(If you missed Part 1, click here to read it.)

The Peacekeeper

Time and again our research has demonstrated how, after just four days of opening your heart (activating your fourth energy center, which you do by feeling heart-centered elevated emotions), something extraordinary happens. The body starts naturally releasing an antibody made from your immune cells (white blood cells) called Immunoglobulin A (IgA). We have witnessed and scientifically measured how, in less than one week, we can strengthen our immune system—without the use of any exogenous substance—by as much as 50%.

Imagine that—one of your body’s best natural defenses against bacteria and viruses is feeling elevated emotions such as love, gratitude, appreciation, joie de vivre, connection, compassion, and so on.

Because the body is so objective, when you can trade survival-related emotions like fear, anger, pain, and sadness—and instead manufacture and embody elevated emotions like love, joy, and gratitude—the feelings of love and wholeness cause the body to believe it’s out of danger. When this happens, despite the conditions or threats in your external environment, the body believes it’s safe enough to use its energy for growth and repair. So by your intentional self-regulation of elevated emotions in your inner environment, the body believes there is no real-life threat in the outer environment.

Instead, when you feel love, gratitude, and other heart-centered emotions, the body can switch from the sympathetic nervous system (the gas pedal) to the parasympathetic nervous system (the brake). Thus, the signal from outside the cell (joy, gratitude, etc. is strengthening the inner order of your immune system.

Since the body cannot make a distinction between the real-life event that causes you to feel an emotion and feeling an emotion by thought alone, when you practice changing your inner world, the body can get back to long-term building projects. In turn, all of its metabolic systems receive a boost; the immune system strengthens; enzymes are better released from the digestive system; the cardiovascular system stabilizes; the hormonal system moves into homeostasis, and so on.

The Diplomat

The fourth center has an associated gland called the thymus gland. When we are born, the thymus gland (shaped like a thyme leaf) is about the size of a tangerine. As we reach puberty and our secondary sex hormones are increased, we begin to create our own identity. In doing so, energy begins leaving our heart and moves to the lower three hormonal centers. Over time, throughout our adult life, the thymus gland shrinks to about the size of a peanut, the majority of which becomes fat. This is the center which is responsible for manufacturing T cells. The thymus is so important is because it secretes a chemical called thymosin, the hormone necessary for the development and production of T cells.

The thymus has two primary functions: it possesses an endocrinological function which creates growth hormone (the body’s fountain of youth), and it has an immunological function, which releases thymosin. Thymosin is the active ingredient which acts as the direct signal to induce the proliferation and activation of T cells right within the thymus gland.

Like any cell, T cells have receptors that receive information or instructions from outside the cell. Once T cells are stimulated, they switch on to attack foreign agents.

All cells (except red blood cells) make proteins, and for a cell to make a protein, a gene has to be regulated. Proteins are responsible for maintaining the structure and function of the body. Thus, once the T cells are signaled, another white blood cell called B cells are also signaled. B cells, together with the help of T cells, make a protein called IgA (immunoglobulin A). We could say this is the body’s natural flu shot to protect us from bacteria, viruses, and foreign agents. These Y-shaped immunoglobulins made by B cells act as shields to block microscopic organisms, such as viruses, from attacking the body. As a result, we become more immune to infections coming from the outer environment.

It would make sense then that if you rest your attention in your heart, as you feel those elevated emotions, your breath slows down and deepens. As you do, you're actually creating a signal in the body to upregulate and strengthen genes, as well as to activate and manufacture more T cells and B cells.

By the same means, the constant bombardment of the stress hormones in the body, which places the body in a constant state of emergency, down regulates the gene for T cells and B cells to grow and function. This is not a time for internal defense. It’s a time for external defense. When there are real-life external threats that we perceive as supreme danger, it is more efficient and important to use the body’s energy for the survival of the body.

The Reconstruction

There’s nothing wrong with reacting to your ex, your finances, or the news, but if you keep that reaction going for extended periods of time, then you're agreeing that something in your outer world is controlling the way you think, act, and feel. Anything in the outer world that controls our feelings and thoughts makes us victims to our outer world. People who subconsciously allow this to happen will be more victimized by and susceptible to their environment.

But if we practice emotional intelligence, shortening the refractory period of our emotions, and staying in our heart, it stands to reason that we are going to strengthen our inner environment and be healthier and more in balance.

If opening your heart for four days increases your IgA by 50%, just imagine what can happen if you do it the entire time you’re in lockdown.