Hearts & Harmony
Dec 09, 2024 | by Marissa Steinberger
As we all know, this can be a frenetic time of year. Energies are high, calendars are full, and drivers on the road can be less than patient. Lots of opportunities to practice self-regulation. Thankfully, we always have the most powerful tools for self-regulation with us. Simply bring your awareness back to your heart and breathe. Slow down your breath, find a rhythm of five (ish) seconds in and 5 seconds out, and breathe into your heart. This is called heart-centered breathing. You can do it anytime, anywhere, in conversation, while driving, while working, in preparation for a stressful event, or during a dedicated time to sit and practice. The healthiest thing you can do is just to breathe. Focusing on your heart while you breathe deeply increases the neural connections and, consequently, the communication between the brain and heart. It can be helpful to put your hands on your heart while you breathe.
To take the practice further, bring in a positive feeling. While you are rhythmically breathing 5-second breaths, remember something that you are grateful for, that you appreciate, or a sense of awe and wonder. Bring in something you feel good about. It can be a person or pet, a place, or an experience. Then allow yourself to embody that feeling and make a genuine attempt to feel it through your body as you continue breathing into your heart. This practice of heart-centered breathing while generating a positive emotion is what The Heart Math Institute calls “Quick Coherence.” This is one of the simplest ways to get into what's called heart coherence.
Heart coherence is a measurable state where the heart rhythm produces a smooth sine-wave-like heart rhythm pattern, which reflects increased vagal activity, indicating a synchronized state between the mind, body, and emotions. In general, positive emotions and breathing deeply create smooth sine wave coherence, whereas negative emotions create jagged irregular patterns or incoherence. One of the key measurements of coherence is heart rate variability (HRV). When you are in a state of coherence, your heart rate variability (HRV) tends to be higher than in a non-coherent state. Heart rate variability (HRV) is the measure of variation in milliseconds between heartbeats. High HRV is a good thing. It means there is good communication between your autonomic nervous system, your brain, and your heart. HRV is a measure of flexibility and being able to respond to changes. Studies have linked higher HRV to improved stress resilience, better emotional regulation, enhanced cognitive and physical function, and overall well-being. Interestingly, as the interconnectivity of the two systems influences each other, heart coherence encourages heart-brain coherence. A state where the heart rhythm is synchronized with brain wave activity. As other systems entrain with the heart and brain, this then creates a system-wide state of physiological coherence throughout the entire body. As physiological coherence increases, so does the brain’s alpha activity which supports stress relief and creativity.
Every emotion you experience influences your physiology and, your stress resilience, whether you are aware of it or not. Our emotions create cascades of physiological changes in hormones and neurochemistry, that can have lasting effects. Learning to generate increased heart coherence by sustaining positive emotions can help buffer the wear and tear of stress. Not only does it feel good in the moment, but it can also help the body work more efficiently, and affect how we perceive, think, feel, and perform. Practicing heart-centered breathing as a habit and practicing quick coherence for five minutes a day is a great place to start. Heart Math has an app, where you can see your HRV and coherence in real time, using the camera on your phone. You can also find some guided practices there. The more you practice, the easier it is for you to get back into coherence.
To kick-off the New Village workshop series, I had the honor to present a stress-reset workshop last month. It was truly a wonderful night to be in community, speaking about and practicing techniques to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, with breath and sound, and then practicing generating heart coherence. We had a great turnout, and I’m looking forward to more workshops to come. I’m happy to nerd out with any of you on this in the parking lot or at coffee. I love the idea of a more heart-coherent community!
Sources:
McCraty R, Zayas MA. Cardiac coherence, self-regulation, autonomic stability, and psychosocial well-being. Front Psychol. 2014 Sep 29;5:1090. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01090. PMID: 25324802; PMCID: PMC4179616.
McCraty R, Shaffer F. Heart Rate Variability: New Perspectives on Physiological Mechanisms, Assessment of Self-regulatory Capacity, and Health risk. Glob Adv Health Med. 2015 Jan;4(1):46-61. doi: 10.7453/gahmj.2014.073. PMID: 25694852; PMCID: PMC4311559.
Thayer, J.F., Hansen, A.L., Saus-Rose, E. & Johnson, B.H. (2009). Heartrate variability,prefrontal neural function and and cognitive performance: The neurovisceral integrationperspective on self-regulation, adaptation and health, Annals of Behavioral Medicine,37(2), 141-153