Heart Coherence to Increase Resilience and Enhance Creativity

Heart coherence is based on research from an organization called Heart Math. Coherence is a “state where the heart, mind and emotions are in energetic alignment.” This state has been shown to increase resilience to stress, improve cognitive function, enhance ability to focus and increase learning ability. Furthermore, a coherent state will help kick self-criticism to the curb. It’s virtually impossible to reach coherence through the method below and still maintain a self-critical state-of-mind.

Needless to say, resilience, focus, learning ability and enhanced cognitive function are all key to happiness and success. Coherence is a state that is naturally induced through Yoga, Qigong, meditation and various other eastern arts. Qigong and meditation are a key part of my day and the technique below has seriously deepened my practice. However, even–and perhaps especially–if you don’t practice an internal art I’m confident you’ll find the simple technique below valuable.

Heart Centered Breathing

An easy and fast way of obtaining coherence is through heart centered breathing.  Bring your awareness to your chest, right around your heart. Close your eyes and imagine with each breath that the air flows into and out of this region as if breathing from the heart.

Invoke a feeling of gratitude and appreciation. You might think of specific people, things are aspects of your life you’re grateful for. Or you might invoke a general feeling of gratitude simply for the fact that you are alive. If it feels right, place your hands over the center of your chest, left over right.

Continue to focus on your heart region while taking deep breaths and focusing on these feelings of gratitude until you notice a feeling of peace and relaxation begin to rise. Often this feeling will begin at your heart and radiate outward, but it’s also possible it could start from any other place in your body. Be patient with yourself. The first time you try this the experience might be subtle. Daily practice is key.

Lucky Seven Challenge

Don’t underestimate the power of this simple yet profound technique until you’ve tried it for at least seven minutes for seven days straight. Of course you are always welcome to do it for longer which only increases the benefit.