I just finished teaching a class about resilience. It was for leaders and supervisors and designed by the Centre for Leadership at the Justice Institute of BC.
One of the gifts of teaching this class was the opportunity to see how I can control my own heart rate and what it feels like when I am doing it. One of the perks of the job was being about to use a type of biofeedback machine, called an EmWave2, from the HeartMath Institute.
Some of you might have had an experience of biofeedback training – where a computer shows you how your heart rate or breathing is doing. This particular machine measures the intervals between heartbeats. None of our hearts beat at exactly the same length of time or space between beats. They vary. That variation is called “Heart Rate Variability.” That’s what the EmWave 2 measures.
It looks like a reading on an EKG machine – blips on a screen. What you see at the top of this post is a screenshot of my HRV. It was taken this morning from my computer, when I deliberately changed my breathing and focused on pleasurable, loving thoughts.
I’ve never had the experience before of being able to see so immediately how changing my breathing and my thoughts could bring my heart into quick coherence. It was very empowering!
I’m feeling the effects of it now even as I type this and remember the state I was in.
How it works is you hook your finger or earlobe to a small sensor pad which plugs into a small machine that plugs into your computer. Then a computer program pops up that is reflected on my screenshot above. That shows your heart beats and little graphs showing your heart rate variability going from being in the “red” to “blue” to “green.”
I must confess, since getting this little machine a few days ago, I was staring to get competitive with myself – I wanted to get 100% green!
Until this morning, I had gotten as far as about 93% green. I would slow down my breathing, and then put one hand on my heart and the other on my belly and finally start to think happy thoughts. I would either think of things I loved (like people in my life) or imagine energy circulating in my body. I’ve received training in many energy modalities, including Reiki, Qi Gong and Kundalini yoga, so imagining energy circulating throughout and around my body was easy.
This morning, I sat down with the machine, before class started. I was talking with the assistant who helps me with the online class and we were testing the machine and the screen sharing to make sure everything was working. Imagine my surprise when I started the breathing and the good thoughts and then my heart rate moved immediately into that 100% zone.
I could hardly believe it – except – my body sensations told me so. My 100% score was reflected in how I was feeling. I could see how my heart rate variability was large and so very even – like waves. I recognized that feeling of when I am in “the zone” and a tiny bit dreamy. The state felt pleasurable and expansive.
The odd thing is I didn’t do anything that different other than I had put myself into that state before turning on the machine. Then, watching the machine and knowing I was putting myself in that state deliberately, put me in that state even more.
The cool thing is I can put myself in that state right now. Stop. Focus on my heart. Slow my breathing down. Think lovely thoughts. One minute of this…Ahhh. So good!
Try it!
I feel so grateful I had a chance to play with the EmWave2 machine and that I now know in my body what it feels like to shift into that zone. Thank you to the Justice Institute of BC for offering such training in Resiliency for Leaders. Thank you to the wonderful assistants, who helped make the class happen – one of whom, Anastasia, was with me the whole time. Thank you too to the designer of that curriculum who thought up this lovely exercise.
I feel blessed.
“My mother told me I was blessed and I have always taken her word for it.” … Duke Ellington