HeartMath^©, what is it?

HeartMath will help you transform your stress into resilience, achieve higher levels of performance and live your life with more heart, health and happiness.

HeartMath is a system of simple and powerful self-regulation techniques which are easy to learn and designed to be used “in the moment”, whatever the situation, meaning that you can bring your best self to your personal, social and professional lives.

And what makes HeartMath unique is that you can practise the techniques using our Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Coherence biofeedback app and sensor. Coherence Biofeedback gives you real-time insight into your emotional, mental and physical state. This increases your self-awareness and helps you to develop the ability to self-regulate emotions, thoughts and behaviours.

Want to know the science stuff?

The science behind HeartMath

HeartMath is backed by more than 25 years of scientific research. Our research shows that regulating breathing and generating positive emotions facilitates a body-wide shift to a specific, scientifically measurable state called psychophysiological coherence, or coherence for short.

Coherence is characterised by increased order and harmony in both our psychological (mental) and physiological (bodily) processes. It is a state of optimal function. When we activate this state, we experience greater emotional stability, increased mental clarity and improved cognitive function. Simply stated, our body and brain work better, we feel better, and we perform better.

Coherence also promotes homeostasis, the body’s natural way of keeping everything in balance and of maintaining resilience to challenge, stress and damage. As such you can think of coherence as the engine for resilience and of the coherence techniques as ways to boost your inner battery and keep your resilience engine running effectively. Coherence can be learnt, practiced and developed and the physical and mental benefits can be profound.

Coherence, not relaxation

Coherence is not relaxation, it is a separate state within the Autonomic Nervous System and it is a state which is more appropriate for many of our daily activities. It is a “doing’ state which enables you to be flexible and adaptable to demands as opposed to being too relaxed. An important point is that the state of coherence is both psychologically and physiologically distinct from the state achieved through most relaxation techniques. At the physiological level, relaxation is characterised by an overall reduction in autonomic outflow (resulting in lower HRV) and a shift in ANS balance towards increased parasympathetic activity.

Coherence is also associated with a relative increase in parasympathetic activity, thus encompassing a key element of the relaxation response, but is physiologically distinct from relaxation in that the system oscillates at its natural resonant frequency and there is increased harmony and synchronisation in nervous system and heart-brain dynamics. This important difference between the two states is reflected most clearly in their respective HRV power.

Furthermore, unlike relaxation, the Coherence state does not necessarily involve a lowering of heart rate, or a change in the amount of HRV, but rather is primarily marked by a change in the heart rhythm pattern.