Your heart pulse rate shows the rate at which your heart beats. This is the number of times your heart beats in a minute. Measuring the pulse can give you important information about your health. A change from your normal heart rate could indicate a medical condition. A normal pulse rate for most people would be somewhere between 60-100 beats per minute.
As the heart pumps blood through the body, you can feel a pulse in different places. You might feel a pulse in your hands, your head, your feet, or anywhere. Being able to feel your pulse is a good thing. In Heart Rhythm Meditation we teach you to feel your own heartbeat as well as your pulse.
Your heart pulse rate is an average number of beats per minute whereas your heart rate variability shows the beat-to-beat changes in heart rate. This is a reflection of our emotional state.
Heart pulse rate is also referred to as average resting heart rate.
In Heart Rhythm Meditation we use our pulse rate to measure the length of our inhales and exhales. For example we might exhale for 6 heartbeats and inhale for 6 heartbeats. We make our inhales and exhales the same length as measured by the pulse or heartbeat. This then creates smoother heart rhythms or heart rate variability. Our heart rate slows down during meditation and becomes more regular.
Heart Rate Variability refers to the beat-to-beat changes in your heart rate. What happens is that your heartrate is actually changing speeds constantly. It speeds up and slows down as you breath in and out. When we breath evenly and rhythmically our heart rhythms look like a smooth wave. When we breath unconsciously or shallowly or rapidly (most people’s normal breathing) our heart rhythms spike up and down as they respond to irregular breathing.
Being able to feel your heartbeat and/or pulse is healthy. It connects you with your body. And being able to feel your body is healthy. Some types of meditation can take you out of your body. But when we practice Heart Rhythm Meditation our heart rhythms become smoother and we enter a state called coherence which is an optimal physiological state.