This workshop, which will be conducted in both English and Mandarin, is designed to teach to Buddhist activists a series of heart-based tools for emotional mastery and improved cognitive performance. These tools have been derived from results in several learning studies and in cutting-edge neuroscience and cardiovascular clinical research conducted by the Institute of Heartmath in Boulder Creek, California. To date, these tools have been taught mostly in Fortune 500 companies and in hospitals and other clinical settings in the United States. For several years, the Institute of Heartmath has been working in collaboration with the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University to further develop and test these tools in urban schools and with diverse populations, including grassroots groups. More recently, the tools have been used with considerable success by organizers and teachers working in poverty-stricken communities in Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

These heart-based tools are taught utilizing a variety of interactive learning techniques including the Freeze Framer. The PC-based Freeze Framer is a fairly simple software program that allows participants to monitor their heart rhythms and assists them in generating states of heart coherence which are associated with emotional mastery and improved cognitive performance.  It utilizes for these purposes a Heart Rate Variability (HRV) indicator, a key measure of overall health. The Freeze Framer tracks, visually and in `real time, how negative attitudes and certain emotional responses to stress affect the user’s heart rhythms and make them incoherent. Through the use of the Freeze Framer, people can easily begin to understand how changes in heart rhythms greatly impact cognitive performance, mental clarity, and emotions. The tools, however, can be taught without the Freeze Framer or similar software.

There are a number of important potential implications for Buddhist activists of the practice of these tools. For example, if practicing these tools improve the emotional mastery and cognitive performance of activists as anticipated, this practice could eventually help them avoid burn-out and improve their physical and mental well-being and the quality of their decision-making in stressful situations. It would complement their meditative practice and assist them in walking the demanding path of right livelihood.

The workshop will provide attendees with a clear summary of the new science of the heart and the scientific basis for the tools. In addition, the workshop will provide a lively context in which to learn and practice the tools with and without the Freeze Framer. The presenter will also help attendees conceptualize strategies to teach these tools to the people they normally live and work with.