part0009

Many people know what it feels like to be in a state of harmony, where heart and mind are working in sync and we feel a genuine connection with others. It’s easy to love this experience of inner harmony, but often times it happens by chance, rather than by design or intention. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to produce this alignment on demand, in day-to-day communications, projects and challenges?

So what empowers our ability to create more balance and harmony in ourselves, our relationships, our work and in how we handle our challenges? Through twenty years of applied research at the HeartMath Institute, we have identified a core element, a physiological state we call “heart coherence” that supports a balanced partnership in the interactions between our heart, mind, emotions and physiology. Heart coherence has been shown in numerous studies to enhance health, wellbeing, relationships and performance, in a broad range of contexts.

To help de-mystify the term “coherence ”, let’s use a simple analogy. Imagine being in meditation or prayer and being constantly interrupted by intruding thoughts, feelings, worries, mind loops or even good ideas, all of which can disrupt and scatter the focus and effectiveness of our intentions. This creates a type of internal “incoherence ” or internal “noise.” On the other hand, increasing our internal coherence during prayer or meditation helps us sustain and maintain a genuine, heartfelt focus which translates into increased intuitive guidance and personal effectiveness. Getting into this state of coherence helps to align and coordinate our thoughts and emotions with our heart’s intelligence, so that mixed agendas or mixed signals don’t scramble our minds. Incoherence is like static on a radio station we are listening to, whereas internal coherence better “tunes us in” to the station and we get a much clearer signal.

A common dictionary definition of coherence is, “the quality of being logically integrated, consistent and intelligible,” as in a coherent statement. Another definition is, “the orderly and harmonious relationships among the various parts of something, whether a living system such as a human being or the cosmos.” The term coherence always implies connectedness, correlation, stability and efficient energy utilization. In our physiology, a type of coherence occurs when two or more of our body’s rhythmic systems, such as our breathing rhythms and heart rhythms, become synchronized at the same frequency. This is known as physiological coherence , a term our research center introduced to describe the degree of order, harmony and stability in the various rhythmic activities within the body’s systems over any given time period. If the term coherence still seems difficult to understand, you might think of it as resonance, being in sync or in alignment.

In complex systems, such as human beings, there is a significant amount of physiological activity that has to work together in a harmonious, coordinated and synchronized manner. There are many internal systems, such as DNA, enzymes, cells, organs and glands each operating seemingly independently, doing different things at different times, yet all working together in a coordinated and synchronized dance. If this were not the case, it would be a free-for-all among the body’s systems, rather than a harmoniously coordinated federation of the body’s various functions. In fact, this type of “coherence” has been proposed as the quality that makes life possible.[1]

Several neuroscientists have suggested that it is the degree of harmony, resonance and coherence in our body’s internal processes that underlies the quality and stability of the feelings and emotions we experience. The feelings we experience as “positive” reflect a coherent system, whose efficient function is directly related to the ease and flow in its processes. On the other hand, an erratic, discordant pattern of activity in the brain and nervous system denotes an incoherent system whose function reflects stress in life processes. We tend to experience this incoherent activity as unsettling or troubling feelings, such as instability, frustration, anxiety, overwhelm, impatience and so on.[2]

Not only is the term coherence used to describe harmony in our body’s processes, mental and emotional ease and flow, and the efficiency and effectiveness of our words and actions, coherence also applies to social settings. Social coherence is reflected as a stable, harmonious alignment of relationships in a group (family, team, network, organization, etc.) which allows for the efficient flow and utilization of energy and good communication, all of which are necessary for optimal group cohesion and aligned action. When alignment occurs there is coherence between parts, and our intended results are more likely to be achieved. When relations in a group are discordant and social organization is incoherent, not only is optimal action not possible, but dysfunction and instability are likely consequences. At HeartMath, we have studied personal and social coherence in great detail, as well as how heart coherence facilitates the mechanics of personal and social coherence at a physiological level. Here’s a simple scientific overview.

Physiological coherence refers to a specific state that reflects increased harmony and stability in higher-level control systems in the brain; increased synchronization between heart and brain and in the activity occurring in the two branches of the autonomic nervous system (ANS); and a general shift in autonomic balance towards increased parasympathetic activity (also known as vagal tone or activity). This physiological state, also referred to as heart coherence because the heart is a key instigator of this state, is associated with increased emotional balance, stability, access to intuition, and improved mental functions (ability to focus, memory, reaction times, coordination, etc.).

As mentioned in Chapter 2, research has also revealed that the physical heart has its own nervous system. Neuro-cardiologists call it the intrinsic cardiac nervous system and nicknamed it the “heart-brain”.[3] The research on the structure and functions of this heart-brain has significantly benefited HeartMath research because it provides the anatomical details of how the heart and brain are in constant communication, and helps explain studies that demonstrated how the activity of the heart influences brain centers involved in our perceptions, cognitive performance and emotional experience.[4-7] An important analytical tool that provides us and other researchers with a window into the communication occurring between the heart and brain and the activity occurring in the ANS is called heart rate variability analysis .

Heart coherence can be measured using Heart Rate Variability analysis. Let me explain how this works. We all know that heart rate refers to how many times the heart beats in a minute and is measured in beats per minute (BPM). Heart Rate Variability (HRV) refers to the naturally occurring variations in the time between each and every pair of heartbeats (see Figure 1). It is this beat-to-beat variation that creates the heart’s rhythms and when we look more closely, we can see repeating patterns in the heart’s rhythms. Much of this naturally occurring variability is created because our heart and brain are communicating with each other through the autonomic nervous system. This variability occurs all the time, even when we are sleeping or resting .

Figure 1 - This graph shows an example of the beat-to-beat changes occurring over a 24-second period. The trace on the bottom is the ECG and the dots on the top line are the instantaneous heart rate. The line that connects the dots forms the heart rhythm pattern. The upslope in the line represents an increase in heart rate, meaning there is a series of heartbeats that are speeding up (less time between heartbeats) while the downslope represents a decrease in heart rate, meaning there is a series of heartbeats slowing down (more time between heartbeats).

It was once thought that a healthy physiological state was reflected by a steady heart rhythm, where the time between each heartbeat is the same. We now know that the opposite is true! A good amount of variability is a marker of good health. In fact, many studies found that having an optimal level of variability is related to our ability to be flexible and adaptable to changing social situations and to life’s challenges, both big and small.[7, 9, 10] The amount of HRV we have is even considered a measure of our health, resilience and well-being.

The amount of HRV we have over a 24 hour period is related to age, with younger people having higher levels than those who are older.[11] For someone in their twenties the heart rate will typically vary around 20 beats per minute (BPM), while someone in their seventies would tend to have a natural variability of less than 10 BPM. You can see in the bottom graph in figure 2 that the heart rate is varying from around 60 BPM to around 80 BPM, but the average heart rate is around 70 BPM. Having a lower range or amount of HRV than is normal for your age is a predictor of future health problems and is associated with numerous medical conditions.

It’s well known that our perceptions and emotions can cause changes in the activity of our nervous system that can affect our heart, such as when something startles us and we feel our heart rate increase. But it’s not commonly known that the signals the heart sends to the brain flow all the way into the higher centers of the brain and can have a profound influence on our higher level mental functions. For example, the heart’s signals affect the activity in the cortex, that part of the brain that governs thinking and reasoning capacities. You can think of HRV as a type of complex Morse code that the heart uses to communicate with the brain and body.

Figure 2 -The two heart rhythm recordings shown in this figure are from the same person taken just moments apart. Emotions such as frustration, impatience or anxiety are reflected in an incoherent heart rhythm pattern (top). The bottom, coherent, heart rhythm pattern quickly emerged when the person used HeartMath’s Quick Coherence Technique and activated a feeling of appreciation. In general, any renewing emotion such as gratitude, care, compassion or kindness tends to create more coherent heart rhythms.

In our lab during the early 1990s we conducted research on the bodily activity patterns associated with various emotional states. We measured people’s hormones, immune system markers, brain waves, skin conductance, muscle activity and of course the electrocardiogram (ECG).[12-15] At that time there were very few scientific publications on positive emotions. It was through a lot of trial and error and some willing study participants, along with Doc’s encouragement to have people focus on the heart and evoke warm-hearted positive feelings, like appreciation and compassion, that we observed how emotions, positive or negative, were reflected in the patterns of the heart’s rhythm. We were able to publish this finding in The American Journal of Cardiology , and as far as we know, this was the first time that emotional states were linked to HRV patterns.[16]

Another important observation was that changes in the heart’s rhythmic pattern were independent of heart rate (how many times a minute your heart beats). In fact, we can have a coherent or incoherent HRV pattern at a high or low heart rate. In other words, it is the pattern or rhythm of our changing beat-to-beat heart rate, rather than heart rate itself, that is reflective of our emotional state and of how harmoniously our internal systems, including our brain, are operating . This means that from a physiological perspective, a heart coherent state is fundamentally different than a state of relaxation, which requires only a lowered heart rate and not necessarily a coherent rhythm.

When our HRV is in a heart coherent pattern, it reflects increased synchronization and harmony in our higher-level brain centers and in the activity occurring in the two branches of the autonomic nervous system.

When our HRV pattern is jagged and disordered, as in the top graph of Figure 2, it’s called an incoherent waveform. We found that when people were feeling sincere regenerative emotions such as love, appreciation and compassion, their heart rhythm pattern naturally became more coherent. On the other hand when they were experiencing stressful emotions such as anxiety, anger, fear or worry, a disordered, incoherent heart rhythm pattern was generated.[6 ]

A smooth sine-wave like HRV pattern as seen on the bottom graph of Figure 2 is called a coherent wave form. More technically speaking, physiological coherence (also referred to as heart coherence, cardiac coherence or resonance) is when the HRV pattern becomes more sine-wave like and is oscillating at a frequency of around 0.1 Hz (a 10-second rhythm), which is the natural resonant frequency of the communication system between the heart and brain.

Through our continued research, we found that many beneficial things happen inside the body when we are in a more coherent state. In essence, because the heart is the most powerful biological oscillator in the body, when its rhythms are “in tune” with the natural resonant frequency of the heart-brain communication system (i.e. in a state of coherence), the amplitude or amount of HRV becomes greater. When this happens the heart rhythm can pull and shift other oscillatory systems into entrainment and synchronization with it—including our breathing rhythm and blood pressure rhythms (which also vary with each heartbeat). At the same time, the brain’s rhythms, such as our alpha waves, become more synchronized to the heart. All together this results in a body-wide state of increased synchronization and resonance.[6] Just being in this heart coherent state for a couple of minutes has been found to lower mean blood pressure by an average of 10 points in people with high blood pressure.[17] At the psychological level, while in a coherent state we experience a distinct quieting of the inner “noise” generated by the normal stream of unregulated mental and emotional activity. We have a greater sense of alignment and harmony, as well as connection with our heart’s intuitive feelings or inner voice.

Have you ever noticed when you are emotionally upset that you have an increased tendency to say or do something you later regret? That’s because feelings like anxiety, worry and fear create a type of incoherence in the nervous system and brain, resulting in what’s called “cortical inhibition” where we are not as able to perceive the future consequences that our reactions and resulting words or actions may have in creating stress, energy drain and time waste. In other words, we lose our ability of foresight as our higher mental functions are taken offline![6, 7]

A growing number of research studies have shown that we can “take charge” of how we respond moment-to-moment. We can learn to better self-regulate our thoughts and emotions, which reduces and prevents many stress-producing reactions. We can do this by learning how to intentionally shift into the state of heart coherence right in the heat of the moment .[10, 18, 19] This creates alignment between the heart and brain resulting in “cortical facilitation” which increases our higher order capacity for mental clarity and intuitive discernment—heart intelligence . Increasing our heart rhythm coherence also increases emotional flexibility and adaptability, memory and our ability to focus and concentrate.[6, 20] As we gain more skill in self-regulating our mental and emotional energy expenditures and responses, we can increase our resilience, and can relatively quickly improve our health and well-being. A simple self-regulation technique that can be used to increase heart rhythm coherence is called the Quick Coherence® Technique. Many people report how effective this one-minute heart-focused breathing and emotion shifting technique has been for them in quickly recouping from challenging situations. Try it for yourself and be your own self-scientist.

There is a direct neural pathway from the heart to a key brain center involved in processing emotion called the amygdala. In fact, the cells at the core of the amygdala synchronize to the heartbeat. In other words, the heart rhythm pattern is informing the amygdala with important information that helps determine our emotional state. Incoherent heart rhythms can be interpreted by the amygdala as anger, anxiety or another stressful feeling, while coherent rhythms are interpreted by the amygdala as everything is okay. However, for this process to work, the amygdala needs a baseline or reference to compare the heart’s incoming signals to. For example, if you’re anxious a lot, then anxiety can become a familiar pattern (baseline) and feel normal.

This is how a stress habit is created. Familiar and unproductive emotional patterns, such as quick trigger reactions, getting angry, being anxious, blaming, etc., can be re-programmed as we practice getting in a heart coherent state. This state allows for increased cellular acceptance of new and beneficial patterns instated by conscious intention. This is because of the harmonious alignment that coherence creates between the heart, mind, emotions and body.

We can learn to sustain coherence for longer periods, such as during meditations, to more quickly establish a healthier new familiarized pattern in the amygdala. This creates a new inner reference or set-point that replaces the old non-effective emotional pattern. Without establishing a new baseline, it’s nearly impossible to sustain a desired psychological or behavioral change. Increasing the coherent alignment between our heart, mind and emotions strengthens our capacity to change non-effective behaviors and habits that have been holding us back from accessing our higher potentials and becoming who we really are.

We also found that enabling people to see HRV patterns in real-time proved to be a powerful demonstration of how emotions, such as frustration and impatience, affect the activity in our nervous system and how quickly we can shift into a coherent state once we know how. It was not long until HeartMath staff who delivered training programs in hospitals, schools and companies wanted to include a “live demo” in their programs. These live demonstrations were a hit. However, the equipment was cumbersome to use, electrodes had to be stuck on the participants’ chests, and our trainers needed an extra padded suitcase to transport this rather expensive lab equipment to the venue.

It became clear that the ability to see their heart rhythm pattern before and after using a HeartMath technique to shift into a coherent state, was an “ah ha” moment for most of the participants, and it accelerated their learning and practice of the coherence techniques. So we decided to see if we could create a low cost HRV coherence feedback device that anyone could use in everyday life. To do this we also needed to develop a way to quantify or measure coherent and incoherent states. It took some time, a lot of testing and trial and error, but we were eventually able to assess different levels of coherence. This was an important step in being able to design a user-friendly coherence training device. We worked with a team of software and hardware developers to create the first ever consumer friendly HRV feedback device in 1999, which was called the Freeze-Framer (named after the Freeze Frame® Technique which we teach in our training programs). Doc guided the development of some simple, short interactive games that are controlled by the user’s emotional state or level of coherence to make coherence training more fun for teenagers as well as adults. At that time we had no idea we were launching what would become a new industry. At first, we wondered if anyone would buy this new computer software and sensor. But fortunately the Freeze-Framer was quickly embraced by the biofeedback industry, many health care professionals, business executives, golfers and even teachers for their classrooms. A few years later it was renamed the emWave and a portable version was also developed. Most recently a version called the Inner Balance Trainer for iOS devices (iPhones, iPods and iPads) was developed.

This technology is now used by hundreds of thousands of people as a training tool when practicing HeartMath or other techniques to increase their heart rhythm coherence. The real-time feedback has proven to be effective for helping people sustain coherence for longer periods and increases the carryover effect of coherent alignment into their daily activities. Sustaining coherence facilitates the process of establishing a healthy new baseline by progressively resetting the heart’s rhythms to a more coherent and resonant state .

Many people who use the technology during meditation have told me that coherence level feedback helps them to quickly access a meditative state, and signals them when they lose focus, so they can shift back into a heart coherent state. I have found that coherence feedback especially helps people learn how to slow their mental/emotional vibratory rate so that their internal systems can operate more in sync, and they have a stronger connection with their heart’s intuitive guidance.

There’s a big pay-off from practicing heart coherence for even a few minutes. As we have said, being in a coherent state has a carryover effect. [6] This means that by spending a few minutes in a more heart coherent state before engaging in situations that are often stressful, such as before an important meeting or a challenging conversation with a client or co-worker, we are more likely to be able to sustain our inner balance and composure.

When we sit quietly in a heart coherent state, it can at times seem like not much is going on; yet from a physiological view, a lot is going on. When you’re in a coherent state, your nervous system is more aligned, your hormonal and immune systems are getting rebalanced, and your mind and emotions are connecting with more of your spirit. All of this internal realignment increases resilience throughout your system.

As we increase our personal heart coherence baseline, it also benefits our families, co-workers, friends and more. From our research, we know that heart coherence is not an idle state; it reaches out, influences and supports others in many beneficial ways and expands into social coherence. Creating a healthy heart coherence baseline, individually and collectively, can provide us with more intuitive connectivity and flow, support behavior changes we want to make and enable new solutions for our personal and societal challenges .