This kind of heart training is an exciting new technology in stress reduction, heart health, performance enhancement and overall well-being.
This chart shows the heart rhythms of a stressed person on the left. Compare that with the heart rhythms of the same person with rhythmic and balanced heart rhythms on the right. The differences in how you feel are dramatic.
We tend to just react to our emotional state throughout the day. But why just react when you can change the way you feel .. in a heartbeat!
What is Heart Rate Variability (HRV)?
HRV is a measure of the subtle beat-to-beat changes in your heart rate. This can be shown on a graph as your heart rhythms.
Your heart rate speeds up and slows down all the time. It doesn’t beat at the same rate all the time. Your average heart rate might be 80 BPM for example, but your heart rate variability might range from 70 BPM (beats per minute) to 90 BPM.
HRV is not quite as common as a blood pressure reading, or your pulse rate or temperature in a patient chart. But it has become a screening tool for disease processes.
Low or Negative HRV has been shown to be an indicator of possible future heart disease. That means you don’t have alot of variability in your heartbeat. This can be a sign of a weakened heart. What is better is to have is a heart rate that has higher variability or a greater range. This can be gained from breathing practices.
Low HRV is common in many people today. This state of low-coherence can be seen out in the world today as heart disease, stress, conflict, etc.High HRV is seen in the world with peace movements, the increase of spiritual practice among people, acts of kindness, and healing.
What Affects HRV?
Your heart rate is actually speeding up and slowing down all the time. This is part of normal nervous system function and this creates your heart rhythms.
Unlike your average heart rate, your heart rhythm pattern shows how stress and different emotions are affecting your nervous system.
HRV is affected by your thoughts, emotions and environment. HRV shows the condition of your physical, emotional, and energetic heart.
Stress
The graph above shows stressed heart rhythms. The heart rate spikes as a strong reaction to stressful thoughts or situations. This is how stress affects your heart and over time, it will weaken your heart and zap your energy. This is an example of low coherence.
Coherence
This graph shows a rhythmic heart rate pattern. This is associated with peacefulness, and relaxation. There are many health benefits for the heart, mind and body:
- Your nervous system is more balanced and you feel less stress.
- Your Heart rate is slower and more regular. This can eliminate arrhythmia or irregular heartbeats in some cases.
- Blood pressure decreases.
- Mental clarity and focus increases.
- You feel more energetic and balanced.
With just a little practice you can increase coherence in your own heart rhythms, giving you a new ability to handle stress and increased heart energy.
Learn Heart Rhythm Practices
Heart rhythm practices will put you in a state of heart coherence, which is the optimal state of well-being and health.
My Healthy Heart Meditation e-Course will introduce you to heart rhythm practices and teach you how to create healthy heart rate variability in your own heart. This is a state of wellness and healing.
Inner Balance Biofeedback Training
Here is a short 3 min video that is me using InnerBalance device and app to record a session of my heart rate variability. It may help clarify a few things for you about how this works..
The Heartmath Institute is the leading organization of the past 20 years to study the heart-brain interaction. They pioneered the consumer use of heart rate variability hardware and software, called the emWave.
Now available for the iPhone and Android is the Inner Balance App and Sensor for reading your HRV and displaying it on your phone.
Inner Balance is an HRV device for your phone is portable and can be connected to your computer by USB connector as well.
- Calculates how fast your heart rate changes. Rapid changes in the heart rate are hard on your heart and are associated with stress. If there isn’t much change in your heart rate that is also hard on your heart.
- Shows you your Coherence Level as low, medium and/or high.
- With practice you increase your coherence levels to high which activates a state of internal healing.
emWave2
The emWave2 and emWave2 Pro are the flagship products of Heartmath. They are the state-of-the-art HRV bio-feedback that will train you how to breathe rhythmically, and improve your mood and your overall sense of well-being.