Perception, emotion, and overall health are influenced by the communications between the heart and brain. Many believe the heart is just as important to intelligence as the brain. If it's the brain that tells you what to think, then it's the heart that tells you how to think.

In conversation, your brain is the source of information. However, it's the heart that tells you what tone of voice to use during the situation, when to step back, and when to speak more aggressively. For many years, the thought that the heart was involved in thought dwelt only among the religious or philosophical world.

HeartMath LLC wanted to change people's perception of the heart. It's why they used the word "math" in the name. Math isn't about numbers in this context. It represents understanding. The heart is believed to send healing commands to the brain, and thus to the rest of the body.

According to Howard Martin, the heart has four distinct ways of sending messages to the body. He believes the heart is part of the nervous system (traditionally thought to include mainly the brain and spinal column) because it is made up of complex nervous system cells. Researchers have found that the body's neural pathways carry more messages from the heart to the brain than from the brain to the heart.

The second method of sending messages through the body involves blood pressure. Pressure waves of blood through arteries and veins mediate the electrical activity within the brain. In this way, a sort of biophysical communication occurs.

The third method is hormones. Howard believes that such hormones as oxytocin and cortisol are produced in the heart. Cortisol is the body's stress regulator, and oxytocin is known as "the love hormone" because it rises during relational situations like childbirth or sex.

Finally, Howard Martin believes the heart is not only a biological organ, but also an electrical organ. It's why a heart doctor performs an EKG on patients - to measure electrical impulses. This electrical energy passes through the skin into space as a measureable electromagnetic field extending approximately three to four feet. In this way, people around us can actually feel what type of mood we're having at the moment they're near us, whether positive or negative.