Cultivating Heart Coherence

STEP 1: Focus your attention in the area of the heart. Imagine your breath is flowing in and out of your heart or chest area. 

STEP 2: Breathe. Breathing a little slower and deeper than usual.

STEP 3: Activate and sustain a regenerative feeling such as appreciation, care/love or compassion or gratitude. 

STEP 4: Radiate that renewing feeling to yourself and others. 

TIPS FOR STRENGTHENING YOUR PRACTICE

When you catch your mind wandering, simply bring your awareness back to your heart area, breathe slower and deeper and reconnect with the positive feeling you are cultivating. Try and sustain this new feeling after you finish your meditation.  

With practice, you’ll be able to sustain a coherent state for longer periods of time. Over time heart coherence can become your new baseline state. 

Practicing Heart Coherence in a quiet place for a few minutes a couple of times a day will help to regenerate energy and recharge the emotional system. This creates a buffer for the impact of day-to-day stress and other depleting emotions.

Coherence brings about more balance in your heart, which triggers more coherence in your brain and then your whole system. Having coherence within your whole system moves you into a state of healing. Depending on where you are at any one time, more balance creates an energy boost and at other times it helps slow down your system so that you are calmer and better able to relax.

***Reference:  HeartMath Institute: Heart Lock-In Technique, Techniques and Worksheets, 2006