![]() ![]() HeartMath research has found that the emotions we experience directly affect our heart rhythm pattern-and this, in turn, tells us much about how our body is functioning. When you use the emWave Pro, you are seeing your heart rhythm pattern in real time. When our varying heart rate is plotted over time, the overall shape of the waveform produced is called the heart rhythm pattern. Research at the HeartMath Institute has shown that one of the most powerful factors that affect our heart’s changing rhythm is our feelings and emotions. These include our breathing patterns, physical exercise, and even our thoughts. Many factors affect the activity of the ANS, and therefore influence HRV. By reducing stress-induced wear and tear on the nervous system and facilitating the body’s natural regenerative processes, regular practice of HeartMath coherence-building techniques can help restore low HRV to healthy values. Low HRV is also observed in individuals with a wide range of diseases and disorders. Although the age-related decline in HRV is a natural process, having abnormally low HRV for one’s age group is associated with increased risk of future health problems and premature mortality. Our heart rate variability is greatest when we are young, and as we age the range of variation in our resting heart rate becomes smaller. HRV is also a marker of biological aging. Patterns of the HRV waveforms are clearly different. Using yourpulse data, it provides a picture of your HRV-plotting the natural increases and decreases in your heart rate occurring on a continual basis. However, the emWave Pro for Mac and PC technology allows you to observe your heart’s changing rhythms in real time. The moment-to-moment variations in heart rate are generally overlooked when average heart rate is measured (for example, when your doctor takes your pulse over a certain period of time and calculates that your heart is beating at, say, 70 beats per minute). ![]() The analysis of HRV therefore serves as a dynamic window into the function and balance of the autonomic nervous system. ![]() The sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the ANS are continually interacting to maintain cardiovascular activity in its optimal range and to permit appropriate reactions to changing external and internal conditions. The sympathetic nerves act to accelerate heart rate, while the parasympathetic (vagus) nerves slow it down. The normal variability in heart rate is due to the synergistic action of the two branches of the autonomic nervous system (ANS)-the part of the nervous system that regulates most of the body’s internal functions. Note that variation in the time interval between consecutive heartbeats, giving a different heart rate (in beats per minute) for each interbeat interval. This diagram shows three heartbeats recorded on an electrocardiogram (ECG). Heart rate variability is a measure of the beat-to-beat changes in heart rate. This means that learning to generate increased heart rhythm coherence, by sustaining positive emotions, not only benefits the entire body, but also profoundly affects how we perceive, think, feel, and perform. In contrast, the more ordered and stable pattern of the heart’s input to the brain during positive emotional states has the opposite effect-it facilitates cognitive function and reinforces positive feelings and emotional stability. (This helps explain why we may often act impulsively and unwisely when we’re under stress.) The heart’s input to the brain during stressful or negative emotions also has a profound effect on the brain’s emotional processes-actually serving to reinforce the emotional experience of stress. This limits our ability to think clearly, remember, learn, reason, and make effective decisions. During stress and negative emotions, when the heart rhythm pattern is erratic and disordered, the corresponding pattern of neural signals traveling from the heart to the brain inhibits higher cognitive functions. ![]() HeartMath research has demonstrated that different patterns of heart activity (which accompany different emotional states) have distinct effects on cognitive and emotional function. Scientists at the HeartMath Institute have extended this body of scientific research by looking at how larger-scale patterns of heart activity affect the brain’s functioning. Earlier research mainly examined the effects of heart activity occurring on a very short time scale-over several consecutive heartbeats at maximum. The effect of heart activity on brain function has been researched extensively over about the past 40 years.
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