Kimberly Snyder’s Top Heart-Brain Mindfulness Meditations To Reduce Stress and Restore Balance

Exciting research from the Institute of HeartMath reveals that your heart contains brain-like cells that communicate and transmit information, linking the body and mind. “ There is a whole heart language that helps direct your brain and the rhythms in your body, and your heart sends more messages to the brain than vice versa!” says Kimberly Snyder , author of The Hidden Power of the Five Hearts . Here’s how to tap into this “heart-brain” connection via mindfulness and meditation to ease stress, sharpen your focus and improve your overall health.

Understanding the heart-brain connection

“ The heart contains 40,000 neurons, or brain-like cells that include sensory neurites, which help in receiving and transmitting information,” Snyder explains. “Your heart also creates an electromagnetic field that is a hundred times greater than the field your brain creates.” So, what does this all mean?

“It means that your heart is not just a muscle pumping blood through your body or a metaphor for sentimental love,” Snyder notes. “It is a center of profound intelligence. Your heart is also a kind of brain.”

“The way we access our heart ’ s massive power and intelligence happens through five stages, known as The Five Hearts,” she explains of the concept she covers in her new book.

The benefits of heart-brain alignment

“Heart intelligence is energetic, emotional, mental, spiritual and physical,” she notes. “It involves creating greater heart coherence, or heart-brain alignment, and tapping into your heart’s profound wisdom and allowing it to come front and center to guide your life. And no matter how disconnected you may feel from your heart at the moment, the connection can always be rekindled.”

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In fact, research in the American Journal of Cardiology found that by simply shifting your awareness to your heart, you enhance communication between your heart and your brain. This helps bring your nervous system back into balance, heightens cardiovascular efficiency and brings more coherence to your emotions and mind, found another study in the American Journal of Cardiology .

5 simple heart-brain mindfulness exercises

“Certain types of heart-focused meditation can enable you to experience extraordinary levels of intuition, creativity and flow, emotional intelligence and greater physical health,” Snyder says. “That includes measurable improvements in hormonal balance, immunity and more .”

You can also experience “deep connection to others, fulfilling relationships, confidence within yourself and deep levels of peace and love,” she adds. Ready to practice mindfulness? Here, five tailored heart-brain meditation exercises to get started:

1. Heart-brain mindfulness for focus

“With modern technology, the internet going 24 hours a day, smartphones always on with alerts and alarms… it’s no wonder why most people battle with distraction,” says Snyder.

If you’re having trouble paying attention , put your hand over your heart and concentrate on its gentle beats for a few minutes. “By placing your intentional focus and awareness on your heart, you activate its power and vast intelligence to begin waking up in your life,” she says. “You can feel truly present in this moment.”

Indeed, research in the American Journal of Cardiology found bringing awareness to your heart boosts communication between the heart and brain, helping balance your nervous system.

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2. Heart-brain mindfulness for positivity

“Incoherence means that mostly your head is talking rather than the heart and brain communicating together,” Snyder says. “This can make you feel locked in dark thoughts and heavy emotions like sadness, depression, self-doubt, fear, anger, blame and frustration.”

“And without the vital connection to the heart’s light, you may start to believe the dark thoughts, such as that you are not good enough,” she says. “These harsh thoughts are completely untrue. But they can certainly feel like they are when we’re in this stage.”

When you’re feeling a bit down, pause and think of someone who fills you with appreciation. “Stay in that expansive feeling for a few moments,” advises Snyder of the simple meditation. She notes that appreciation is a powerful mix of gratitude, thankfulness, approval and admiration, which together help lift your spirits.

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3. Heart-brain mindfulness for stress relief

“Modern life has become busier and business,” Snyder says. “Overwhelm is a result of not feeling anchored in ourselves, in the whirlwind of activity and motion, much of it outside of our control.”

And when we talk about having a “gut feeling,” there's more truth to it than we might realize. The gut, heart and brain communicate through networks of nerves and neurotransmitters that regulate mood, says Snyder.

Tap into this connection when you experience stress by visualizing your heart and gut as a single unit. Then take 3-5 deep breaths, focusing your full attention on this area. “When you do this practice and breathe your heart and gut as one unit, you align the brain in your gut with the brain in your heart,” she explains, which reduces stress.

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4. Heart-brain mindfulness for calm

Ever wonder why you can’t stop fuming after getting cut in line at the store? “Even though you may not consciously register it, that present-moment experience may have correlated to an old memory, stored deep in your brain, of getting cut in line by an older bully back in grade school,” says Snyder, who explains that this can trigger the brain’s “alarm system.” “Suddenly, you’re seething with anger. You feel personally violated. You silently fume.”

To restore calm, close your eyes and inhale while tensing your shoulders, fists, face and leg muscles for a count of three, then release with a strong double exhale (making a sound like huh huhhhh ). Repeat three times. “This helps remove the buildup of restless energy, tightness and tension from your body so you can create more stillness and heart coherence.”

5. Heart-brain mindfulness for anxiety relief

“Plans can be helpful, of course, and there’s a practical benefit to getting schedules and basic timelines organized,” Snyder says. “But issues arise when we create strong expectations that our plans and life must go exactly as we expect.”

“We can create a rigid sense of seriousness and importance around these plans,” she adds. “Connecting to the heart allows us to flow and create more harmony with life as it arises, and move out of the rigidity of the mind’s rigid expectations.”

The next time anxiety strikes , visualize your heart as a steady anchor in the midst of a stormy sea. Focus on slow, gentle breaths as you connect with this grounding "heart anchor.” Imagine that feelings of anxiety are waves coming and going. They are there, but they come and go and cannot impinge on your heat anchor. This sense of steadiness coming from within chases away worry, says Snyder.

For even more benefits, try HeartAlign Meditation

A great way to begin your day with balance is with Snyder’s guided HeartAlign Meditation practice. It unites her favorite mediation techniques to sync up your heart, brain and nervous system and bring balance and peace in eight minutes.

“ The HeartAlign Meditation combines the best of science and ancient wisdom,” Snyder says. “ It’s been proven to boost physical, emotional, and psychological balance by 29 percent in just four weeks.”

“The more you practice this meditation, the more you will feel inner harmony, peace and clarity rising up from your heart and out into your day and life,” Snyder says. “Heart coherence will continue to build, which means higher physical health, vitality, energy, hormonal balance, clarity, focus, emotional intelligence, lighter thoughts and so much more.”

To harness the benefits of mindfulness, aim to practice the HeartAlign Meditation at least four to five times per week. “ I recommend practicing the meditation in the morning, as close as possible to waking,” Snyder suggests. “The HeartAlign Meditation will help you access your heart and heart intelligence first thing and will increasingly impact your whole day and life, from the morning up.”

“You can practice this meditation in the evenings as well to help you reset to a state of greater harmony for deeper, more peaceful rest,” Snyder adds. “You can also work it into the middle of your day to increase coherence and prevent misconceptions, confusion and tension from building in the busyness of daily life.” Try it for free at MySolluna .

More on mindfulness:

4 Ways Practicing Mindfulness Benefits Your Health

Mindfulness for Beginners: 3 Simple Meditation Classes

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This content is not a substitute for professional medical advice or diagnosis. Always consult your physician before pursuing any treatment plan .