Sheva Carr, Doctor of Oriental Medicine, HeartMath Trainer, delegate to the United Nations
Kristin Kurtz, licensed HeartMath Practitioner and wellness coach
Month 2, Week 2
[Theme song playing]
ROBYN: Hello everyone and welcome to the Self-Care Revolution where we are in month two - Heart and Breath Matters. We started off with such a great introduction to this month last
week with Stig Severinsen. We’re still getting emails. He has so much to share about the power
of the breath and just giving us tools on how to live more mindfully every single day.
And we’re really excited this week to share with you two amazing women, Sheva Carr and
Kristin Kurtz to talk to you about HeartMath. So, we have a whole hour with both of them. And
just thank you for your patience. We have a little timing glitch here but I can think of two
perfect women to bring to the table to help us deal with a moment of stress, right?
HeartMath is the solution. And that’s what we’re all about. It’s really introducing this idea and
this mindset of self-care as the true healthcare. That no matter what we’re going through in any
single day, moment, that we can find strategies, we can find ways to really connect to our
heart, to connect to our breath, to live more fully in each and every moment. So, I am going to
introduce to Ms. Sheva Carr. Hi Sheva, we’re so glad to have you here.
Hello?
Okay, she did. Wait, I’m going to continue. She called in the landline?
Okay. We might need to call her. Okay. Why don’t we go ahead and introduce Kristin because
she’s right here, our very own Kristin Kurtz.
KEVIN: Hi. Well, I’m Kevin and I’m a Self-Care Coach and an Intuitive Counselor. I’m here
monitoring today and happy to be here with Kristin. Kristin Kurtz is a Licensed HeartMath
Practitioner and a wellness coach based here in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
She has a private coaching practice and is one of the Self- Care Coaches. So, she’s one of the
amazing people that you can reach on our last Tuesday of the month. She’ll be part of that call.
She has done training, so her on-going training to the Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine. And she
is able to create personalized plans for her clients. So, clients coming through the Revolution, so
people when they fill out their survey, specific information that comes through that and Kristin
Page | 1
www.jointheselfcarerevolution.com
info@jointheselfcarerevolution.com
Read Our Disclaimer Here
will get that information in designing self-care plan that is directed directly towards you. So, I
like to welcome Kristin.
KRISTIN: Thank you. It’s great to be here Kevin and Robyn and almost Sheva.
ROBYN: Yes, I think we have Sheva here.
She must be calling on the wrong…Okay. We are going to continue our conversation here with
Kristin Kurtz who has been doing this for quite a few years, right?
KRISTIN: Yes.
ROBYN: And I love the idea that Sheva was the one who came to Santa Fe Soul, to our center a
couple of years ago, to really share this formula of how to live well in day to day life. And I was
so struck by everything that she shared. I did her whole weekend. And Sheva, we can’t wait to
have you here in a second.
But at this moment, why don’t we start with you, Kristin and talk to us about your introduction
to HeartMath and how it impacted your life. So, maybe a little bit about your story.
KRISTIN: Sure. At the time that I was introduced to HeartMath, I was experiencing a lot of
stress. And I had done, you know, I knew a lot of the self-care techniques that we have talked
about a lot. I knew about nutrition and exercise and all of those things. But I wasn’t managing
my stress well. And even some of the techniques for stress management weren’t having an
impact. I was also at the time in my work, trying to teach about stress management.
So, I was in search of a methodology or a set of methodologies that really had an impact on
stress. Not just temporary fix but something that you could use throughout life through that
will really make a transformation. So, I was introduced to HeartMath. They are science-based as
well, which would appeal to me.
ROBYN: Right.
KRISTIN: Because I had a science background and it wasn’t just something that’s so abstract or
woo-woo. It was really based in Heart Science, so that appealed to me and spoke to me. So,
that’s my original introduction to HeartMath was in seeking something that had a deeper
impact.
ROBYN: Wow! About what time on your life was that? Exactly when was that?
Page | 2
www.jointheselfcarerevolution.com
info@jointheselfcarerevolution.com
Read Our Disclaimer Here
KRISTIN: Well, it’s probably when I was working and I was a new mom and when I was teaching
about stress.
ROBYN: So, as a mom, that can be pretty much every day. We’re still trying to get -- thank you
for being such a -- we see there’s so many of you on the line -- for being very patient in this
moment. But I think Sheva did get the wrong code so we are connecting with that right now.
Kristin, you want to continue? Just talk about when you first started.
KRISTIN: Okay, what was different for me about HeartMath was that it was more than just
some of the stress management techniques that I’ve been teaching, that I’ve been using
personally. It also involves the emotion. So, the big piece that HeartMath brings is the
connection to our emotions. When we are in a positive emotional state, we are creating in our
body what HeartMath calls “coherence,” which is a place in the body where all of our
physiological systems are aligned, where our heart is creating a balanced rhythm and we are in
training or creating a sync, a synchronization of all the organs in the body.
ROBYN: And you’ve been using this with your clients for how many years now?
KRISTIN: Oh, I’ve been working with client search for many years and introducing as the
foundation for self-care. It doesn’t matter. As I’ve mentioned, you can know about nutrition,
exercise, sleep. You can know about all these different things. But until you create an aligned or
a coherent state in your body, which HeartMath teaches you to do, it’s really hard to take
action on all those other things.
So, the foundation of what I teach in self-care for people is really to empower people through
managing their emotions, managing their stress to align and to get into this optimal
physiological state so that they can make the best choices whether it’s about what to eat, when
to exercise, how they perceive the world. Because it’s through this aligned state, that
perceptions start to shift, and then we start to care for our self better.
ROBYN: Isn’t there a definition for care, that HeartMath has a separate definition for care?
KRISTIN: Well, they talk about true care. True care is when we are in that aligned state, when
we are in the coherent state so that we are acting from our very best interest from our heart’s
true care. Because often, we get into places where we’re what they call “over care” where we
are creating our own stress by not caring from that centered authentic place. We are caring, for
example, in relationship to my daughter. I have a teenage daughter and when I get connected
to her stress or connected to her overwhelm, then I am not coming from my true care. I’ve lost
my center and I’ve sort of gotten involved in her stress, I'm incoherent and I’m not able to help
Page | 3
www.jointheselfcarerevolution.com
info@jointheselfcarerevolution.com
Read Our Disclaimer Here
her. But my true care is when I’m caring for myself first, staying in this aligned center place and
loving and supporting her from a whole different perspective.
ROBYN: That feels great and also with that consistent care when we practice that, and that’s a
big message of HeartMath too, if we practice this on a regular basis. Can you tell us a little bit
about the origins of HeartMath? Like when did it first start? It’s become a huge movement. I
mean, it’s growing exponentially by the year and there are more and more people that are
adding to the staff and they’re going out to schools, I remember.
KRISTIN: Right.
ROBYN: Sheva, are you here with us?
SHEVA: I’ve been here all along. The question is can you hear that I’m here?
ROBYN: Oh, sweetheart. Sorry for this little technical.
SHEVA: It’s no problem at all. It’s such a beautiful way to role model what we’re talking about.
KEVIN: Exactly.
SHEVA: This is the kind of modern thing that happens all the time, right? If I was going to let
my physiology go into a “fight or flight” or as Kristin has been so beautifully articulating over
care, about not being able to get on the phone line and I’m wasting all these beautiful energy, I
could just be sitting here appreciating all of you. So, it’s a great opportunity for a learning
moment.
ROBYN: We are so happy to have you here and it’s been a while since I’ve heard your beautiful
voice.
SHEVA: I’m so happy to be here. Thank you, Robyn. Yes, I miss you and I must see you when
I’m in Santa Fe this summer.
ROBYN: Yes, our sun room is vibing you back.
SHEVA: Okay, good.
ROBYN: I’m serious. You’ve been such great -- you shared so much on the weekend summer
that you did and I remember you were here for an afternoon too. And I just can’t get enough of
HeartMath and hearing from both you and Kristin. It’s such a rich--knowing, I mean for people
Page | 4
www.jointheselfcarerevolution.com
info@jointheselfcarerevolution.com
Read Our Disclaimer Here
to realize how you can practice self-care at such a deep level. But, for all of you who are
monitoring, we’ve got quite a few of you. Again, thank you for your patience.
Sheva Carr is the Founding Director of HeartMath’s HeartMastery Program and the CEO of
Fyera and the founding Executive Director of the Fyera Foundation and Sunflower SunPower
Kids. She speaks to people all over the world on how to access heart intelligence, and how to
receive the benefits of the heart's impact on consciousness, health, performance, creativity and
social change. She’s a licensed Doctor of Oriental Medicine, a HeartMath Trainer, a recognized
global peace facilitator and delegate to the United Nations. Wow! Here you are!
SHEVA: Mostly, I just like petting my cat and playing with kids who like finger paints.
KEVIN: Right.
SHEVA: All just human beings beyond what we do. And that’s the beauty of the heart to me is
that it brings us right back to our humanity and the ultimate self-care physiologically turns out
to come through that doorway.
ROBYN: Right. Do you want to just within that introduction, maybe talk to our listeners about
your Fyera Foundation and Sunflower SunPower Kids?
SHEVA: I want to acknowledge first, Robyn that you’d asked Kristin a little bit about the history
of HeartMath and they imagine that’s a question that has listeners dangling out there like a
participle. So, maybe Kristin and I can answer it that first now that you’ve brought me here and
that I’m obviously happy to share the work that has been the crucible of growth for me in
learning how caring for others can be self-caring when it comes from a place of inner mastery.
But HeartMath was the context that gave me that understanding, founded -- actually begun
informally 35 years ago by Dr. Childre and his own visionary awareness that stress is about to
become pandemic around the world. And he has this great compassion for humanity and his
desire to provide something that would help ease that and make a difference. He gathered
around him, over the years, a team of researchers and graphic designers and business people
and trainers to cultivate what became through their experimentation and investigation, the
tools, technology and body of research that today is HeartMath.
Founded in 1991 and sort of landing on the map, if you will, of the science world that Kristin
spoke of earlier. They were published -- their research was published in the American Journal of
Cardiology in 1991 as the first piece of research that really linked, not just poetically and
metaphorically, but physically and physiologically, emotions and heart rhythms. And made the
Page | 5
www.jointheselfcarerevolution.com
info@jointheselfcarerevolution.com
Read Our Disclaimer Here
connection between how regulating and consciously choosing emotion is an act of self-care as
well as an act of care for the world around you.
And so, since that time, HeartMath has developed multiple, sort of facets on the diamond of
their work. As you mentioned, Robyn, they do work in schools with kids. I do work with kids
with HeartMath in third-world countries. They do work in corporations, organizations and at
HeartMastery which is my passion, we work with human beings.
So, it’s a beautiful body of work, not one that we’ll be able to cover in its entirety in an hour.
But that gives you a little bit of background on how it came to be.
KRISTIN: So Sheva, hi. This is Kristin.
SHEVA: Hello Kristin. What a beautiful job you’re doing.
KRISTIN: Oh, thank you. So, one of the things that came up, as we were talking before the call,
was there’s a lot of things out there for managing stress. As you said, it’s pandemic around the
world. So, what’s distinct about HeartMath’s approach that goes beyond just for the basic
person? What’s out there for stress management, breathing and relaxation, et cetera?
SHEVA: Well, you’re kind of setting me up to be arrogant here. And so, I’m going to sidestep
that one and say that I don’t think any us at HeartMath see ourselves or the work we do as “the
answer” above and beyond all other answers. The way that I look at it more is that everybody’s
got a heart. And whether you’re looking at it in ancient spiritual traditions, or you’re looking at
it as an ER doc that I’ve trained at UCLA, or a cardiologist that I worked with at Medtronic or an
Olympic athlete that’s trying to win the gold, a street kid that really just wants a pair of shoes
and a way to get to school. Everybody has got a heart, whatever unique challenge they're facing
and unique opportunity they're confronting. And so, if you’re underwater, you need scuba gear
and if you’re on a chairlift you need skis and poles.
But the heart has the capacity, it turns out, to help both attract whatever we need and
whatever situation we’re in, and also guide us and help us navigate that. There is a brain that’s
been discovered in the heart with its own unique nervous system, neurotransmitters, proteins,
support cells, a literal viable brain with intelligence in the heart. So, this sort of old adage
“follow your heart” is not just a poetic metaphor. It has scientific merit.
And it turns out that HeartMath has really extensively researched that scientific basis for
listening to the heart’s intuition and guidance. And also, they're in observation of how the
heart, which broadcasts the field much the way a radio station is broadcasting a signal,
interfaces with the quantum field of all that is drawing to you, what you need, and also making
Page | 6
www.jointheselfcarerevolution.com
info@jointheselfcarerevolution.com
Read Our Disclaimer Here
of you a contributing element to the global climate, if you will. That does affect weather, by the
way. There’s a research initiative looking at the role of collective heart output and intention on
things like weather patterns and the earth’s ionosphere. But it also just effects, and we don’t
even need science to tell us this, how other people respond to you. So, we all know when you
pick up the phone with entitlements and outrage, talking to the customer care person, you may
not get care back.
So, when we learn how to come from the heart of what HeartMath’s researchers discovered is
this internal coherent state. That just means when we’re feeling emotions like love, care,
appreciation, compassion, understanding, latitude, ease, any of these things that we might call
positive emotions, we can now instead call them coherent emotions. Because they create this
ordered pattern in the heart’s rhythm that broadcasts this coherent field both to every other
part of your body/mind, over 1400 physiological things change in you when your heart changes
to that state of internal order and its beat to beat rhythm. And it also broadcast outside of you.
So, if you take that moment to care for yourself by transmuting and transforming anger or rage
into self-love and compassion or in the compassion for other, it changes the hormone that age
you. It changes the way your nervous system works, it adds years to your life, and it also adds
resilience to your nervous system so your biomarkers for aging shift. And in that process, it also
broadcasts to that customer care person on the other line. So, when they pick up the phone
and they feel more at ease with you, they take care of you. So, it is truly the ultimate in selfcare not because it’s better than anything else but because the heart of anything is what
activates everything in a positive way.
KRISTIN: Yes. And the beauty is that with practice, we can learn to do that in any situation.
Regardless of what we encounter, we have the ability, and as you like to say, Sheva, in a
heartbeat to change our emotions, the way we’re feeling, to shift to a positive emotional state,
and therefore, start to shift our perception of any situation that we’re in.
SHEVA: Well, to some degree, yes. But the listeners could either throw up their hands when
they hear us say this, right?, and say – well, like, my accountant’s sister just died. She was 35,
she has three children, suddenly died in her sleep. And so, it would be lacking compassion for
my accountant if I said, “Well, geez, what’s your problem? Just, you know, shift that grief. Have
compassion instead.” So, I don’t know. I haven't [inaudible]. Let me say this way, Kristin. I
couldn’t say for myself that I can do it in any situation, activate an emotion that I want. What I
can do is I can respond to whatever I’m feeling with heart.
So, when I’m feeling entitled and enraged as I was yesterday at the customer care people on
the phone, I couldn’t necessarily just flip that switch even though I've been practicing these
skills for 20 years. But what I could do is go to neutral on my own self-judgment about what I’m
Page | 7
www.jointheselfcarerevolution.com
info@jointheselfcarerevolution.com
Read Our Disclaimer Here
feeling so that I can respond to my own anger with compassion and self-acceptance, love. And
when I do that, emotions that are incoherent like anger and fear, the ones that are
uncomfortable that none of us want to feel, it’s not about getting rid of them. They operate
sort of like shaking the camera lens. They just distort our perceptions of what happening. And
when I can respond, not necessarily to the situation because I don’t have that level of mastery
myself yet, but I can at least respond to myself and what I’m feeling with that shift to the heart.
That like focuses the camera lens so that I can see more accurately what’s happening and
respond more effectively. And of course, accurate perception and accurate response with selflove and self-care is self-caring.
So, it’s not idealistic. We’re not telling people that you should just cover over some rotting
banana peels with some nice chocolate syrup and it will still make a good dessert. It’s not about
covering up what we’re feeling. It’s actually about learning to gain some emotional IQ so that
we can listen to what our feelings are telling us by getting internally coherent because all
emotion has information in it for us.
And so, one of the first things that HeartMath skills do to promote self-care is remove our
judgment and our super ego, like ideas, of how we should appear emotionally, how we should
be. And get us instead to receive our feelings with an inner listening from the heart where we
can use feeling as guide rather than performance. So yes, that can be done anytime, anywhere.
KRISTIN: Right, thank you for that clarification. Because it is more that we don’t want to get rid
of emotions, we really want to view the message from the heart’s perspective.
SHEVA: Beautifully put, Kristin. I love it when people say it shorter and better.
KEVIN: And Sheva, this is Kevin.
SHEVA: Hi Kevin, nice to meet you.
KEVIN: Nice to meet you as well. I’m glad that you’re here in the call. And I was wondering,
when you mentioned earlier about shifting into neutral, is that what you’re currently describing
with Kristin as that process of shifting into neutral?
SHEVA: Well, neutral is actually one of the hundred or so HeartMath skills. And the act of
shifting to neutral is a step-by-step process that you learn in some of our courses and books
and things. What’s happening when you shift to neutral is, in multiple dimensions, you’re
neutralizing your autonomic nervous system because one of the things that we’re doing to
destroy ourselves and where self-compassion is so needed as an act of self-caring, is that the
bodies we have right now are essentially the same ones that we used in running from tigers on
Page | 8
www.jointheselfcarerevolution.com
info@jointheselfcarerevolution.com
Read Our Disclaimer Here
the prairie and the plains and hiding in caves. Our technology has advanced but our biology is
pretty much the same.
So, the body doesn’t really know the difference between a tiger chasing you for lunch, its lunch,
or a traffic jam on your way to a job interview or a miscommunication about what calling PIN
you’re supposed to use for a conference call, or radio interview, right? The body doesn’t have
any way to tell the difference. It only goes off of the emotional signals you send it.
And so, if I’m trying to get into an interview I’m supposed to do and I don’t have the call
information, if I react to that emotionally with fear or upset or blame or judgment of you or
judgment of myself, then my body goes [expression], something’s wrong. We better activate
our inner 911. Ring the alarm bell. Shut down the higher brain function because we don’t want
to think about which way to go when the tiger’s chasing us. We just want to bolt, we don’t want
to pull out our map or our iPhone and look up the genus and species of this tiger. We just got to
get out of here.
So, the nervous system activates. And as I said, the 1400 things in the body and mind get ready
for that red alarm. And we know when we call 911 and bring out a fire truck or an ambulance,
that takes a lot of resources. Exact the same thing is true in our bodies. It takes a lot of
resources to call 911 every time that we get an email we don’t like.
ROBYN: But how many hormonal shifts, I’m trying to remember, it was in the thousands, right?
With one big…
SHEVA: Well, there are few hormonal shifts because hormones are just one facet of this
picture. The main one that people are familiar with here is the shift into amplifying cortisol. One
of the things that we’re seeing though now in the stress culture that most people live in is that
they’ve used up so much cortisol that now they’re in cortisol depletion. Cortisol is the stress
hormone but someone who has a long-term chronic stress can’t even make cortisol anymore.
It’s like there’s no gas left in the ambulance.
And so, what we don’t realize is that when we react emotionally to things that are not survival
threats, the things that are psychological threats, “Can you believe that person said that?” Or, “I
can’t believe this email. What are they thinking?” Or, whatever it is. Taking a test, paying our
bills, getting a letter from the IRS, none of these things are physical threats. But when we react
emotionally to them, we activate our bodies as if they’re physically threatening, and that puts a
lot of wear and tear on our system. And so, that’s where this neutral that you keyed into, Kevin,
comes in. Because we can neutralize the impact of that by making this shift to the heart, that
HeartMath skills and teach and the technology nears in real-time, you can actually see your
heart rhythm on the computer in real time. And make that shift into a more internally coherent
Page | 9
www.jointheselfcarerevolution.com
info@jointheselfcarerevolution.com
Read Our Disclaimer Here
state because modern threats require things like our higher brain function are resiliencebuilding hormones to resolve.
When I’m taking a test or trying to get the proper PIN to call into a radio interview, I need my
brain. Running away from that situation or punching the phone isn’t going to help me. Well, I
need to download and upgrade and that’s what accessing the heart intelligence does. And then
I use my own physiological reserves more efficiently and effectively and that is an act of selfcare that promotes my longevity, health, and well-being.
KEVIN: I know one of the things that I remember from the early days of HeartMath was
imagining that my heart had a face. That I could just imagine this face on my heart or trading
more of a character on my heart, is that something I remember correctly?
SHEVA: Wow, you must have come to HeartMath way before me. Either that or you took one
of the children’s programs. No, I haven’t heard that one. But I may use that with the kids in
Nicaragua, that’s great. They’ll love it.
ROBYN: Are you still wearing that smile on your heart, Kevin?
KEVIN: Yes, I am.
ROBYN: Sheva, to prepare for this part, I went back to my notes with you and I remember you
said every heart has its signature song. Can you talk about that?
SHEVA: Well, one of the things we do a lot at HeartMastery, because the whole idea of
overcoming stress is really just the beginning. That’s just the baseline where you’re not draining
your vitality all day every day. What are you going to do with all that free energy once you’re
living in a balanced self-caring way? That’s when the fun begins. That’s where the adventure
takes off. Because now, you have free attention, free energy, vitality, and access to whole
dimensions of intelligence that were shut down before, that’s when you can live your purpose.
ROBYN: Beautiful.
SHEVA: And so then, self-care is not just about surviving intact. Self-care is about your
contribution to the world and your adventure on the planet Earth vacation. And so, every heart
signature is -- in other words, the emWave Device which is HeartMath’s technology for looking
at your heart rhythm in real-time, reflects to you whether your heart is in that, “Uh-oh, the
camera lens is shaking and I’m watching the home video my dad did of me when I was four
years old. And it’s all bumpy and all over the place and I need Dramamine” to, “okay, we’re now
on a steady cam and I can actually see with clarity what’s happening here.” That incoherent,
Page | 10
www.jointheselfcarerevolution.com
info@jointheselfcarerevolution.com
Read Our Disclaimer Here
chaotic state internally which sets all of our systems and perceptions to that coherent internal
state that happens with the change in heart rhythm. What that does is on the emWave, you can
see it produces this nice, beautiful, rolling hills and valleys rhythm. Now, that will happen to
every heart that makes the shift.
But one of the ways that I describe this or think about it is everybody’s heart that goes into
coherence goes into coherence at about the same frequency range which is around 0.1 Hertz
which happens to match the background noise of the universe. So, when you go into that
coherent state, you are aligning with all that is, and that’s where the synchronicities of life start
happening more and more. That’s where the adventure and the fun begin.
But when I talked, Robyn, with you about the signature song of the heart, you could imagine
that each of us has our own unique song, the “Heart Song” is what I call it. This is not
HeartMath. This is Sheva’s way of translation HeartMath into a lay person’s language. So, if
your song, Robyn, is “Jingle Bells” and mine is “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”, but what I’m tuning
into instead is the collective stress of the orchestra around me warming up and tuning their
instruments or throwing their instruments against the wall, then I’m not going to actually play
my coherent song. I’m just going to be a mish-mash. When I get coherent, then I play that song.
So, coherence is not monotone. Coherence is not the heartbeat going da…da…da…da…da.
That’s actually, a heart that’s monotone is an unhealthy condition.
The heart wants to be changing, responsive to life, engaged and responding with changing
things. And so, just like Row, Row, Row Your Boat or Jingle Bells has rhythmic change within it
that’s predictable, a coherent heart has a signature rhythmic change to it. That’s predictable.
And without going into the science and medicine side of that, what happens on the human-tohuman side of that is that as you learn to get coherent to your own signature song, that’s when
your purpose starts revealing itself to you. That’s when you feel connected to the larger world
and step into your belonging and your sense of contribution in the legacy you’re here to live.
KRISTIN: Beautiful. And it’s so wonderful, Sheva, to teach that to young people to hear their
own personal Heart Song and connect with it. How does that -- when you work with the
children in Nicaragua that already have a pretty traumatic life, how does that unfold in your
work with them?
SHEVA: Well, here’s the super-fun thing about this is that -- and this is true whether your life is
traumatic in Nicaragua and you don’t have to go to Nicaragua to find people who had trauma. It
can probably knock on your next door neighbor’s door because the world is going through
dramatic changes right now. And so, we’re all facing it. I haven’t met a human being in the vast
array of countries I travel in, socio-economic groups I work with, I haven’t met anybody who’s
not encountering some challenge and opportunity.
Page | 11
www.jointheselfcarerevolution.com
info@jointheselfcarerevolution.com
Read Our Disclaimer Here
And so, the beauty of HeartMath skills and the body of work that’s HeartMath from my
perspective is that most of us think that our emotions and the physiological repercussions they
bring-- we all know that if you have a big fight with somebody, you might get a cold the next
day because we know it compromises your immune system. This is the research of wonderful
because it proves it but it’s also pointing us to what’s common sense in our own direct
experience. So, most of us think that the emotions that we feel and the physiological
repercussions of that, as well as the social, emotional interactive repercussions of that, are just
going to happen to us, no matter what. We are victims of that. We’re the whim of our
emotional reactions because they happen as a result of life events.
So, if I’m a kid in Nicaragua with trauma well then, I’m justified growing up traumatic, and
justified in growing up a victim because this was my circumstance. And any of us could feel that
way based on whatever our childhood was. We all have our sub-story we could tell. And what
the research shows is that retelling that story again and again causes the physiology to relive it
again and again. Just like your hormones, neurotransmitters, and nervous system and immune
system don’t know the difference between an actual tiger in the room or test-taking anxiety or
fear of public speaking.
Your body doesn’t know the difference between remembering a traumatic event in the past
and living it. It relives it and that re-puts wear and tear on the body. It would be like calling an
ambulance every time you remember the time you had to go in an ambulance. That costs a lot
of money in the States anyway. And it uses up our resources fast and produces a lot of wear
and tear in our system. But here’s where HeartMath comes in with the great good news.
The body also doesn’t really know the difference between meeting that situation or any other
situation with gratitude, appreciation, innovation and creation. What do I mean by that? Well, a
simple way to look at this is this, emotions do happen to us as a result of life events. I’m not
going to argue that, my accountant is desperate that her sister just died and her children are
parentless. That is a valid reaction to that situation, of course. The piece that gets mostly left
out of our education wherever we are, whether we grew up in the States or in Nicaragua or
Ghana, is that we can also and often do generate emotion irregardless of life events. We all
know that because all of us have had a bad hair day and a good hair day with the exact same
head of hair. We’ve all had some kind of experience where we got in a rotten mood and were
surrounded by people who were celebrating but we can’t feel that inside or vice versa. Where
we’re just on Cloud 9 and the small stuff and the big stuff we’re not going to sweat. It can get us
down.
Think about the first time you ever fell in love. Then those little things that you’re taking
normally seem to have no hold. So, we have the capacity as yet for most of us relatively
Page | 12
www.jointheselfcarerevolution.com
info@jointheselfcarerevolution.com
Read Our Disclaimer Here
unexplored to generate emotion on purpose not just in reaction to events. And it turns out
because of what we know from the research that when we generate emotions like love, care,
appreciation, compassion on purpose, that that produces a cascade of events in our body and
our brains that are self-balancing and nourishing and replenishing and self-caring.
So, when I work with a street kid in Nicaragua whose been in prostitution or child trafficking,
it’s exactly the same as working with a corporate executive whose got to lay off people or
working with an athlete who’s getting ready for a big event. Because what this does and this
may border on spiritual for some is it takes the significance completely out of the life events, of
the plot of the human storyline. And it puts the significance on the character inside that’s
moving through that story.
This is why one of our tools is called Freeze Frame, because it speaks to this aspect of the body
of work that is HeartMath, where you’re freezing the frame on the illusion of the video game of
life. Whatever it is that you’re facing in terms of a challenge, we’ve now in terms of the selfcaring skills of HeartMath, taken the significance out of the external challenge and place the
importance instead on the inner character that’s being built in the face of that challenge. And
this is a step-by-step process by which that happens. So that it’s less significant for a child in
Nicaragua that they’ve grown up on the streets and just like everybody else, their doorway to
self-care and personal power is to generate the emotions that change the outcomes of their life
journey.
ROBYN: Please say that again. The doorway to self-care is to generate…
SHEVA: The emotions internally that change the external outcomes. So, we’re now looking at
changing the internal character to change the plotline. I always think that Nelson Mandela for
me is the most shining example of this. There he is in prison on Robben Island, the lowest of the
low of his society. The plot is not looking good, right? He is being beat up every day. This is not
a happy scenario. The plot is not good but the internal character of the human being, how does
he respond to that with dignity, with love. He meets his abusers by talking to them about their
children and caring for them. His care for them was an act of self-care for him because he
stepped into being the hero he could be. This is ultimately where the heart takes us. When we
can become our optimal destiny, that’s the ultimate act of self-care, it transcends health, it
transcends circumstance and we stepped into something so much bigger that I will call personal
greatness. Contributing to a global shift that’s happening which is, of course, this whole
revolution. This is the revolution. That’s the revolution part of self-caring.
So, when he responded in that way, they had to keep bringing new guards because the guards
would become too kind to him by their standards. And by holding that inner resonance, that
choice to respond to his environment rather than react which is really at that most base level of
Page | 13
www.jointheselfcarerevolution.com
info@jointheselfcarerevolution.com
Read Our Disclaimer Here
what HeartMath skills give us, that step-by-step role, I have a way to do. Then he was a
resonant match for becoming president of his country rather than imprisoned by his country.
And that destiny unfolded.
So circumstance is irrelevant because what’s being developed with HeartMath skills is the
internal character that meets that circumstance. And as that character develops, the
circumstances have to change. And that gets into the quantum physics of it which we teach in
our more advanced courses.
KEVIN: Leading off of that, just dropping into your own life and what do you think are your
main daily rituals that help you maintain what you’re talking about here, this ability?
ROBYN: Sustainable, heart of all these great messages that you’re sharing is we learn
HeartMath, we learn a lot of these self-care strategies. How do we just bring that into everyday
life and remember? What is the best tool?
SHEVA: Well, you know, and I’d love for Kristin to give her input here because I’m feeling a
little bit like, “You probably shouldn’t have unmuted me.” Kristin, do you want to answer that
question first?
KRISTIN: Well, for me, it is a commitment to myself that every day, to spend time in that space
of love and appreciation which leads me to shift my perception, shifts my physiology and
enables me to build on that. So for me, it’s been a practice of building on something very, very
basic in the beginning and expanding to the realms that you’re describing, Sheva, where the
heart can take us places that are very unexpected.
And so for me, making a commitment to myself every day, to tap into that has created an
amazing journey. And a result, just on a practical level, it has empowered me to make choices,
very practical choices that support my health and well-being. So for me, it’s a practice, it’s a
commitment to myself. That’s the ultimate. For me, active self-care is committing that time to
myself even a minute or two every so often, to reflect on that. What about you, Sheva?
SHEVA: I love that. Thank you, Kristin. I’m going to re-emphasize very quick on what you said
about applying the skills and applying what you’ve learned. You can have a hammer and you
can have plywood but it doesn’t become a house until you do something with it. And so, these
skills are alive and they’re meant to be used. And so, one of the things that actually, Robyn,
now that I think of it, got innovated the first time I was at Santa Fe Soul and I was teaching a
workshop in your space in the Sun Room, when I was taking clients through the Freeze Frame
tool that I spoke of earlier. And my own heart said, “Sheva, people need help to practice this
Page | 14
www.jointheselfcarerevolution.com
info@jointheselfcarerevolution.com
Read Our Disclaimer Here
every day. Why don’t you create a call every day where people can call in and be talked through
the tools?” So, they're supported to be held in that.
Because that’s one of the things that I do for self-care is I get coaching, I get mentoring, I get
teachers. I love learning, whatever it is. I just learned skiing. So, I got a teacher, I got a skiing
coach. And someone who can mirror to me, someone who’s already expert at that thing, who
already has mastery in that so I can follow what they do. And so, that’s what my heart said,
people need guidance to learn how to apply the heart in the circumstances they’re facing.
So, at Santa Fe Soul, I gave birth to the HeartStart Calls. You may have thought about how that
happened at your space, Robyn. But there you have it, that was many years ago. And now, we
have hundreds of people participating on the daily HeartStart Calls every day. And that’s also an
active self-care for me, teaching the HeartStart Calls.
What HeartMath’s research shows is that caring for others is self-caring. Not just HeartMath’s
research, there is a study that was done and people just watching a movie of Mother Teresa
being benevolent and just watching acts of caring for others increase immune system activity.
So, we know that engaging in genuine care for anyone, self or other, is the greatest act of selfcare because it’s regenerative. The human system that turns out, based on HeartMath’s
research, has shown to run and be filled by caring. It doesn’t matter what you’re caring for
because ultimately there’s no real other. We are all connected. So, when it’s authentic genuine
care, then that is regenerative. And so, I've just felt so fortunate and blessed because my whole
life is constructed around acts of care.
But in terms of my explicit self-care, in addition to the daily practice and the daily ritual of
sharing this with others which is my greatest joy, I would say, if I was going to leave your
listeners with one tip that I experience as my self-care journey, it’s that I welcome everything
that I feel. The place where I will lose self-care is if I judge my feeling or I think that I need to
appear a certain way. But when I honor what I’m feeling and take the time and space to
acknowledge it and listen to it with self-love and self-regard, meaning I’m not indulging my
feelings and I’m also not denying them or judging them but I’m available to them like my own
best friend, then those feelings have critical information for me about unfolding my unique
heart’s blueprint and adventure. And so, that inner listening is a discipline, not at a certain time
of day but every day, throughout the many moments of the day that has come to be my basis
for self-care.
ROBYN: Beautiful. Wow! So, the HeartStart Calls -- how can our listeners access the calls and
maybe you can tackle a little bit about your gift, your free gift that -- thank you so much, both
of you for your generosity. Maybe talk about the offer that you have too for our listeners?
Page | 15
www.jointheselfcarerevolution.com
info@jointheselfcarerevolution.com
Read Our Disclaimer Here
SHEVA: Absolutely. Kristin, do you want to go first?
KRISTIN: Certainly. Why don’t you go first because I’d like to build on what you’re offering,
Sheva.
SHEVA: Okay. Well, at the HeartMastery Program because as Kristin pointed out, this takes
practice. If you think about it, we’re evolving at least a nervous system and a hormonal system
that’s been in place for several thousand years into a new system. So, you think how long it
takes to download upgrades on your computer, it’s going to take some time for us to upgrade
our physiology to meet up with up our technology. And so, it’s a mastery, it’s a daily practice.
But in the process, there are new baselines that are reached, new skills you can add to the
initial skills that get a momentum going where soon what you’re living into is not just managing
stress for health but living your heart’s purpose. And that’s what we support people to do in the
HeartMastery Program. The HeartMastery Program has courses that run month to month but it
can all be done as one package over the course of a year where you really make that shift from
managing your own stress to living your heart’s purpose in creating a heart-based world
together. Mostly, we’ve created this HeartMastery Program to facilitate people like you living
your purpose. That’s it. That’s what where here for. And so, we’re really trying to make it as
available and accessible as possible.
And normally, Robyn, the first month’s course called “Shift to the Heart” which covers the
content you learned in that Sana Fe Soul weekend is $250 plus the daily HeartStart Calls where
you do the practice sessions are $97. So, the total fee is $347. What the generous folks at
HeartMastery worked out for your listeners only is that they can access all of that for two
months for $97. So, for the first 4-week class where you’ll learn a little bit about neutral, but
you’ll learn the “how to” of this. How do you create emotion on purpose? Not just in reaction
to life circumstances. How do you generate emotion as an active self-care? And as an act of
care and making a difference in the world, you’ll learn all the skills you need in that first month
and you’ll get the daily HeartStart Calls where you can practice. And we’re offering that to your
group, Robyn, for $97.
And find that by going to http://tinyurl.com/HeartMasteryCourse. That will take you to the
shop page and you can enter all capital letters, SELFCARE, on check out to get that big discount,
almost $300 off, $250 dollars off. And Robyn, I believe you’re going to send a follow-up email
about that?
ROBYN: Yes, absolutely. That will go out tomorrow, for sure.
SHEVA: Because that would stress me out to try to remember that URL.
Page | 16
www.jointheselfcarerevolution.com
info@jointheselfcarerevolution.com
Read Our Disclaimer Here
ROBYN: Yes. You know, we’re having this big event, a live event, the Self-Care Revolution Bliss
Weekend in June. It will be so great if you could come, Sheva. We’d love it.
Of course, Kristin is right here, fortunately. So, maybe think about that. It would be really great
to be able to offer, to hear you guys both, partnered together and speak about this and share
this important scientific HeartMath Program that’s really changing lives all around the world.
Thanks to your outreach. It’s just great how you’re going around the world, working with
children. Woo-hoo!
SHEVA: Yes, we must emphasize that your outreach there means about 60/70 people working
at HeartMath, not just me, and that includes Kristin. So Kristin, I would love for you to share
about the beautiful stuff that you're doing.
KRISTIN: Well, thank you. And I am here at Santa Fe Soul. I'm working on people on an
individual basis. And I just want to say that the HeartMastery Course is very rich and have
participated and it’s extremely rewarding but equally rewarding has been working with an
individual coach and learning to apply the skills physically to my life’s circumstance. And that’s
what I’m here to offer, some very individualized coaching to anchoring the skills to apply them
to very specific situations and create that hand holding, that container, that extra support that
people need to make the shift.
And so, I’m happy to offer a free 30-minute consultation to anyone that wants to play, wants to
play with the technology to get a sense of where they are at the moment and then, create a
very discounted package to work with me on an on-going basis. So, I’m here to support the
work overall at HeartMath to really bring and create an individualized focus.
SHEVA: I love that, Kristin. And just to say to the listeners, know one aspect to self-care is
coming to know yourself and how you learn and grow and heal the best. Some people are solo
learners and they like to get in with technology and read books. Other people like a coach oneon-one. Other people like group settings, having someone talk you through the tools.
The beautiful thing about HeartMath is we’ve made all the learning styles available for you. And
if you’re not sure what kind of learner you are, then I suggest you reach out to Kristin and take
her up on that half an hour of generous offer of a consultation with her as a licensed HeartMath
provider. She can help you identify how you learn best and what program will be best for you.
ROBYN: We are so lucky to have you, Kristin, right here as part of our center and our outreach
of the local and our continuously growing global community now with the Self-Care Revolution.
This is still in my head when I think about HeartMath, and I remember you talking about the
Page | 17
www.jointheselfcarerevolution.com
info@jointheselfcarerevolution.com
Read Our Disclaimer Here
difference, I think the listeners would like to hear this, when you put heart cells in a petri dish
and brain cells.
KRISTIN: Oh, you're bringing in my physics.
ROBYN: That’s the power of living from the heart.
KRISTIN: Yeah, this is definitely. Because, you know, for me the science is only meaningful in so
far as it produces a change in our quality of life. And this piece of science is one of my favorites
in that regard. It actually, it isn’t a research project that was done by HeartMath. It’s a research
project that’s cited in Joseph Chilton Pearce’s book, “The Biology of Transcendence.” And in the
study, they put -- well, let’s just say it this way. Robyn, we could put your brain cell on a petri
dish and my brain cell in a petri dish and even though we have such great rapport and get
along. So, it’s two brain cells would send out dendrites trying to connect and they’d be about as
successful as me trying to be heard when I was on the wrong PIN.
ROBYN: Right.
KRISTIN: No connection happening, right? They would keep sending dendrites to each other
trying to connect. And eventually, as the research study went, they would implode on
themselves and die. And when I heard that, I was a young cross-cultural student studying in
different countries around the world and I thought, “Oh my God! That’s exactly what is
happening in our international relations. This is what’s happening right now in so many places.”
However, if you take my cat’s heart cell, and Kevin’s heart cell, and my heart’s cell and Kristin’s
heart cell and your heart cell, Robyn, and then we can throw in one from everybody who’s
listening, what will happen, because of the way the heart works, is they will start beating in
unison together as if they are one heart. I still can’t say this without getting chills and tearyeyed. They, in other words, connect and create a syncytium, that’s the medical term for how
the heart beats. You have billions of cells in the heart. Each one has its own battery capable of
creating its own pulse, its own beat. But they beat together in a syncytium by entraining to one
another. That’s part of what creates that coherent rhythm. So, we support and amplify that
when we choose to activate, on purpose, positive or what we’re going to call coherent
emotions. And so, those cells will come together and they will keep beating as one heart as long
as the scientists are willing to keep putting saline solution in that petri dish. I think they gave up
after 20 years.
And so, what does that tells us about hope for humanity and our future and what’s possible?
This whole idea that two hearts that beat as one is another one that’s just more than a
metaphor that has scientific merit. And in fact, without losing our individuality, without losing
Page | 18
www.jointheselfcarerevolution.com
info@jointheselfcarerevolution.com
Read Our Disclaimer Here
our unique heart song, when we are coherent, we also connect simultaneously without
sacrificing our diversity to the oneness that we are. And that intelligence of the heart gives us
the access to hear innovative solutions that meet the needs of the whole because the heart is
connected to the whole. In fact, we could say that science is pointing to the idea that there’s
really only one heart, a shared heart. You can do heart transplants but you can’t do brain
transplants. And that heart, when if we connect our brain to it, connects us to a field of
intelligence. It gives us a different operating system where our personal greatness can
contribute to the greatness of the whole.
ROBYN: Wow! Thank you so much, Kristin. And thank you, Sheva, for sharing your song, your
HeartMath, your heart, your wisdom with us. And I think we’re going to have keep this up a
little bit longer so people can hear this for several days. This message is so powerful. It’s like the
ultimate self-care message. And that sustainable way of practicing it and how we can be that
one heart in many rhythms and yum-yum with all that.
SHEVA: Yes. It’s so practical, Robyn, because while that sounds so grandiose. The style, that
vision meets the street with these skills. So, we’re using them with -- I'm using them with girls
from Israel and Palestine who are in peace dialogues with each other. Brain to brain, they can’t
connect; they are enemies. But when they learn to listen to one another from the heart, their
motto is “An enemy is a friend whose story you have yet to hear.”
KEVIN: Beautiful.
SHEVA: So, this works. It works from the frontlines of life whether you’re just fighting a lot with
your spouse or you’re living in Gaza and dodging missiles. These skills work.
KRISTIN: And when we, ourselves, learn to listen to our hearts and not just our heads, how
transformative it is for us individually as well and in connection with everyone else.
KEVIN: Absolutely. I want to thank Kristin and Sheva. Thank you as well for creating coherence
on the call today. You’re amazingly beautiful and I definitely feel as though, you mentioned this
earlier, but I feel as though I have downloaded and upgraded. And I think…
ROBYN: Yeah, [inaudible] how this whole talk started really in a way [crosstalk].
SHEVA: Very coherent!
ROBYN: So, look where we’ve come an hour later and, oh, yay. Well, thanks, thanks again all of
you for being here today. To continue with us, www.JoinTheSelfCareRevolution.com. We’ll have
the recording up as soon as possible. Please share it with as many friends as possible. It’s just so
invaluable what we shared this hour with all of you.
Page | 19
www.jointheselfcarerevolution.com
info@jointheselfcarerevolution.com
Read Our Disclaimer Here
So, our love goes out to you and to all your loved ones. Have a great day and we look forward
to being with you in just another hour when we’re going to listen to Val Alarcon who has an
unforgettable story, a recovery story from being diagnosed with thyroid cancer. And now, she’s
only 39 years old and she will touch you with what she has to share because she’s living it,
breathing her self-care life with you later on. Lots of love.
KRISTIN: Thank you, Robyn.
SHEVA: Thank you so much.
ROBYN: Thank you, Sheva. Lots of love.
KEVIN: Thank you.
[End of interview]
[Theme song playing]
Page | 20
www.jointheselfcarerevolution.com
info@jointheselfcarerevolution.com
Read Our Disclaimer Here