Love your family & pets, it’s good for all of you!

This fascinating information came recently in an e-mail from the Institute of Heart Math:

The HeartMath Institute has research showing heart-brain interactions between persons in close proximity: couples sleeping; a mother and her infant; individuals in coherent states.

The institute has also found that a type of heart-rhythm synchronization can occur in interactions between people and their pets. A lot of pet lovers can appreciate the results of an experiment HMI Director of Research Dr. Rollin McCraty conducted with his 15-year-old son, Josh and the boy’s dog, Mabel. He used electrocardiogram monitors to record heart-rhythm data when the pair were together and apart. 

The top of the graph shows the dog’s (Mabel) heart rhythm shift when the boy (Josh, shown in the lower part of the graph) entered the room, sat down and proceeded to consciously experience feelings of love towards Mabel. When Josh consciously felt feelings of love and care towards his pet, his heart rhythms became more coherent, and this change appears to have influenced Mabel’s heart rhythms, which then also became more coherent. There was no physical contact between the dog and boy.

Regarding these connections that can occur from person to person and between people and pets, McCraty later wrote:

“Although more research in this area is still to be done, I do feel that we can affect our immediate environment. It appears that there is a type of communication occurring between people above and beyond body language or verbal communication. I believe we’ll see in future research studies that we are affecting each other’s moods and attitudes, both positively and negatively by the electromagnetic fields we radiate.   “In our work with pets and their owners, we’re seeing that a pet owner can create what we call a heart-filled environment when practicing heart-focused techniques (a cornerstone of HeartMath tools and technology). The pets respond by becoming more affectionate, more animated and more connected with the pet owner.”

If you would like to further your understanding of this subject, you can read a summary of Dr. McCraty’s Energetic Heart or obtain the complete Scientific Monograph in an e-booklet.