January 13, 2021 • 28 mins
8. Social connection has a significant impact on health outcomes. In this episode, I discuss why social connection and support is important for maintaining our health individually and as a community. I also share the science of heart coherence and how we can positively influence the environment and people around us using our heart energy.
Some of the research I mention can be found linked below:
https://thecommunitycure.com/cc-book
https://www.heartmath.org/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7482148/
Join my online community: https://brigittefactor.com/authentictable
Learn about Finally Free™ Workshops: https://brigittefactor.com/finally-free/
Take the Happy Gut Key Quiz:
https://brigittefactor.com/happygutkeyquiz
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brigitte Factor (00:13):
Hello, and welcome to the hungry for truth
podcast. I'm your host, BrigitteFactor, the truth seeker,
researcher, scientist,nutritionist, teacher in truth
teller, and awakening is coming.
Get ready for it.
(00:46):
Welcome back to the hungry fortruth podcast. I'm so excited
you pressed play today and thatwe could connect through this
podcast. Today I have awonderful episode, I'm going to
be talking about the importanceof social connection, and its
impact on our health. I'm alsogoing to be talking about how we
(01:07):
can have better coherence withwith each other through our
heart and get into the scienceof heart rate variability and
heart coherence towards the endas well. So you're going to be
in for a wonderful episodetoday. But I really wanted to
talk about social connection,and the importance that plays on
(01:30):
our health because it issurprisingly, more important
than diet and exercise. I knowshocking, right? social
connection and having thatsocial support and our social
relationships are a significantdeterminant of our health. It
plays a very powerful role inour lives, and the impact on our
(01:54):
health. And I think this goesback to, you know, being able to
have that connection, but alsothe effect that it has on our
stress levels, as well. And I'vetalked about the how stress
impacts our health before inprevious episodes, so you can go
(02:14):
back and listen to that.
And I also think this is arelevant time to talk about this
as well, because of the amountof messaging we are receiving
about social distancing, and howto weigh that in light of what's
best for us and how to managethat. So I'm going to talk about
(02:36):
some of that today. Because it'sreally important for us to stay
connected. And I don't just meanthrough, you know, a podcast or
a website or an email list, Imean, actual face to face
physical connection, I'm goingto talk about why that is and
how that plays a role a littlelater on. But staying connected
(02:58):
and having that support systemis important. In it's the
absence of social relationshipsthat is defined as social
isolation, loneliness,bereavement or conflict. And I
don't know about you, but oralmost a year into this
(03:18):
pandemic. And I'm pretty tiredof all of the lack of social
connection. My business is donevirtually. And I have been doing
virtual consults over theinternet for many years now. But
that has been balanced out withactually having social
(03:39):
interactions with people inperson as well, previous to
this, and now I'm getting to thepoint where I feel that I'm
tired of it, that I'm ready togo back and meeting people face
to face. And I've just startedback at our church serving in
the living free ministry, whichis a wonderful ministry. And I'm
(04:02):
thankful that our church is someeting in the living free
ministry is a ministry forpeople that are dealing with
strongholds, and we have smallgroups and we help I serve as a
facilitator. I help peoplenavigate that and to use the
three tools in that ministry arethe Word of God, the Spirit of
(04:23):
God and the people of God,because those three tools can
help us release thosestrongholds. Anyway, and so it's
been wonderful to get back intothat and have that connection
with other people like mindedpeople, other believers as well.
But what the research is, hasshown us or is very clear about
(04:43):
it's the absence of those socialrelationships that causes us to
experience stress. It alsocauses us to increase
inflammation in the body, andI'm going to be pulling from a
couple of research articles andbooks, which I will We'll post
in the show notes. So you canlook this stuff up and research
(05:04):
it yourself. But one of thethings that the research is
showing is that social isolationand loneliness actually up
regulate pro inflammatoryprocesses, and reduces immune
functionality. What does thatmean? It means being lonely, or
being isolated, increasesinflammation and reduces our
(05:25):
immune system's ability to work.
Having that social connection isimportant so that our immune
system works the way it'ssupposed to. And the other thing
about being socially isolated isthat when you're socially
isolated, you have a heightenedresponse to stress. And that
stress response feeds thatinflammation. And I talked about
that in a previous episodebefore. So what the research has
(05:47):
shown is that supportiveconnection favorably influences
the immune system, meaning thathaving that supportive
connection in your life is goingto help the immune system
respond appropriately andfunction better. And that's
going to be important, any timeyou're faced with an illness,
(06:09):
right? What they've also foundis that when we experience
disconnection, that increasesstress in our life. So
specifically, targetedrejection, like going through a
divorce or getting fired from ajob increases the risk of
depression 20 times higher thanany other life stress. So, you
(06:33):
know, the political socialenvironment right now is very
divisive, and verydisconnecting. And that's having
a negative impact on our stresslevels. It's also having a
negative impact on our health,and we can all feel it. And I'm
going to talk about why we canfeel it again towards the end
when I talk about heartcoherence. But we can all feel
(06:55):
it, we're all experiencing it.
And other things that have beenrevealed is that lonely people
have a harder time recoveringfrom acute illness. And
loneliness and social isolationis linked with lowered immunity.
And in most cases, socialisolation is a much bigger
(07:16):
determinant of health anddisease than any other factor.
And again, this is what's reallyshocking to me, because I really
understand the importance ofdiet and exercise and all of
that stuff. But being sociallyconnected is also equally
important. And in most cases,it's even more important. And so
(07:38):
I think it's time to get thismessage out there, that we need
to stay connected, we need tostay connected with our family
and our friends and oursupportive community. And the
Chief Medical Officer of Cigna,Douglas Nemecek, I think is how
you say his name and get, again,this is a quote I'm pulling from
the research. He said that beinglonely has the same impact on
(08:02):
mortality as smoking 15cigarettes a day, making it more
dangerous than obesity. Again,just more evidence that we need
to stay connected and bereaching out to people that we
know don't have a good supportsystem, especially our older
(08:23):
people that have been isolatedfor a very long time. A study
done by the AARP Public PolicyInstitute, showed that
participants who were sociallyisolated had a 50% higher risk
of death. Over the course of thestudy, again, more evidence that
(08:43):
social isolation is not good forus being socially connected
needs to be seen as much a partof a healthy lifestyle as eating
right and exercising. I thinkthis, in some ways is contrary
to some of the messaging we'rehearing through mainstream
media, that we're supposed tostay distance, but then that
(09:08):
causes some people to isolateeven more. And it's really sad
when we see some of thesepolicies that get put into place
that don't take into account therisks involved. We know that
mental health issues areincreasing dramatically, and
(09:30):
that we need to have create waysfor people to connect and find
that support that they need.
social support is the singlemost important intervention for
people who have beentraumatized. And I don't know
about you, but you know, the waythis pandemic is being handled,
handled the way this politicalsituation is being handled and
handled, it feels verytraumatic. And I just feel that
(09:53):
need to again connect more withmy family and Friends and social
network, as well. But it'sinteresting to me as I look at
this research to how much of andirect impact this has on our
immune health, to have goodimmune health, we want our focus
(10:13):
to be on reducing exposures tointeractions perceived as
hostile, and that are perceivedas non supportive. But at the
same time emphasizing andencouraging time with others who
are positive or affirming. Thisis getting harder and harder to
navigate. I've pretty much givenup on social media for a while,
(10:34):
because of the amount ofnegativity and hate that I see
even from people that I've beenfriends with for quite a long
time, it's quite shocking to seethat on social media. And you
know, for my own protecting mypeace, which I've talked about
in previous episodes, I've hadto back away from that, and
really seek support from people.
(10:59):
But I also want to be someonewho is encouraging and positive
as well, putting good positiveenergy and love out to those
around me, you know, how do wenavigate this, you know, when
we're told that we need todistance to protect ourselves
from getting catching a virus,but at the same time, social
(11:21):
connection is so important forour health on all levels. And
really, you have to find apersonalized approach that's
going to work for you findingways to expose yourself to
certain social situations basedon circumstances and what you're
comfortable with, but notletting fear be what drives your
(11:42):
decision making. And I talkedabout the importance of that
before. So we, as humans aremeant to have a social support
circle of somewhat I mean, foras long as we've been human, we
have meant to thrive in socialcommunity. And that we can see
(12:02):
that starting to break downespecially as divisiveness takes
hold in our community, when wefeel less and less supported,
less and less connected. Andthat's not good for us at all.
Every human desires to belong tobe accepted, I think most of us
can relate to the fear of beingrejected, that's one of our
(12:24):
greatest fears, is beingrejected, not feeling loved. And
with the negativity that iscoming through the media, that
is just tapping into that fear,pushing that fear button. If you
haven't learned how not to letit push your fear buttons, it's
pushing that fear button. AndI've done a great deal of work
(12:44):
working through some of my ownfears. But sometimes my fear
buttons still get pushed when Isee some of that messaging. And
so really, I'm encouraging youto find that social support
network for you, whether it'syour church, or a life group. So
our church has life groups,which are just small circles of
(13:06):
people that meet on a regularbasis. And I absolutely love my
life group, and the opportunityto meet with them face to face
worshiping, you know howwhenever you worship
corporately, you just feel somuch more connected. And there's
a reason for that some peoplenotice this too, when you go to
a concert, and there's a lot ofpeople around and you're all
(13:27):
singing the same song, there'sthis higher level of connection
that you feel with the peoplearound you. But in worship, you
feel that with the people aroundyou, and you feel that with
your, with our God, our Creatoras well. And so I'm going to
talk about part of why we feelthat when I talk about coherence
in just a second, but that, thatcoherence, or that we have when
(13:52):
we feel that connectedness topeople around us that it's
called heart coherence, ithappens through the heart
energy. In another word forcoherence. Or another way to
describe coherence is thatsticking together or
connectedness, you know, if youthink of it more mathematically,
or musically, it's theharmonious interaction of two or
(14:14):
more oscillating sound waves,right. And so the science of
heart coherence has done throughheart math Institute. And I
would encourage you to checkthem out. They've done a lot of
science on this. I am certifiedas a heart math facilitator,
meaning I can teach people howto do quick coherence and other
(14:35):
types of techniques to help withcoherence. But increased heart
coherence results in a deeperconnectedness between people and
this is an actual thing. Ifyou've never heard of this
before, you may be kind ofsurprising, but it's an actual
thing. Heart coherence is anactual measurable thing. And so
(14:56):
I'm going to kind of go intothat and talk about that right
now. But hard rhythms you know,we think of heart rate as our
heartbeat, or how many beats wehave per minute. And if you put
on the the ECG machine, tomeasure your heart rate, or to
measure your heartbeat, you cansee the little waves go up and
(15:18):
down, like if you've ever seenthat at the hospital or on TV
when somebody's connected to oneof those at the hospital. And
you can see the little heartbeatrhythms, right Heart, heart
rhythms provide the main sourcesof rhythmic activity in the body
and have the ability to move theentire system toward global
coherence. So heart rhythms areactually very powerful. It's not
(15:39):
just about how fast our heart isbeating, or how much our blood
is pumping, there's actually arhythm that has an impact on the
rest of the systems of the body.
And as people practice heartcoherence and generates an
energetic field that makes iteasier for others to connect
with their heart and createsocial coherence. So our heart
has an electromagnetic fieldthat it generates. So the heart
(16:05):
generates the most powerfulelectromagnetic field produced
in the body. You know, we knowabout the electrical component
of the heart, because we can wemeasure that with that ECG
machine. But it's our heart,electrical energy is actually 50
times greater than our brainelectrical energy or activity,
(16:26):
but the hearts magnetic field is5000 times stronger than the
brains and our hearts magneticfield can actually be measured
about three feet away, aperson's emotional state can be
communicated to the externalenvironment by the hearts
electromagnetic field. So that'swhy when you're face to face or
(16:48):
within your, that three feet ofspace of someone, you can sense
their energy if you're payingattention. Or if you've ever
walked into the room, when twopeople were just fighting, and
you can tell that there's anegative energy that is putting
put out not by just theirdisposition, or their demeanor
(17:10):
or their body language, but it'salso being put out by that heart
energy as well. And this isreally fascinating to me.
Because, as heartmath hasstudied this, the hearts
magnetic field in this heartenergy or what they call heart
coherence, it notices thatpositive emotions like
(17:32):
appreciation, love care, andcompassion produces more
coherent heart rhythms. And sothese heart rhythms are actually
we can actually measure ourheart rhythms through a
technology called heart ratevariability. And what heart rate
variability is, it's a measureof the beat to beat of the
(17:55):
heart. So like heart rate is howmany beats per minute. But heart
rate variability is thedifferences in between each beat
that time difference betweeneach beat. And what we've
discovered is that the heartrate variability plays a role in
our fitness levels in ourresiliency. So we can use heart
(18:17):
rate variability to track ourrecovery. So athletes do this,
that we can use heart ratevariability to kind of see where
we are with our nervous systemin terms of our emotional state.
And it can be a measure thattells us how what our stress
levels are or what ouradaptability is, emotions can
(18:40):
have a profound impact on ourheart rate variability. So with
the heart math, what they lookat is, they look at your heart
rate variability. And if you'reexperiencing frustration or a
frustrating emotion, thatpattern looks very, very
different or is incoherentcompared to the pattern that is
(19:02):
seen when you experience theemotion of appreciation. And we
can actually train our heartrate variability, we can train
that nervous system component,using some of the heart math
tech techniques to improve ourheart rate variability, which
will allow us to have betterphysiological resilience are
(19:25):
better able to handle stress.
But what's interesting aboutthis is the more we listen to
and follow our heartintelligence, the more balanced
and coherent our emotionsbecome. Once we pay attention to
that once we pay attention tothat heart energy and we
understand that our hearts areconnected, we can we can have an
(19:49):
influence on our environment. Ifwe're walking around, always
frustrated or in fear. We areputting out negative signals to
the people around us. If we arewalking around from an end,
viewing the world from a placeof love, and grace, and
appreciation and gratitude, weare putting out a much different
(20:11):
signal to the people around us.
Okay? Now, if we are physicallydistanced, is going to be harder
to feel that signal, it's goingto make it harder for us to
connect on that at that heartlevel. And I think I think we
all can sense that like, meetingvia zoom is great when it's
(20:33):
necessary. But it is not thesame thing as meeting face to
face meeting in person. And thisheart math research gives us a
clue into why that connectionhappens, or part of why we don't
understand all of it. But weunderstand part of why I think
this heart connection is alsowhy social connection plays a
(20:53):
role in our overall health. Andif you'll allow me to get a
little more nerdy with you, andunderstanding how that all
communicates in the body is thatour heart rate is regulated by
our nervous system. We don'tcontrol it. And the vagus nerve
is runs through the body, it'sone of the cranial nerves that
(21:18):
runs through the body, and isregulating responsible for
communicating with the heart andregulating that heart rate. That
same nervous system is alsoresponsible for our stress
response. And it communicateswith the brain. So our heart and
brain actually are connectedthrough this Vegas nerve, and
they communicate with eachother, as well. And
(21:38):
understanding how our stressresponse is related to our
health, and the impact ourstress response has on our
health and the inflammationthat's produced, we can start to
see how that that is alsoconnected to the heart. So
again, this is, you know, myperspective, as someone who's
(22:00):
trained in holistic andfunctional nutrition and looking
at these things, holistically,meaning that that our systems
are connected, I can see howthis is all plays a role and is
all connected. But going back tothe heart and understanding
that, for us to be strong andresilient. We need to be
(22:21):
connected at the heart. And themessage from this research is
clear to that if we want toimprove our health and
resiliency, we have to stayconnected with our family and
friends, and find our socialsupport groups in our community
that we can meet with in person,okay, that doesn't mean you
(22:42):
shouldn't take precautions, ifyou are at risk, or have
comorbidities orvulnerabilities. But it does
mean that we have to find a waythat's going to work for us to
stay connected. And I love thisverse from the Bible, Hebrews
10:24-25, it says, Let us thinkof ways to motivate one another
(23:04):
to acts of love and good works.
And let us not neglect ourmeeting together as some people
do, but encourage one another,especially now that the day of
his return is drawing near. Sodon't neglect meeting together.
reach out for support if youneed it. And find that support
(23:29):
group that you need or that isgoing to work for you. You know
whether it's your church, orit's your local Fitness Studio,
or just a group of friendsmeeting for coffee, or maybe for
you know, whatever reason youstill need to meet via zoom,
that's fine. or finding a way tomeet outdoors. But still, where
(23:51):
you can see each other and youknow, just be in each other's
presence. I think that is very,very important. And I think
that's actually going to bebeneficial for, for us to again,
to stay strong, to stay healthyto stay connected. And what else
I like about the heartmathInstitute and the research that
(24:12):
that they do and understandinghow that our heart energy
impacts the environment aroundus and the people around us. We
can have a positive impact onthe people around us simply by
shifting our heart energy shiftsimply by shifting our emotions
and our attitude to a place ofgratitude to a place of love.
(24:35):
And I am reminded and I prayoften, that Lord helped me see
people as you see them, help mesee them as your child even if
we don't agree about anything.
That person is still one of yourchildren, and that you love them
just the same as you love me.
(24:56):
You don't love anybody more orless based on What they believe
or what their politics are. AndI think we need to come back to
that truth. Because if we'regoing to get out of the
situation, the way we get out ofthat situation, or the way we
make a positive impact on thepeople around us is to walk in
that truth of who we are, who weare created to be in that we are
(25:18):
all loved, that we are meant tobe that love and light to
others. So I hope that you havefound this interesting, learn
something new.
Again, you can check out theheart math website, I will post
those links in the show notesfor you to explore some of this
(25:41):
information more if you want todo that. I'm also going to
invite you to connect with meonline, I have an online
community called author, theauthentic table, and you can
join for free there, and I willpost that link in the show notes
as well. I can't wait until wecan go back to where the
(26:01):
authentic table is actually usmeeting together. I'm looking
forward to that. But until then,you know, this online community
is a place to interact and haveconversation with each other.
And I host different eventswhere we can where we can do
that. The other thing I wantedto mention is that I am
launching a group program at theend of January called finally
(26:25):
free. I'm super excited aboutthis program. This program is
helping us reframe ourrelationship with food. And it's
using that relationship withfood to help us really tap into
what it is we hunger for inlife. It's really helping us to
address the how we use food tofulfill our emotion, emotions,
(26:46):
and to dampen that stress andall of that stuff and how we can
go about navigating that. Sothis is going to be another
wonderful supportive opportunityto be in a community with a
small number of people to helpnavigate emotional eating and
stress eating and those kind ofthings that we're probably
experiencing right now. If youare. So you can check that out
(27:08):
on my website.
Brigittefactor.com/finally-freeand I'll post that link as well.
Well, thank you. Thank you forlistening. I hope you have a
wonderful day. I hope that youcan experience and feel that
heart energy of love and gracethat I am extending to you and
(27:28):
until next time, Grace and peaceto you.
Hello, and welcome to the hungry for truth
podcast. I'm your host, BrigitteFactor, the truth seeker,
researcher, scientist,nutritionist, teacher in truth
teller, and awakening is coming.
Get ready for it.
(00:46):
Welcome back to the hungry fortruth podcast. I'm so excited
you pressed play today and thatwe could connect through this
podcast. Today I have awonderful episode, I'm going to
be talking about the importanceof social connection, and its
impact on our health. I'm alsogoing to be talking about how we
(01:07):
can have better coherence withwith each other through our
heart and get into the scienceof heart rate variability and
heart coherence towards the endas well. So you're going to be
in for a wonderful episodetoday. But I really wanted to
talk about social connection,and the importance that plays on
(01:30):
our health because it issurprisingly, more important
than diet and exercise. I knowshocking, right? social
connection and having thatsocial support and our social
relationships are a significantdeterminant of our health. It
plays a very powerful role inour lives, and the impact on our
(01:54):
health. And I think this goesback to, you know, being able to
have that connection, but alsothe effect that it has on our
stress levels, as well. And I'vetalked about the how stress
impacts our health before inprevious episodes, so you can go
(02:14):
back and listen to that.
And I also think this is arelevant time to talk about this
as well, because of the amountof messaging we are receiving
about social distancing, and howto weigh that in light of what's
best for us and how to managethat. So I'm going to talk about
(02:36):
some of that today. Because it'sreally important for us to stay
connected. And I don't just meanthrough, you know, a podcast or
a website or an email list, Imean, actual face to face
physical connection, I'm goingto talk about why that is and
how that plays a role a littlelater on. But staying connected
(02:58):
and having that support systemis important. In it's the
absence of social relationshipsthat is defined as social
isolation, loneliness,bereavement or conflict. And I
don't know about you, but oralmost a year into this
(03:18):
pandemic. And I'm pretty tiredof all of the lack of social
connection. My business is donevirtually. And I have been doing
virtual consults over theinternet for many years now. But
that has been balanced out withactually having social
(03:39):
interactions with people inperson as well, previous to
this, and now I'm getting to thepoint where I feel that I'm
tired of it, that I'm ready togo back and meeting people face
to face. And I've just startedback at our church serving in
the living free ministry, whichis a wonderful ministry. And I'm
(04:02):
thankful that our church is someeting in the living free
ministry is a ministry forpeople that are dealing with
strongholds, and we have smallgroups and we help I serve as a
facilitator. I help peoplenavigate that and to use the
three tools in that ministry arethe Word of God, the Spirit of
(04:23):
God and the people of God,because those three tools can
help us release thosestrongholds. Anyway, and so it's
been wonderful to get back intothat and have that connection
with other people like mindedpeople, other believers as well.
But what the research is, hasshown us or is very clear about
(04:43):
it's the absence of those socialrelationships that causes us to
experience stress. It alsocauses us to increase
inflammation in the body, andI'm going to be pulling from a
couple of research articles andbooks, which I will We'll post
in the show notes. So you canlook this stuff up and research
(05:04):
it yourself. But one of thethings that the research is
showing is that social isolationand loneliness actually up
regulate pro inflammatoryprocesses, and reduces immune
functionality. What does thatmean? It means being lonely, or
being isolated, increasesinflammation and reduces our
(05:25):
immune system's ability to work.
Having that social connection isimportant so that our immune
system works the way it'ssupposed to. And the other thing
about being socially isolated isthat when you're socially
isolated, you have a heightenedresponse to stress. And that
stress response feeds thatinflammation. And I talked about
that in a previous episodebefore. So what the research has
(05:47):
shown is that supportiveconnection favorably influences
the immune system, meaning thathaving that supportive
connection in your life is goingto help the immune system
respond appropriately andfunction better. And that's
going to be important, any timeyou're faced with an illness,
(06:09):
right? What they've also foundis that when we experience
disconnection, that increasesstress in our life. So
specifically, targetedrejection, like going through a
divorce or getting fired from ajob increases the risk of
depression 20 times higher thanany other life stress. So, you
(06:33):
know, the political socialenvironment right now is very
divisive, and verydisconnecting. And that's having
a negative impact on our stresslevels. It's also having a
negative impact on our health,and we can all feel it. And I'm
going to talk about why we canfeel it again towards the end
when I talk about heartcoherence. But we can all feel
(06:55):
it, we're all experiencing it.
And other things that have beenrevealed is that lonely people
have a harder time recoveringfrom acute illness. And
loneliness and social isolationis linked with lowered immunity.
And in most cases, socialisolation is a much bigger
(07:16):
determinant of health anddisease than any other factor.
And again, this is what's reallyshocking to me, because I really
understand the importance ofdiet and exercise and all of
that stuff. But being sociallyconnected is also equally
important. And in most cases,it's even more important. And so
(07:38):
I think it's time to get thismessage out there, that we need
to stay connected, we need tostay connected with our family
and our friends and oursupportive community. And the
Chief Medical Officer of Cigna,Douglas Nemecek, I think is how
you say his name and get, again,this is a quote I'm pulling from
the research. He said that beinglonely has the same impact on
(08:02):
mortality as smoking 15cigarettes a day, making it more
dangerous than obesity. Again,just more evidence that we need
to stay connected and bereaching out to people that we
know don't have a good supportsystem, especially our older
(08:23):
people that have been isolatedfor a very long time. A study
done by the AARP Public PolicyInstitute, showed that
participants who were sociallyisolated had a 50% higher risk
of death. Over the course of thestudy, again, more evidence that
(08:43):
social isolation is not good forus being socially connected
needs to be seen as much a partof a healthy lifestyle as eating
right and exercising. I thinkthis, in some ways is contrary
to some of the messaging we'rehearing through mainstream
media, that we're supposed tostay distance, but then that
(09:08):
causes some people to isolateeven more. And it's really sad
when we see some of thesepolicies that get put into place
that don't take into account therisks involved. We know that
mental health issues areincreasing dramatically, and
(09:30):
that we need to have create waysfor people to connect and find
that support that they need.
social support is the singlemost important intervention for
people who have beentraumatized. And I don't know
about you, but you know, the waythis pandemic is being handled,
handled the way this politicalsituation is being handled and
handled, it feels verytraumatic. And I just feel that
(09:53):
need to again connect more withmy family and Friends and social
network, as well. But it'sinteresting to me as I look at
this research to how much of andirect impact this has on our
immune health, to have goodimmune health, we want our focus
(10:13):
to be on reducing exposures tointeractions perceived as
hostile, and that are perceivedas non supportive. But at the
same time emphasizing andencouraging time with others who
are positive or affirming. Thisis getting harder and harder to
navigate. I've pretty much givenup on social media for a while,
(10:34):
because of the amount ofnegativity and hate that I see
even from people that I've beenfriends with for quite a long
time, it's quite shocking to seethat on social media. And you
know, for my own protecting mypeace, which I've talked about
in previous episodes, I've hadto back away from that, and
really seek support from people.
(10:59):
But I also want to be someonewho is encouraging and positive
as well, putting good positiveenergy and love out to those
around me, you know, how do wenavigate this, you know, when
we're told that we need todistance to protect ourselves
from getting catching a virus,but at the same time, social
(11:21):
connection is so important forour health on all levels. And
really, you have to find apersonalized approach that's
going to work for you findingways to expose yourself to
certain social situations basedon circumstances and what you're
comfortable with, but notletting fear be what drives your
(11:42):
decision making. And I talkedabout the importance of that
before. So we, as humans aremeant to have a social support
circle of somewhat I mean, foras long as we've been human, we
have meant to thrive in socialcommunity. And that we can see
(12:02):
that starting to break downespecially as divisiveness takes
hold in our community, when wefeel less and less supported,
less and less connected. Andthat's not good for us at all.
Every human desires to belong tobe accepted, I think most of us
can relate to the fear of beingrejected, that's one of our
(12:24):
greatest fears, is beingrejected, not feeling loved. And
with the negativity that iscoming through the media, that
is just tapping into that fear,pushing that fear button. If you
haven't learned how not to letit push your fear buttons, it's
pushing that fear button. AndI've done a great deal of work
(12:44):
working through some of my ownfears. But sometimes my fear
buttons still get pushed when Isee some of that messaging. And
so really, I'm encouraging youto find that social support
network for you, whether it'syour church, or a life group. So
our church has life groups,which are just small circles of
(13:06):
people that meet on a regularbasis. And I absolutely love my
life group, and the opportunityto meet with them face to face
worshiping, you know howwhenever you worship
corporately, you just feel somuch more connected. And there's
a reason for that some peoplenotice this too, when you go to
a concert, and there's a lot ofpeople around and you're all
(13:27):
singing the same song, there'sthis higher level of connection
that you feel with the peoplearound you. But in worship, you
feel that with the people aroundyou, and you feel that with
your, with our God, our Creatoras well. And so I'm going to
talk about part of why we feelthat when I talk about coherence
in just a second, but that, thatcoherence, or that we have when
(13:52):
we feel that connectedness topeople around us that it's
called heart coherence, ithappens through the heart
energy. In another word forcoherence. Or another way to
describe coherence is thatsticking together or
connectedness, you know, if youthink of it more mathematically,
or musically, it's theharmonious interaction of two or
(14:14):
more oscillating sound waves,right. And so the science of
heart coherence has done throughheart math Institute. And I
would encourage you to checkthem out. They've done a lot of
science on this. I am certifiedas a heart math facilitator,
meaning I can teach people howto do quick coherence and other
(14:35):
types of techniques to help withcoherence. But increased heart
coherence results in a deeperconnectedness between people and
this is an actual thing. Ifyou've never heard of this
before, you may be kind ofsurprising, but it's an actual
thing. Heart coherence is anactual measurable thing. And so
(14:56):
I'm going to kind of go intothat and talk about that right
now. But hard rhythms you know,we think of heart rate as our
heartbeat, or how many beats wehave per minute. And if you put
on the the ECG machine, tomeasure your heart rate, or to
measure your heartbeat, you cansee the little waves go up and
(15:18):
down, like if you've ever seenthat at the hospital or on TV
when somebody's connected to oneof those at the hospital. And
you can see the little heartbeatrhythms, right Heart, heart
rhythms provide the main sourcesof rhythmic activity in the body
and have the ability to move theentire system toward global
coherence. So heart rhythms areactually very powerful. It's not
(15:39):
just about how fast our heart isbeating, or how much our blood
is pumping, there's actually arhythm that has an impact on the
rest of the systems of the body.
And as people practice heartcoherence and generates an
energetic field that makes iteasier for others to connect
with their heart and createsocial coherence. So our heart
has an electromagnetic fieldthat it generates. So the heart
(16:05):
generates the most powerfulelectromagnetic field produced
in the body. You know, we knowabout the electrical component
of the heart, because we can wemeasure that with that ECG
machine. But it's our heart,electrical energy is actually 50
times greater than our brainelectrical energy or activity,
(16:26):
but the hearts magnetic field is5000 times stronger than the
brains and our hearts magneticfield can actually be measured
about three feet away, aperson's emotional state can be
communicated to the externalenvironment by the hearts
electromagnetic field. So that'swhy when you're face to face or
(16:48):
within your, that three feet ofspace of someone, you can sense
their energy if you're payingattention. Or if you've ever
walked into the room, when twopeople were just fighting, and
you can tell that there's anegative energy that is putting
put out not by just theirdisposition, or their demeanor
(17:10):
or their body language, but it'salso being put out by that heart
energy as well. And this isreally fascinating to me.
Because, as heartmath hasstudied this, the hearts
magnetic field in this heartenergy or what they call heart
coherence, it notices thatpositive emotions like
(17:32):
appreciation, love care, andcompassion produces more
coherent heart rhythms. And sothese heart rhythms are actually
we can actually measure ourheart rhythms through a
technology called heart ratevariability. And what heart rate
variability is, it's a measureof the beat to beat of the
(17:55):
heart. So like heart rate is howmany beats per minute. But heart
rate variability is thedifferences in between each beat
that time difference betweeneach beat. And what we've
discovered is that the heartrate variability plays a role in
our fitness levels in ourresiliency. So we can use heart
(18:17):
rate variability to track ourrecovery. So athletes do this,
that we can use heart ratevariability to kind of see where
we are with our nervous systemin terms of our emotional state.
And it can be a measure thattells us how what our stress
levels are or what ouradaptability is, emotions can
(18:40):
have a profound impact on ourheart rate variability. So with
the heart math, what they lookat is, they look at your heart
rate variability. And if you'reexperiencing frustration or a
frustrating emotion, thatpattern looks very, very
different or is incoherentcompared to the pattern that is
(19:02):
seen when you experience theemotion of appreciation. And we
can actually train our heartrate variability, we can train
that nervous system component,using some of the heart math
tech techniques to improve ourheart rate variability, which
will allow us to have betterphysiological resilience are
(19:25):
better able to handle stress.
But what's interesting aboutthis is the more we listen to
and follow our heartintelligence, the more balanced
and coherent our emotionsbecome. Once we pay attention to
that once we pay attention tothat heart energy and we
understand that our hearts areconnected, we can we can have an
(19:49):
influence on our environment. Ifwe're walking around, always
frustrated or in fear. We areputting out negative signals to
the people around us. If we arewalking around from an end,
viewing the world from a placeof love, and grace, and
appreciation and gratitude, weare putting out a much different
(20:11):
signal to the people around us.
Okay? Now, if we are physicallydistanced, is going to be harder
to feel that signal, it's goingto make it harder for us to
connect on that at that heartlevel. And I think I think we
all can sense that like, meetingvia zoom is great when it's
(20:33):
necessary. But it is not thesame thing as meeting face to
face meeting in person. And thisheart math research gives us a
clue into why that connectionhappens, or part of why we don't
understand all of it. But weunderstand part of why I think
this heart connection is alsowhy social connection plays a
(20:53):
role in our overall health. Andif you'll allow me to get a
little more nerdy with you, andunderstanding how that all
communicates in the body is thatour heart rate is regulated by
our nervous system. We don'tcontrol it. And the vagus nerve
is runs through the body, it'sone of the cranial nerves that
(21:18):
runs through the body, and isregulating responsible for
communicating with the heart andregulating that heart rate. That
same nervous system is alsoresponsible for our stress
response. And it communicateswith the brain. So our heart and
brain actually are connectedthrough this Vegas nerve, and
they communicate with eachother, as well. And
(21:38):
understanding how our stressresponse is related to our
health, and the impact ourstress response has on our
health and the inflammationthat's produced, we can start to
see how that that is alsoconnected to the heart. So
again, this is, you know, myperspective, as someone who's
(22:00):
trained in holistic andfunctional nutrition and looking
at these things, holistically,meaning that that our systems
are connected, I can see howthis is all plays a role and is
all connected. But going back tothe heart and understanding
that, for us to be strong andresilient. We need to be
(22:21):
connected at the heart. And themessage from this research is
clear to that if we want toimprove our health and
resiliency, we have to stayconnected with our family and
friends, and find our socialsupport groups in our community
that we can meet with in person,okay, that doesn't mean you
(22:42):
shouldn't take precautions, ifyou are at risk, or have
comorbidities orvulnerabilities. But it does
mean that we have to find a waythat's going to work for us to
stay connected. And I love thisverse from the Bible, Hebrews
10:24-25, it says, Let us thinkof ways to motivate one another
(23:04):
to acts of love and good works.
And let us not neglect ourmeeting together as some people
do, but encourage one another,especially now that the day of
his return is drawing near. Sodon't neglect meeting together.
reach out for support if youneed it. And find that support
(23:29):
group that you need or that isgoing to work for you. You know
whether it's your church, orit's your local Fitness Studio,
or just a group of friendsmeeting for coffee, or maybe for
you know, whatever reason youstill need to meet via zoom,
that's fine. or finding a way tomeet outdoors. But still, where
(23:51):
you can see each other and youknow, just be in each other's
presence. I think that is very,very important. And I think
that's actually going to bebeneficial for, for us to again,
to stay strong, to stay healthyto stay connected. And what else
I like about the heartmathInstitute and the research that
(24:12):
that they do and understandinghow that our heart energy
impacts the environment aroundus and the people around us. We
can have a positive impact onthe people around us simply by
shifting our heart energy shiftsimply by shifting our emotions
and our attitude to a place ofgratitude to a place of love.
(24:35):
And I am reminded and I prayoften, that Lord helped me see
people as you see them, help mesee them as your child even if
we don't agree about anything.
That person is still one of yourchildren, and that you love them
just the same as you love me.
(24:56):
You don't love anybody more orless based on What they believe
or what their politics are. AndI think we need to come back to
that truth. Because if we'regoing to get out of the
situation, the way we get out ofthat situation, or the way we
make a positive impact on thepeople around us is to walk in
that truth of who we are, who weare created to be in that we are
(25:18):
all loved, that we are meant tobe that love and light to
others. So I hope that you havefound this interesting, learn
something new.
Again, you can check out theheart math website, I will post
those links in the show notesfor you to explore some of this
(25:41):
information more if you want todo that. I'm also going to
invite you to connect with meonline, I have an online
community called author, theauthentic table, and you can
join for free there, and I willpost that link in the show notes
as well. I can't wait until wecan go back to where the
(26:01):
authentic table is actually usmeeting together. I'm looking
forward to that. But until then,you know, this online community
is a place to interact and haveconversation with each other.
And I host different eventswhere we can where we can do
that. The other thing I wantedto mention is that I am
launching a group program at theend of January called finally
(26:25):
free. I'm super excited aboutthis program. This program is
helping us reframe ourrelationship with food. And it's
using that relationship withfood to help us really tap into
what it is we hunger for inlife. It's really helping us to
address the how we use food tofulfill our emotion, emotions,
(26:46):
and to dampen that stress andall of that stuff and how we can
go about navigating that. Sothis is going to be another
wonderful supportive opportunityto be in a community with a
small number of people to helpnavigate emotional eating and
stress eating and those kind ofthings that we're probably
experiencing right now. If youare. So you can check that out
(27:08):
on my website.
Brigittefactor.com/finally-freeand I'll post that link as well.
Well, thank you. Thank you forlistening. I hope you have a
wonderful day. I hope that youcan experience and feel that
heart energy of love and gracethat I am extending to you and
(27:28):
until next time, Grace and peaceto you.
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