Healthy Heart Rate

Having a healthy heart rate is a real treasure. At first glance a healthy heart rate may seem to be referring to your average heart rate. And that’s what it is in part. Count the number of heartbeats in one minute and that’s your average heart rate.

For adults there is a range of 60-100 bpm (beats per minute) which is considered normal for most people. Some people, like athletes, may have slower heartbeats and this would probably be normal for them.

The more interesting and useful way to view heart rate is to measure your heart rate variability. HRV refers to the beat-to-beat changes in your heartrate. And when measured with simple pulse detector your HRV reveals the state of your emotional and energetic heart.

What you see when you look at an HRV graphed out is a wavy or jagged like going up and down over time. Stress has a great effect on how our HRV appears.

When we feel stress our heart rhythms become incoherent or disordered. The heartrate can spike up in response to stress or it may plunge down quickly. When this happens it is hard upon the heart.

What is much healthier is to have a heartrate that goes up and down in a wavy, rhythmic pattern. We call this Coherence.

Coherence occurs when your heart rate slows down and becomes very regular. At this point you feel good, your heart is not stressed, your mind becomes clear, your immune system strengthens. You are literally strengthening your heart.

At the same time you are softening your heart and opening it and also healing it. The heart heals energetically when given a chance. Heart coherence practices do just that.
Your heartbeat is your number one source of bio-feedback.

There’s an incredible library of information embedded into your heartbeat. So we can learn simple heart coherence practices which make our heartbeats slower and more regular.

I practice a type of meditation called Heart Rhythm Meditation which focuses on the breath and heartbeat. In this practice we synchronize our breathing to our heartbeat. This creates entrainment between the breath and heartbeat.

This entrainment is what we call Coherence.
One of the many benefits of this practice is that you become very relaxed and in the present moment. You feel a spaciousness in your heart area. You feel more receptive, and also more able to express yourself. You have an experience of your multi-dimensional heart.

Your multi-dimensional-energetic-emotional heart also has a spiritual component as well and you can access that by starting with focus on your own heartbeat.

Try to feel your heart beating in the middle of your chest. If you gently hold your breath while sitting quietly, you may feel it. You can also contact a pulse point on your wrist or throat.

The pulse is the echo of the heartbeat. The pulse is a single beat which can be felt on the periphery of the body.
Think of your heart as an old friend.

Remember that the first sound you ever heard was the sound of your mother’s heartbeat and you were so comforted by that. Be comforted by your own heart now. Just listen for your own heartbeat and enjoy!