What is HeartMath?

For more than 25 years, the HeartMath Institute has been researching the heart-brain connection to learn how the heart influences our perceptions, emotions, intuition, and health.

Their research demonstrates that different patterns of heart activity have different effects on thoughts and behaviors.

When patterns of heart activity are incoherent, an individual may feel stressed, anxious, reactive, foggy, impatient, and sleep deprived (pink/purple wave below).

When heart activity is coherent, that individual may feel energized, joyful, proactive, clear, patient, intuitive, and resilient (blue/green wave below)

Being in a state of coherence for a few minutes daily helps reduce many of the negative effects of stress like scattered thoughts, overwhelm, emotional distortion, fatigue, sleep disruption, anxiety, and burnout.

To activate heart rate coherence, HeartMath uses biofeedback tools that display an individual’s heart rate variability (HRV) in real time. That way, the individual can visualize their journey and get immediate feedback when they enter the zone of coherence.

HRV offers a unique window into the quality of communication between the heart and brain: when the heart and brain are working coherently, the HRV pattern will be smooth and symmetrical. When the communication between the heart and brain is incoherent, the HRV pattern will be jagged and uneven.

HeartMath works to develop self-regulation skills, so an individual can transform their stress and enhance their resilience capacity (their ability to reduce depleting emotions like anger and frustration, promoting energizing ones like gratitude and tranquility). HeartMath techniques aim to develop emotional regulation and resilience capacity to assist individuals in relieving stress and anxiety while building their mental and emotional energy.

Anyone can benefit from the skills and techniques taught through HeartMath. However, HeartMath is particularly helpful for those who experience challenges with chronic stress, anxiety, and other depleting emotions like anger, frustration, brain fog, and apathy.