Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: We've often challenged people that come for coaching. What would it be like to go out and play golf and come off the golf course with more energy in feeling better about yourself than when you started the round? And then we say and the catch is no matter the score. And so that takes, obviously you have to have a way to self regulate and going to the heart and activating the heart's intelligence is that.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: Hello, I'm Deborah Rossman and a warm welcome to our listeners.
Each month for the AD Heart podcast, I have the privilege of interviewing individuals who are contributing to the creation of a more heart based world.
And this month I'm talking to dear friends Pia Nilsen and Lynn Marriott, who we've been working with at HeartMath since 1997. That's such a long time.
But they're co founders of Vision 54, a golf school in Scottsdale, Arizona that's been awarded the best golf school in America multiple times. And they're internationally recognized as highest ranked female golf teachers in America, having coached players to over 100 tour victories on the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, European Tour, more coached 11 different major winners and five number one ranked players and four best selling books. But that's not why HeartMath and Lynn and T are so connected. It's because they designed and refined a revolutionary way of teaching the game of golf.
It's not just for golf, but for any sports.
And they don't even believe in beginning with physical technique.
They believe in the mental and emotional techniques that HeartMath has been researching for many years. So welcome Pia and Lynn.
[00:01:57] Speaker A: Thank you. Deb, thank you for that.
[00:01:58] Speaker C: Yeah, we're very excited about this and you know, like you said, we have such a long history and it's been so important for us in our lives and in our business.
[00:02:07] Speaker B: Yeah, tell us about that. What's been important, what inspired you to add heartmath to your work with athletes? And what's, what's been so important for you?
[00:02:18] Speaker C: But before we go into the history there, but you know, we've always felt and we know it's a human being who plays the game of golf. So of course in golf you have to learn a lot about technical things and all, you know, a lot of more outer dimensions to the game. But it's still this human being and we've always been curious about that. So the human being has a burden and mind and emotion and we just got no, we need to get that more activated and more explicit how we actually help them combine the technical technology with the human Aspect. And then you could just say how it started for you.
[00:02:56] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So I was, you know, teaching golf and I was, as Pia just said, I was including more than just the technical aspect to my teaching, but very specifically, I'd given away a golf lesson to a charity, and this woman came for, you know, to take her golf lesson with me.
And as I was teaching her some things, she said, oh, my gosh. She said, you know, what you're helping me do is what I just learned to do at Heart Math. And I said, what's heart math?
And so she explained to me. And so then I looked it up and then it was interesting because there was a guy that had written a book that had influenced both of us in our coaching. It was called the Magical Child. And the author's name, Joseph Chilton Pierce. And, you know, we were looking that, like, when people don't perform well, they're often able. They're not able to access those abilities needed, like decision making and coordination that. So, anyway, I was so excited, so I said to Piet, look, Joseph Chilton Pierce likes heart math. And this explains in a very scientific way what we're trying to help people do with our vision. 54. So I sent Piu was in Stockholm, Sweden, and I sent her this article that had been in a magazine by.
[00:04:16] Speaker C: Facts at that time, but in the West.
[00:04:19] Speaker A: Yeah, there wasn't even.
[00:04:20] Speaker C: So it's interesting. So I'm in Stockholm, Sweden, because I was head coach of our national teams in Sweden. And so I read that, and then the next morning in the paper in Sweden, there was an article about HeartMath.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: So what's the synchronicity of all this? So I said, I think we need to go to HeartMath and check it out.
[00:04:38] Speaker C: Yeah.
So that's.
[00:04:40] Speaker A: Yeah. So that's what we did in the fall of 97. And. And I just remember we were like, oh, my gosh, this is just the science of HeartMath is doing and explains and all that. And plus the experience we had at HeartMath, we said this is what we need to add to it, to telling the players that we coach.
[00:05:01] Speaker C: Yeah. And because our vision is obviously always to help them play better golf. That's why they come to us. But we always have part of our vision that is also to grow as a human being in a positive way. It's always been part of our message for Lenadi. Different reasons.
So here was. So many things happened emotionally that we knew that the doorway for us is when we can explain it. And it's not just some positive thinking, it's actually hardcore science. And then how we can apply it to golf. So that was with HeartMath. Obviously it helped us personally a lot. But then we had so many more ways to introduce it to golfers and they understand this is as real as getting the numbers on my angles, on my backswing.
[00:05:49] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
So, gosh. And then we got reconnected when you were just at the HeartMath Global Coherence Event called Love Unleashed. It's about adding heart to our play, gameplay, sports, our life, whatever we do. What results did you see when you started to teach heart math and to your clients?
[00:06:14] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, well, I'll say, you know, most, most people come to us because they want to play better golf.
So it's performance based.
And that's what we started to see is that as people learn the techniques, you know, back then it was freeze frame and they learned that technique and then they were able to get some self referencing feedback to what HeartMath had created and then directly be able to swing better, putt better, play better. Or when they went out on the golf course and they were playing and they got into a really anxious state, they had better tools, how to deal with that. I mean it. But it, but the first doorway was through performance.
[00:07:00] Speaker C: Well, and it isn't because in golf we have so much time out on the golf course more than just hitting golf shots. So the emotional aspect, every golf on the planet experiences anything from frustration to joy multiple times during a round of golf. So it's a huge, huge area. But I would say when we finally got the M Wave handheld, that made the biggest shift because we could make it so real.
Because they can realize when I'm focusing on these anxious things on the golf course, it's going red all the time. And I see it. And then when I go to feeling confident or courage or joy, wow, it's changing. So it became when we finally could do that and move and not just sit inside by a computer that made it like we don't have anyone that doesn't go like, whoa, there is something really important happening here.
[00:07:57] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:07:58] Speaker B: So they get to see. And the harmouth biofeedback, it's, you know, it's really interesting. In society, you know, in general, stress is increasing everywhere. People are frustrated, anxious, fearful of the future. I'm sure you're seeing that when people come to you too, they increase in stress. And you know what we found in our research? Stress builds. As I've said in our previous podcast, when the Mind is running one way, the heart another, and the motions get all tangled up in that and it just creates stress. And you remember we wrote this booklet called Managing Emotions, Golf's Next Frontier years ago because it's so important to get your heart, mind, emotions aligned, get your heart and brain in sync for effectiveness in life, let alone in golf or sports.
[00:08:50] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:08:51] Speaker B: Then a few years ago, Peter Fox retitled it Managing Motion Sports Next frontier. For something that we're working on with sports tv, it's actually managing emotions is life's next frontier for everybody.
[00:09:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:11] Speaker B: Are you seeing more stress or people coming in more out of sync?
[00:09:17] Speaker A: I should say Absolutely. I mean, 100%.
Yeah. Yeah. Now I just want to go back because I remember when I first came, you know, to Heart Math and then came back for some training, you know, people that were also there to get trained said to us, golf really like people get stressed out in golf. And I'm like, oh my gosh, super stressed. Yeah. But I would say that that's increased.
[00:09:41] Speaker C: Oh, it's increased a lot. And we get many also younger players coming and that has increased a lot because of the pressure they feel of performance, their social media and the social comparison.
So we have very, very many more younger players coming that they're not doing well as humans.
And for us, one of the good introductions before actually using the Inner Balance or the new HeartMath app has been to explain to them the grid with positive negative emotions and higher and lower adrenaline because they recognize themselves right away and when they understand that how it affects not only the decision making and being resilient, but it actually affects their coordination and ability to actually swing. Well, initially they get super curious about that.
[00:10:40] Speaker A: Yeah. And you know, we've often challenged like people that come for coaching. What would it be like to go out and play golf and come off the golf course with more energy and feeling better about yourself than when you started the round. And then we say, and the catch is no matter the score.
And so that takes, obviously you have to have a way to self regulate and going to the heart and activating the heart's intelligence is that that's how you're going to come off the golf course, you know, feeling renewed versus depleted.
[00:11:15] Speaker B: I love that. So you talk to them or you teach them about self regulation and using the heart and then, you know, do they come back to you and say they're applying it in other areas of their lives?
[00:11:27] Speaker A: Yes, very many.
[00:11:29] Speaker C: All the time. Yeah, all the time. All the time.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: Yeah, Yeah. I mean, nothing makes us happier Than they say, oh, I'm playing better golf. But actually, what's most important is I'm. I'm a happier human being or my relationships are better or, yeah, they're living with more vitality and things like that.
[00:11:53] Speaker C: And then obviously, for us, it's been really important as coaches, no matter what stressful situation we go into, that we first check up on our own state before we do it. And the coaches that work with us know that they're not allowed on property unless they have checked being active in creating a coherent state. But it's been so helpful for, you know, throughout my coaching life since I learned this, that it's more important the state, I mean, around competitive players and saying the right things.
[00:12:27] Speaker B: I like that. Well, you told me the doorway is performance. People want higher performance, but once they go through that doorway, then it's about life.
[00:12:39] Speaker A: Absolutely. You know, and I mean, we have so many players that we've coached where.
Yeah, I mean, it's just been.
Yeah, they. They are. They're feeling better as a human being because of this. And of course, their performance is better. Like, the performance component has been huge. And I just wanted to say, like, we coached just one LPGA player, and when she first came and she got on the mov, she couldn't get out of red for three days.
And there are expl. Yeah. Anyway, there's. Her vocabulary was not very nice and. But we said, you need, like, to learn this and you need to practice this. And she earnestly took it on and could get. Start to get to green. And then I just want to say from a performance perspective, that year she started out the year she had never won professionally, and she ended up winning seven times worldwide. She went from 52 in the world rankings to number two.
And I can. And both of us can directly say it was because she practiced on him.
[00:13:48] Speaker C: And she would do it. She would do it before warming up and all of that. And it was very, very interesting. But, you know, we have had so many fun instances. Even I remember, like, you know, one lady that was just an amateur golfer and she just had a particular club she couldn't hit.
But we saw her anxious and all of that. But, you know, at that time, we had the M wave, so we said, let's take a club you really like. And she had the M wave on, and it was bl. Blue and green and all good. And as soon as she put her hands on that club she doesn't like, it went all red. So she was thinking it was a technical issue.
But we knew it wasn't technical, but, you know, so we've had so many applicable ways to use this, but many times it's been.
Because if we have a group of people, we haven't always been individually when they first learn this, that we can spend a lot of time with them. But through the tools you have, and they often have then bought an M wave or now they buy the new sensors and then they go home. And one young player too, she didn't know how to do it, but then finally one day she wrote a letter to her grandmother and suddenly, bing.
But they take it on so they can self coach.
And that's been really good. We can open the door and help them initiate it, but then they take it on their own through all the resources that you have.
[00:15:15] Speaker A: Yeah, I just want to tell one other story because it's kind of fun, but it was a young guy, super athletic, and he had been told to be super calm, but he wasn't a calm guy. I mean, we noticed that he hit his best shots with higher adrenaline. So we had him put back then the M wave on the sensor on and do a bunch of sprints, get his heart rate way up, but still be green, and then go over and try a delicate chip or a putt that he really wanted to make so he could see that he could still be high adrenaline but coherent.
And I mean, that was a big breakthrough for many because many only thought they could. They had to be calm and slowed down. And sometimes high performance situations require more adrenaline, but they still require the heart.
[00:16:10] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly.
[00:16:11] Speaker B: You can be coherent at a high heart rate or a low heart rate. And that's what people don't always understand, that it's about the regulation of the mind, motions and body even at a high heart rate. And biohackers have been coming to HeartMath because of the same thing. They're waking up and realizing that self regulation and getting your heart and brain in sync is the key to biohacking, which is a popular thing right now. So it's all about getting heart, brain, nervous system in sync and regulated for high performance, whether it's to clear brain fog, for mental clarity, for getting in flow states or zone states, or improving your score. And I know you told me that you're excited about the new HeartMath app and the camera sensor in it. Have you talk about how you see it?
[00:17:07] Speaker C: Well, it just feels so much more flexible because I have my sense of if I don't have it, as long as I have my phone, I can still do a session. But then I just so enjoyed so much more of the resources with getting guided help or all the other resources on that app that it's been really. And then having the global coherence as well to feel connected with the world. So I feel it's the options of using it and learning it has just expanded extremely much.
[00:17:40] Speaker B: Right.
Well, it's got. For people who don't know and listening. It's got 30 years of heart math techniques, tools and training programs in this app.
And you can use the camera on your phone, Android or iOS.
Put your finger on the camera and it trains you, it picks up the blood flow and converts that into heart rate and then heart rate variability and then coherence and your coherence score. So it's quite a breakthrough for people to be able to use it that way, whether they're in a pre shot routine or afterwards they got stressed. And again, the key to heart coherence, I'm going to underline this because this is what you're talking about, is love.
It's hard feelings like appreciation, it's breathing in a certain rhythm, but then it's the love of the game, the love and the care and the appreciation. All those heart qualities are what bring us into coherence.
[00:18:39] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:18:40] Speaker B: What have you noticed about that? About the heart qualities?
[00:18:44] Speaker C: Oh, it's so true.
One of the place we've been fortunate to help who ended up, you know, being number one in the world too. But this is many years ago, I don't. Whatever, but.
And we were at the tournament and she was just having a hard time and we, she has a really big heart but she was getting anxious and stressed and all of that. So just in the setting of golf, we wanted her to test having different awarenesses, hitting a shot so you could be very golf, feeling a certain rhythm, a tempo, you know, one hold another hole could do with, you know, tension level in the shoulders. But then we had a few more emotional like feeling really proud swinging or feeling one was more grateful. But then lynch said, like, what about this?
[00:19:31] Speaker A: Oh yeah, we, we were just outside San Francisco at Lake Merced and you know, a big tournament there. And I said, I said, oh, you know what, let's just, let's just play this little game. I go, what would it feel like if this was the last golf shot you ever get to hit in your whole life?
[00:19:47] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:19:47] Speaker A: And I go, and you really just fell in love with it. Yeah. Like this is it. No more golf.
[00:19:53] Speaker C: Just, you know.
[00:19:54] Speaker A: So I said, now come on, you Got to really get into this and really feel it deep in your heart. And I said, you're not allowed to step up to the shot until you have it.
So she did it and she hit the shot great. But this was just in a practice round. But she felt it. Yeah. And then after that feeling, she's like, that's how I want to feel for every shot.
[00:20:13] Speaker C: And when, when she, when she did it that time, we just noticed watching her, she had a smile walking into the golf shot.
[00:20:19] Speaker A: Yeah. And that year she actually won, I think five times.
[00:20:24] Speaker C: Yeah. But.
[00:20:25] Speaker A: And anyway, she went to number one in the world.
But people started seeing it on television that, like, she would start her pre shot routine with this smile as she walked in.
[00:20:35] Speaker C: And.
[00:20:36] Speaker A: But it all started with really accessing that, that love feeling genuinely in her heart.
[00:20:42] Speaker C: But many of the golf media, you know, interpret it wrong. We said, yeah, you know, Lynn and P. Have taught her to smile before the shots and that's why she plays so well. But, you know, the smile just appeared. It was obviously the hard feeling that was the key to what she was.
[00:20:57] Speaker A: Doing, but activated obviously the smile and then a good golf swing.
[00:21:01] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:21:02] Speaker A: Her golf shot.
[00:21:03] Speaker C: Yes.
So for us, it's so easy because we know no one have any sustainable joy or good performance unless that spirit of the game actually loving why I'm actually playing this game of golf. It's the love and gratefulness and appreciation of playing the game and then finding that for every golf shot and help each golfer find what is appropriate for them. But it is one of those uplifting emotions and to create habits around that so they can keep accessing it more often.
[00:21:39] Speaker B: Yeah, that is wonderful. Well, you know, our vision at HeartMath is how do we help love go viral in the way you're talking about love, that heart feeling, those qualities that enhance our health, our performance.
You've proven that out. And just the golf school and what you've done with these golfers.
And so many people are confused nowadays. But we can listen to our heart's intuitive guidance, find that flow state. So Our vision is 100 million people downloading the new Heart math app and using it for whatever they want to use it for. Exercise, get in sync, health, golf, baseball. I love the art. I heard the Houston Astros were using it and the dugout, you know, just again, whatever people love, we need to open the hearts and have a movement of this energy of love. And how do you see growing this?
[00:22:40] Speaker C: Well, to even more encourage the people we know to get the new app and start using it.
[00:22:48] Speaker A: Exactly.
And have an experience with it.
Because I said to Pieter, what's so important is like, you can understand this, but when you have that feeling and you really have that feeling, then you can't deny it.
[00:23:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
And then you want to repeat it.
[00:23:08] Speaker A: Yeah. You want more of it.
[00:23:10] Speaker C: Yeah. And I know that you want to start reaching more and more people. So it is about creating more synergy with people who realize for any one of us to perform better or better, enjoy life more. It is about the heart and the brain and the body. But the heart is kind of a really important component here.
[00:23:32] Speaker A: That's the key.
[00:23:33] Speaker C: Yeah. So the more like you guys, what you're doing to connect with different groups and different connections, so it just becomes more and more well known, all the signs and how to do this.
[00:23:47] Speaker B: Well, I love what you're doing because you ground it. I mean, in a way, it takes it out of the airy fairy. Sentimental.
[00:23:54] Speaker C: Philosophical.
[00:23:54] Speaker B: Philosophical. It's like, okay, you put your heart into your golf game or any game, and the way you teach it and describe it, that's. Can't get more grounded than that and then see the results, the high performance.
[00:24:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:24:08] Speaker C: And that has been a key for us. And, you know, one of our friends and mentors had been Michael Murphy, and he's always told us, you need to make the implicit explicit.
[00:24:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:20] Speaker C: And for us to make it applicable and scalable and doable has been very important for people to start. Start doing it, to start exploring it.
[00:24:30] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, it's. It's one thing to understand from a scientific perspective. Cortical facilitation, but it's another to actually activate the feeling and then actually know and have the experience that I do have access to more abilities. My decision making got better.
You know, my reactions were more tempered or what, whatever, like.
But you could actually experience cortical facilitation, but that had to start with that. I activated that love in the heart.
[00:25:02] Speaker B: Oh, beautifully said. Well, I appreciate you two so much and all you've done. I'm so glad we're reconnecting.
[00:25:10] Speaker A: Yeah, so are we.
[00:25:12] Speaker B: Yeah. Let's all do a heart meditation together and get our hearts and brains and bodies in sync.
Yes.
Okay. Let's focus our attention in the area of the heart.
Just imagine your breath is flowing in and out of your heart chest area. Just breathe a little slower, a little deeper than usual.
Find an easy rhythm that's comfortable.
Now, as you continue heart focused breathing, make a sincere attempt to experience a regenerative feeling such as love or care or appreciation for someone, love of a sport or love of someone or something in your life.
It's that heart feeling that brings your heart, mind, emotions into coherent alignment and synchronizes your heart and brain.
And you can radiate this heart feeling, this heart quality, even just the attitude. If you can't feel it, the attitude works too to bring your heart and brain in sync and radiate it to all the cells in your body and out to the people you care about.
Now ask yourself, where in your life would you like to practice this or apply this more?
Would it be for exercise or sport you play or a relationship you want.
[00:27:44] Speaker C: To improve.
[00:27:47] Speaker B: Or some other endeavor that you want to put your heart into or that you love to do?
And just quietly observe any subtle changes in perceptions or attitudes or thoughts as you're doing this.
And then make a heart commitment to follow through and practice this. Practice getting in sync for health and well being or performance or whatever you would love to do.
Now let's close by co creating with a collective coherent art energy. We're all experiencing a reservoir of love, care, gratitude, compassion, heart energy.
You know, in this reservoir you can tap into it anytime over the next month whenever you want to lift in spirit or support in following through with your heart's guidance or heart's commitments.
So let's just radiate our heart energy into the reservoir.
Oh, thank you so much for sharing that with all of us.
Hiya Lynn, Is there anything else you'd like to share with our listeners?
[00:30:32] Speaker C: Well, thank you Debbie for this talk with you and it just feels so good to share more from our experience with this and we just, you know, any way we can support what all of you doing at HeartMath, we're totally on board because I think this is useful for every human on the planet right now. And like you said, in whatever areas we feel is most important to access.
[00:30:59] Speaker A: More of our human potential 100%.
And if you're your doorway to learn this is because you want to perform better at a sport, great. But I can promise it's going to help your life and many lives, all the lives around you.
[00:31:18] Speaker B: Thank you so much. Well, as a free gift to our listeners, go to the App Store, the Google Play Store, Download the new HeartMath app with the camera sensor. It's free for seven days, then you can subscribe or you can get a physical sensor and really experiment with it and you can watch the HeartMath experience, an online video learning course that's available on the HeartMath app or on the HeartMath websites. I just want to encourage you to try it out.
Become your own game player.
[00:31:54] Speaker A: Yeah, that's awesome.
[00:31:56] Speaker B: Thank you both so much. Deep love. And I want to remind all our listeners, the third Tuesday of every month we publish a new episode of the AD Heart Podcast. So be sure you subscribe so you don't miss our next guest and topic. And thank you. Much love. Take care.
[00:32:16] Speaker C: Thank you for listening to the Add Heart Podcast. Be sure to subscribe so you can catch the latest episodes. If you're wanting even more heart inspired content, find us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Look for HeartMath and also the HeartMath Institute. Both organizations are committed to helping activate the heart of humanity.
