What is Heart Breathing?

Heart breathing, also known as coherent, resonant or heart-focused breathing is an ancient breathing technique with a huge, expanding list of benefits which are being increasingly validated by modern science. It is arguably one of the most important skills that any human being can learn to stay healthy and to achieve one’s full potential in the modern age.

In a Nutshell

There is a magic speed to breathe at (when at rest), and this speed is very similar for all of us.

When breathing at this ideal speed, the lungs, heart and brain all become syncronised in a certain sense. This syncronisation enables more efficient breathing and blood transfer around the body, less strain on the heart, and the brain starts to communicate with the heart in a more coherent manner! As you may have guessed this puts us into a kind of *super-mode* and has an almost unbelievable list of benefits.

The Basic Technique

• Slow paced breathing at 5-6 breaths per minute

• Breathe in and out through the nose

• Breathe using the diaphragm muscle

• Breaths should be soft and almost without sound

• Bring your attention on your heart whilst doing the exercise

• Try and feel an emotion of love, or compassion whilst doing the exercise (e.g. by first thinking of a close family member, friend or pet and then feeling the love that they bring to your heart)

The technique basically involves breathing at a constant, slow rate of around 5 or 6 breaths per minute. To put this into perspective, with the stresses of modern life, today it is common for an adult to breathe at a rate of around 12 to 20 breaths per minute. In general, the more stress an individual suffers from, the faster their breathing becomes.

Overly Fast Breathing is Bad!

Overly fast breathing has serious consequences in terms of health. The reason for this is simple - when we breathe at a faster rate it activates the “fight or flight” part of our autonomic nervous system, promoting the the release of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, shutting down the “rest and digest” part of our autonomic nervous system. This imbalance in our system opens the door for many common modern health conditions to arise such as stress, high-blood pressure and obesity. In fact, most illnesses can be seen as being caused by an imbalance in the autonomic nervous system.

Benefits of Heart Breathing

The list of benefits of heart breathing is so long and varied that it almost sounds too good to be true. Benefits include:

• regulate blood pressure

• regulate digestion

• regulate weight

• lower stress levels

• improve sleep

• reduce pain

• increase energy

• reduce symptoms of anxiety

• reduce symptoms of depression

• balance emotions

• increase resilience

• improve decision making

• improve creativity

How it works

In a nutshell, heart breathing synchronises our brain with our heart and restores balance to our nervous system.

When our brain is working in harmony with our heart and we have balance in our nervous system, our natural power and energy shines through, and many of the health issues caused by modern living simply just disappear.

By consciously slowing down our breathing, we can gain control over our nervous system, bringing it back into balance from a “flight or flight” state, to a “relax and heal” or “rest and digest” state.

Why Focus On the Heart?

You can still get many benefits from doing Heart Breathing by just breathing at the correct speed, however to get the most from the technique, it has been shown that we must do something else:

• Bring your attention on your heart whilst doing the exercise

• Try and feel an emotion of love, or compassion whilst doing the exercise (e.g. by first thinking of a close family member, friend or pet and then feeling the love that they bring to your heart)

This sounds like a bit of a jump away from science, into a Volkswagen Camper van with flowers on, right?

We agree, however it has been shown scientifically that bringing your attention to your heart and feeling the emotions of love or compassion increase brain-heart coherence, whilst doing heart breathing!

Also, there is an increasing body of evidence to suggest that this could actually be the most important aspect of the whole thing.

For example, it's a common theme among the oldest ever living human beings, that when asked their secret, they say it is the love they feel in their heart.