood pressure, breathing, reproductive, immune, neurological, and cardiac system processes.
Geomagnetic disturbances are associated with significant increases in hospital admissions for depression, mental disorders, psychiatric admission, suicide attempts, homicides and traffic accidents. Disturbed geomagnetic activity can also exacerbate existing diseases and is correlated with significant increases in cardiac arrhythmia, cardiovascular disease, incidence of myocardial infarction related death, alterations in blood flow, increased blood pressure, and epileptic seizures.
HeartMath
This study was initiated by the HeartMath Institute, and if you are interested to learn more about the tools and techniques that we offer, I suggest you to visit this page on my website. I also offer a playlist of short heart coherence meditations – they will help you to create more resilience in your own life, without being affected too much by the external forces around our planet.
Times are changing. Quickly. And while times are changing, it’s time for us to change as well.
In case you didn’t realize that we live in challenging times, you might not have been paying much attention to what is happening around you. Or you have developed creative coping mechanisms in order not to feel it. And you are not alone.
Every day, I meet people who are trying to manage their day-to-day, often busy, schedules while feeling overwhelmed with the stressors they are being exposed to. It seems like most of us have some kind of personal challenge going on these days.
On a global scale, we’re fighting never-ending wars, scandal after scandal is being exposed, racial tensions are growing, the climate is changing quickly, and mass shootings are becoming the new norm.
To me, it feels like we are being drawn into this downward spiral, and most of us feel a victim of their circumstances. But to help you better understand why things happen this way, I like to bring in some very interesting science for you.
The science of interconnectivity
If you have been at one of my events, you might have heard me explain how the earth’s magnetic field has an immediate influence on your personal electromagnetic field, which is mainly generated by your heart. You can also check out my HeartMath page to learn more about this.
There are many global research bodies that are currently looking into scientific data to gain new insights into the interconnectedness of human/animal health and behaviour, and the sun and earth’s magnetic activity. The scientific community is just beginning to appreciate and understand the deeper level of how we are interconnected. We are getting closer to understanding why and how magnetic fields generated by the sun and the earth, affect human health and behaviour – and why it is important to know this.
The idea that the earth and the sun influence human health and behaviour and, on a larger scale, social unrest and significant global events, has been discussed among scientists for decades. The study of interconnectedness, which is not yet fully embraced in the mainstream scientific community, is still in its infancy.
It is well established though, that the resonant frequencies in the earth’s various magnetic fields directly overlap with those of the human brain, cardiovascular and autonomic nervous systems. Therefore, it should not surprise you that many physiological rhythms in humans and global collective behaviours are not only synchronized with solar and geomagnetic activity, but that disruptions in these fields can have challenging effects on human health and behaviour.
When the earth’s magnetic field environment is disturbed it can cause sleep disturbance, mental confusion, unusual lack of energy or a feeling of being on edge or overwhelmed for no apparent reason. Every cell in your body is bathed in an external and internal environment of fluctuating invisible magnetic forces.
Time to change
Before you start thinking that we are therefore basically powerless victims of this magnetic field, listen to this.
All humans have brain and heart frequencies overlapping the earth’s magnetic field resonances. We not only are receivers of physiologically relevant information, but we also literally create a feedback loop with the earth’s magnetic field and therefore feed information into this global field environment. How cool!
Life therefore is not just about you! We might live in a seemingly egocentric world, where feelings of separation seem to be more common than feelings of being connected, but it’s the healthy human connections that help transform this planet. Emotions such as compassion, care, gratitude and appreciation are not just very healthy for yourself, they support everyone in the global field environment.
I invite you to start tapping into your own truths, values and innate wisdom. It’s time to change! Independent of what you see out there, you have the capacity to transform your own life, and therefore have an impact on the lives of others as well. But you have to start with yourself first. Does that make sense now? You came here with the power and intelligence to shine and not just to survive!
Starting in 2018, I will start a new workshop series about my 5 Insights – Making the Shift from Reacting to Creating. Stay tuned, because this will be a transformative and highly experiential workshop. I rather call it funshop. In the mean time, I would love to stay in touch with you, so feel free to contact me or sign up for my newsletter. I have also created a playlist of very helpful and short heart coherence meditations for you. They will help you stay coherent in challenging times.
I like to stay in touch with you Dirk. Please subscribe me.
From working with veterans who are suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), I’ve become even more fascinated with the relationship between human emotions and our physiology. It’s amazing to witness how events that once deeply impacted us on an emotional level, can completely change our hearing and eyesight, the way our heart beats, our muscle function, and the way our brains process all incoming information. One single traumatic experience, let’s say fifteen years ago, has the capacity to change the quality of our lives forever.
When you have a basic understanding of the energetics of trauma, you might know that it’s not the event that’s negatively impacting our system. It’s how we perceived the event in the first place, and how the continuous energetic connection with that past event keeps us trapped in the past. Our body literally lives in the past. That’s why the physical responses are so intense and real – The body cannot distinguish the difference between the memory and a real experience. Most of us have the capacity to reason like: “That happened then, and it was very traumatic, but I am safe now.” Those who suffer from (severe) PTSD mostly don’t have that capacity, and their body reacts like they’re back in the trenches witnessing a horrific scene.
But it’s not just severe trauma or PTSD that keeps preventing us from living in the present moment. Most people that I know do not live in the present moment, most of the time. We experience some kind of stress in our lives without even realizing it. Whether we worry about our future finances, feel victimized by others, hold on to what our spouse once said to us, or because we subconsciously feel that we’re not following our true passion in life.
Living in stress means that we’re not balanced and that we are not fully present. There’s a friction between our deepest desires, and the way we currently experience life. Right now.
Paradigm change
So far, I have been talking about the way we respond to external events in our lives. It seems that we have adopted the belief that life is happening to us, and we try to manage the best we can. That’s what we have been taught when we were little. That’s what our friends and family, and our culture keep reaffirming to us. We have practiced this often enough that it has become our state (of mind).
But what if I told you that life is never happening to you. This might be your perception, but life is actually responding to you.
You are made up of about 50 trillion cells. Each one of these cells is affected by their environment. Between the actual environment, and the cells that make up your body, there’s a filter – your interpretation of the environment. The cells in your body are not going to respond to the actual events in your life, but they will respond to your interpretation of these events. Each cell has surface receptors (membrane receptors) and they’re like the cells’ antennas). In biochemistry, a receptor is a protein molecule that receives signals from outside a cell. When such signals bind to a receptor, they cause some form of cellular/tissue response, e.g. a change in the electrical activity of a cell. Simply said: “The 50 trillion cells in your body listen 24/7, to what you feel and think, and they start behaving accordingly.”
Maya Angelou “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
And to add one more thing to the confusion, life around you is also responding to the same energetic signals that you emit, because the process that I just described is not limited to your own body. This also explains why energy healing has been used effectively for thousands of years. And the same principle forms the foundation for the work that I do with HeartMath. Now you begin to better understand that life is literally responding to you.
Master your own magnificence
In stead of focusing on what’s going on outside of you, it’s much more effective to start paying attention to how you respond to these events. Once you begin to become aware of how you feel and the way you respond, you have opened up the possibility to change. When you start talking differently to your cells, stop complaining, and begin to take back your own powers to heal and grow, your cellular structure literally starts changing as well.
During my events, we focus exactly on the process of changing your energy, and it is a very powerful process. During my upcoming retreat in Costa Rica, from Nov 27 – Dec 2, we dive really deep into this amazing adventure of healing and transformation. In case you want to join me and the other teachers, you might want to sign up now, because on August 27 the early bird rate ($200 discount per person) will end.
Why don’t you take some more time for yourself by just becoming still. There’s nothing you have to do in particular. When you start quieting the mind, you begin to tap into the innate wisdom of your intuition and answers will come to you. It’s the art of mastering your own magnificence. In case you need a bit of help, feel free to download my free ebooks ‘The Little Blue Breathing Book’ and the ‘Purple Personal Purpose Book”. And if you feel drawn to what I have shared with you, I just released my first album containing an hour of heart coherence meditations! You can purchase it by clicking on the button below.
“A breathing book? What’s that all about?” I know, it might sound a bit out there. But it isn’t and I will soon tell you why.
I wasn’t ready
But first this. While I was working on this ebook, I couldn’t help but smile. I used to work for a large financial corporation in Amsterdam. The last thing that was on my mind was breathing or meditation. Are you kidding me!? At that time, I thought I had more important tasks to focus on. Despite the fact that I was often feeling quite stressed – I worked long hours, against tight deadlines and the pressure on my performance as an executive didn’t make my life much easier.
It would be way easier for me now to look back on my life and think: “I wish I had known more about breathing and meditation during a time that it could have served me so well”. I could have known all about it, because the science of the breath is not new. It has been practiced for thousands of years. I just very well know that I just wasn’t ready for this. I perceived myself, and the world around me, in a very different way than I do today – from feeling separate from most people around me, to feeling deeply connected to myself, to humanity in general, and to the universe.
Sometimes we’re just not ready and that’s fine. But life can take a sharp turn.
We don’t always ask for change
During a difficult time in my life, when I lost three of my close family members in a relatively short period of time, I was looking to find a way of relaxation and stress reduction.
Many things in life, like grief, are beyond our control. But it is possible for us to calm our state of mind so that we can deal with our emotions in a more healthy way. We can then truly process all that we feel, without being terrorized by the mind. In fact, the daily practice of breathing and meditation has supported me through this traumatizing time. It has also offered me deep insights of who I truly am and helped me to express my deeper feelings and emotions.
People from all around the world have embraced these tools & techniques. Often in times of stress, anxiety, ADD/ADHD or those suffering from all kinds of trauma, including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
So when you meet adversity in life, be open because it wants to tell you something.
Simple breathing
So I have created the Little Blue Breathing Book (FREE download) with some very simple, scientifically proven, tools and techniques. They help reduce stress, boost your resilience, sharpen intuitive abilities and increase your performance. That sounds pretty cool huh!?
But I didn’t make this book for the ‘cool’. I made it because I know that so many people can and will benefit from these simple techniques on a day-to-day basis. Therefore, I want to ask you how many people you know who could benefit from this? I’d like you to think about it for a minute and then share this post, with the FREE ebook link, with some of your family members and friends. I’m convinced that they will be thanking you for this.
A local radio show host asked his listeners this week: “Tell me something good.” He talked about all the misery and violence that’s going on throughout the world, and how it affected his outlook on life so much. So he asked his listeners to phone in and share something good with him.
Do you recognize that feeling? I do! There are days that my life seems to be in such a perfect flow – meaningful synchronicities unfold seemingly out of ‘nothing’, the joy of just being alive makes me feel so grateful and all that I do that day feels effortless!
A minute later I listen to the news on the radio – the reporter informs me about the hell that’s unfolding in Aleppo, where innocent mothers and children are being murdered and no end seems to be in sight. The flow that I experienced just seconds before, vanishes quickly and makes room for deep sadness and despair, and I feel like a helpless victim of a society full of hatred and violence. My first reaction is to yell out: “Please, tell me something good!”
It’s not hard for us to feel overwhelmed in times of intense violence, economic uncertainty, global warming or in the face of personal health or relationship challenges. When we experience stress, emotional pain, anger or sadness, our body literally begins to change too and we start feeling stressed and we can’t think clearly anymore. Research shows that 60-80% of primary care doctor visits are purely related to stress. Can you imagine that? 60 – 80%!
Be Quiet
It’s very powerful to just be quiet and recognize your own state and honour the language of your own emotions. Although we’d love to hear something good, deciding to be happy in that moment doesn’t work of course. Our heart knows there are so many people suffering. But never think that you can’t be there for others.
Scientists confirm over and over again that we are deeply connected by a very intelligent field. It’s the same field that created us in the first place. In stead of believing that we cannot be there for others because we seem to be separate, know that you do have influence on other people’s wellbeing and on the state of our planet. This knowing alone can often be enough to inspire yourself and help inspire others.
When you begin to feel your heart and find a new heart rhythm by breathing slower and deeper, your body will automatically synchronize with this intelligent, electromagnetic field. I call it our ‘cosmic body’. It’s an extension of our physical body. When we can find the courage to bless the things that hurt us, something changes chemically. Our new emotions become our physical reality. And when we decide to experience peace, love, compassion, forgiveness, healing and tolerance in our heart, not just our physical body changes, but we also have an equally important impact on the cosmic body. All those who are suffering are connected to that same field. In case you haven’t downloaded it yet, I do have a 10 minute Heart Coherence meditation for you.
This might sound like some kind of New Age theory to you, but it’s a simple explanation of all the scientific research that’s available to you these days. Maybe that’s why we see more and more global initiatives for collective meditations…
I am deeply inspired by a beautiful traditional Buddhist prayer:
May I be at peace. May my heart remain open. May I awaken to the light of my own nature. May I be healed. May I be a source of healing for all beings.
We are taught to believe in our own limits. But what if we are only limited until we change the way we see ourselves in the world? How differently would we live if we discovered that we are born with the power to choose our relationship to others and even to life itself? Such a radical discovery would change everything about the way we see ourselves!
Feel free to leave a comment or to send me a message. I also organize events and one-on-one trainings and coaching. Feel free to contact me if you have questions.
Overall, the study confirms that daily ANS activity responds to changes in geomagnetic and solar activity during periods of normal undisturbed activity and it is initiated at different times after the changes in the various environmental factors and persist over varying time periods.
Life therefore is not just about you! We might live in a seemingly egocentric world, where feelings of separation seem to be more common than feelings of being connected, but it’s the healthy human connections that help transform this planet. Emotions such as compassion, care, gratitude and appreciation are not just very healthy for yourself, they support everyone in the global field environment.
But it’s not just severe trauma or PTSD that keeps preventing us from living in the present moment. Most people that I know do not live in the present moment, most of the time. We experience some kind of stress in our lives without even realizing it. Whether we worry about our future finances, feel victimized by others, hold on to what our spouse once said to us, or because we subconsciously feel that we’re not following our true passion in life.
You are made up of about 50 trillion cells. Each one of these cells is affected by their environment. Between the actual environment, and the cells that make up your body, there’s a filter – your interpretation of the environment. The cells in your body are not going to respond to the actual events in your life, but they will respond to your interpretation of these events. Each cell has surface receptors (membrane receptors) and they’re like the cells’ antennas). In biochemistry, a receptor is a protein molecule that receives signals from outside a cell. When such signals bind to a receptor, they cause some form of cellular/tissue response, e.g. a change in the electrical activity of a cell. Simply said: “The 50 trillion cells in your body listen 24/7, to what you feel and think, and they start behaving accordingly.”
During a difficult time in my life, when I lost three of my close family members in a relatively short period of time, I was looking to find a way of relaxation and stress reduction.
It’s very powerful to just be quiet and recognize your own state and honour the language of your own emotions. Although we’d love to hear something good, deciding to be happy in that moment doesn’t work of course. Our heart knows there are so many people suffering. But never think that you can’t be there for others.