Chapter 3 Advanced Arousal Regulation Skills

In this chapter we’ll explore two additional body-based skills that can effectively bring arousal back into the resilient zone. These skills are heart coherence and progressive muscle relaxation.

Heart Coherence

The description of heart coherence that follows and the accompanying figure are adapted with permission from Childre and Rozman (2003, 2005) and the HeartMath Institute®, which has been researching emotional resilience for more than twenty-five years.

We experience emotions primarily in the body, not the head. Think of all the ways we describe emotions experienced in the body: “butterflies in my stomach,” “sick to my stomach,” “lump in my throat,” “he’s a pain in the neck,” and so forth. Now think of the many ways we describe emotions relating to the heart: heartfelt affection, brokenhearted, “my heart skipped a beat,” or “a heart overflowing with gratitude.”

The brain communicates with the heart, but far more messages go from the heart to the brain than vice versa. The heart “speaks” to the brain via nerves, hormones, blood pressure, and electromagnetic messages. What do you think would happen if you could calm your heart? Thanks to advances in computer technology, we now know that calming the heart profoundly affects the mind, mood, performance, and the rest of the body.

Generally, a lower resting heart rate is linked to better health and performance. However, the patterns of heart rhythms are even more important. We can now record beat-to-beat changes in heart rate, which allow us to track heart coherence: the heart’s ability to adjust heart rates smoothly and quickly as needed. Figure 3.1 depicts the hearts of two different people, each person having the same average resting heart rate in beats per minute (represented by the horizontal line). The heart on the left is coherent—increasing and decreasing speeds like a world-class athlete who easily accelerates or slows down as the situation requires. The branches of the nervous system responsible for increasing and decreasing arousal are operating in balance. The heart on the right is erratic and struggling to maintain balance.

Heart coherence is associated with fewer symptoms of PTSD, depression, anxiety, anger, and stress; a greater sense of well-being; reductions in sleeplessness, fatigue, blood pressure, pain, cortisol, and weight; and improved concentration, thinking, listening ability, and productivity (see, for example, the review by McCraty and Tomasino 2004). Fortunately, with practice most people can achieve heart coherence in a matter of weeks. The basic principle is that any positive emotion experienced at the heart level promotes heart coherence. The quickest and most effective pathway to heart coherence is through the experience of mature love (as opposed to, say, infatuation; Childre and Rozman 2003). Try this experiment to see if the basic heart coherence technique, called Quick Coherence® (reprinted with permission from Childre and Rozman 2005), is effective for you. For example, after practicing the heart coherence skill, you might notice that you feel mentally or physically calmer, or that your mood shifts in a positive way.

Preparations

These four steps will help you to activate a positive feeling, which is an important step in cultivating heart coherence. You’ll start by recalling times that stir positive feelings, and use one of these feelings in the activity that follows.

Sit quietly and comfortably. Focus on your breathing for a few moments.

Identify the person you have loved the most. Think about why that person is important, and how the person has made you feel.

Identify other people who have made you feel loved and appreciated. Think about each one for a few moments.

Think about times that you have appreciated: perhaps moments in nature, holding a sleeping child, the satisfaction of accomplishment or a fine performance, or something you are grateful for.

Select one of the memories above to work with, recalling that love is a particularly powerful way to effect heart coherence. If you have trouble recalling love, then recall another positive emotion. If a positive emotion is difficult to activate, then simply let your heart go to neutral as you practice the technique below, which only takes a minute.

Activity: The Quick Coherence® Technique

Begin with heart-focused breathing. Focus your attention on the area of the heart. Imagine your breath is flowing in and out of your heart or chest area. Breathe a little slower and deeper than usual.
Activate a positive feeling. Make a sincere attempt to experience a regenerative feeling, such as appreciation or care for someone or something in your life.

Take your time. Let your breathing and heart rhythms settle. Then allow time to let the positive feeling settle in the heart region. Experiencing the feeling in the heart is more important than thinking about the details of a memory.

Practice this skill several times a day, for several days. Initially try it in calm moments. Eventually, you might try it before a somewhat stressful situation. Log your experience using the form in appendix C.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Besides the heart, we also experience emotions in our muscles. When the alarm system of the brain is stuck in the “on” position, muscle tension remains chronically high. Excessive tension is typically uncomfortable, sometimes even painful. Paradoxically, increasing tension levels helps to reset the brain and return arousal to the resilient zone. When we relax, muscles elongate, soften, and warm as blood flow increases. Progressive muscle relaxation is a practice of tensing and then relaxing various muscle groups, paying close attention to (tracking) the difference between the sensations. It’s an effective strategy for nearly everyone who tries it.

Practicing this method daily can reduce baseline arousal. Done before bedtime, it may also help you sleep better. Remember that tracking reduces arousal, and tracking while practicing progressive muscle relaxation also helps retrain the brain to detect and reverse the first hint of tension. As relaxation spreads throughout the body, you’ll feel calmer as well. Notice this as you track. To practice progressive muscle relaxation, you can read the instructions below as you do it, or you can make an audio recording of the instructions and listen to it.

Activity: Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Practice this skill once or twice a day for at least a week and record the results using the form in appendix C. To prepare, loosen tight clothing. You may wish to remove glasses and shoes. Then, sit comfortably or lie on your back. (In these instructions, we’ll assume you are lying down. Obvious adjustments can be made for a seated position.) Breathe abdominally for a few moments until your breathing settles. Without judging, just notice what parts of your body feel pleasant. What parts feel tense? Then proceed.

Bend your feet at the ankles so your toes move toward your head. Sense the tension along the outer part of the legs, below the knees. Relax and notice the difference. Take your time.
Point both of your feet and toes away from your head at the same time. Notice tension in the calves. Relax and notice the contrast in those areas.

Continue this pattern of tensing, noticing, relaxing, and noticing.

Tense the quadriceps on the front of your thighs by straightening your legs and locking your knees. Leave your feet relaxed.

Tense the back of your legs by pressing the back of your heels against the floor or bed, as if you are lying on your back at the beach and digging your heels into the sand. Keep the toes pointing skyward. Sense the tension along the backs of your legs.

Squeeze your buttocks or seat muscles together while contracting your pelvic muscles.

Tense your stomach muscles by pulling them inward. Notice how a tight gut impedes breathing.

Tense your back muscles along both sides of the spine by slowly arching your back, pulling your chest up and toward the chin, while leaving your shoulders and buttocks rooted to the surface.

Shrug your shoulders, noticing tension above the collarbones and between the shoulder blades.

Tense the muscles in the top of your forearms. With palms down on the surface beside your body, pull the relaxed hands back at the wrists, with fingers pointing upward.

Tighten your fists and biceps, drawing the hands to the shoulders, as if lifting weights (curls). Notice tension in the fists, forearms, and biceps.

Very, very slowly rotate your chin to the right as if looking over your right shoulder, noticing tension along the right side of your neck. Slowly return to center, and then rotate to the left.

Gently press your head back against the surface you are lying on, while raising your chin toward the ceiling. Sense tension at the base of the skull, where it meets the neck.

Lift your eyebrows and furrow your brow, sensing tension across the forehead.

Frown, pulling the corners of your mouth down, sensing tension on the sides of the chin and neck.

Grit your teeth and sense tension from the angle of the jaw up to the temple.

Grin ear to ear and sense tension around the cheekbones.

Spend a few more moments just sensing your breathing and how your entire body feels.