TRANSFORMING ANGER: THE HEARTMAT

In recent years neuroscientists have discovered that the heart has its own intelligence, a complex independent nervous system that is referred to as "the brain in the heart." Getting the heart into a positive rhythm can directly send a signal to the brain, allowing the two to synchronize and literally transform anger, frustration, and irritation into compassion, empathy, and calm. In Transforming Anger, we learn how thoughts and feelings get stored in the nervous system and create cellular triggers of irritation, frustration, and anger. We then learn how to get beyond the mechanical negative pull of these triggers. The authors teach us to control our heart rhythms using a 60-second "freeze-frame" technique: an exercise that calms the mind, synchronizes the nervous system, and increases the level of internal coherence, so that we can clearly and quickly see the options for dealing with anger. This technique can be used anytime and anywhere, and puts us in a "zone" in which we are able to feel calm, compassionate feelings for ourselves and for others. For lasting change, we learn to build emotional assets; depersonalize the actions of others, identify resistance to change, and keep the practice going.