Institute Of HeartMath Research Articles

Global consciousness and cosmic significance of lines from Wordsworth’s poem Tintern Abbey

Mystical, panentheistic lines from Wordsworth’s poem, Tintern Abbey, constitute inductive case study material to introduce HeartMath science’s Global Consciousness Project (GCP). This case study provides a temporal dimension along which to view the cosmic significance of Wordsworth’s “felt sense”, Teilhard de Chardin’s “noosphere” and the GCP. A heuristic phenomenological method is employed. This method facilitates discussion of previous South African research with traditional healers that led to collaboration with the HeartMath Institute, based in California, and establishment of an African Global Coherence Initiative Magnetometer. This latter magnetometer is one of six GCI planetary magnetometers, with the other five currently operating in in California, Saudi Arabia, Lithuania, Canada and New Zealand. The present study introduces GCP2, an update, expanded version of the Global Consciousness Project, which complments GCI. Previously operating from the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), GCP2 is now harmoniously housed by the HeartMath Institute, where its data complements both GCI and Tree Rhythm projects in amplifying interconnectedness science and global healing practices. Contemporary, endemic, planetary contexts of chaos, pollution, mindless destructiveness and war, provide urgent argument for GCP2.

Following the Rhythm of the Heart: HeartMath Institute's Path to HRV Biofeedback.

This paper outlines the early history and contributions our laboratory, along with our close advisors and collaborators, has made to the field of heart rate variability and heart rate variability coherence biofeedback. In addition to the many health and wellness benefits of HRV feedback for facilitating skill acquisition of self-regulation techniques for stress reduction and performance enhancement, its applications for increasing social coherence and physiological synchronization among groups is also discussed. Future research directions and applications are also suggested.

HeartMath as Scientific Meditation Method in Dialogue with Theological Phenomena

The HeartMath Institute originated in 1991 through Doc Childre’s vision of promoting heart intelligence and health. The HeartMath system is an interdisciplinary undertaking, which bridges natural, human, social, spiritual, and ecological sciences, with the goal of promoting personal, social, and global coherence. The general goal of this paper is to introduce HeartMath as a coherent scientific approach to dialogue theological information, as well as a specific meditation method to explore theological phenomena. The particular aim is to contribute a theoretical and practically orientated pilot study with heuristic phenomenological reflection on personal experience of HeartMath theory, practice, meditation, related action, and reports in the form of scientific articles. This study is directly relevant to the DIALOGO conference theme of dialogue between science and theology. Methodology concerns the theoretical and practical value of HeartMath meditation methods as described with examples from HeartMath Global Coherence (GC) and Inner Balance (IB) apps. There are five GC reflective meditations on the theme of science and theology, complemented by five IB purely contemplative meditations. The reflective and discursive focus of the paper is on the monitoring of meditation sessions related to science and theology. The specific focus is on HeartMath techniques, electronic devices, and the planetary health potential of the Global Coherence Initiative.

Resilience Building among University Students: A Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback Study

National Health and Morbidity Survey 2017 stated that 1 in 5 adolescents in Malaysia are having depression while 2 in 5 are anxious and 1 in 10 adolescents are in a stress state. This statistic is worrying as adolescents will be the future leaders of our country. Due to this increasing mental health problems, heart rate variability biofeedback technologies are used to increase resilience among university students. A person who is low in resilience is easily gets stress and a higher tendency to be depressed. Based on previous research, there were many kinds of research that have been done to quantify resilience through psychometric tools for example questionnaires and surveys. However, to the best of our knowledge, there has been little research before this in investigating how efficient heart rate variability biofeedback (HRVB) in improving resilience, especially among university students. The waveform of the HRV able to reflect either the person has low or high resilience. This study is a multidisciplinary field that includes electronics, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. The aim is to determine the impact of HRV in resilience building among university students through biofeedback training. 120 students from Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT) are selected to participate in responding to the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS). BRS is used as psychometric tools to measure the level of resilience of the students. Based on the BRS score, the subjects were divided into 3 categories of resilience which are low resilience, normal resilience, and high resilience. The research used EmWave device and software of the HeartMath Institute to collect the variations of the heart rate data. Those who have low resilience took part in the biofeedback training for 5 sessions. The intervention used in the study is the slow breathing technique (6 breaths per min). Based on the HRV power spectrum, HRV data can be divided into 3 parts which are very low frequency (VLF), low frequency (LF) and high frequency (HF). The result obtained after completed all biofeedback training sessions shows that the use of heart rate variability biofeedback helped to increase the level of resilience of the students.

Love as Regulator of the Life Force

The author proposes a role for love in the regulation of the body. Regulation of the life force is critical for a newborn baby because the baby cannot regulate itself and because early patterns of regulation have surprising longevity. A mother who loves her baby is regulated by her own loving, since pleasurable emotion is the consequence of a body that is regulated. She can then pass this regulation onto the baby, body to body. Lowen surmised that love was somehow connected to the organ of the heart and McCraty et al. from the HeartMath Institute have confirmed this connection and have demonstrated that the heart is also responsible for the central system-wide signalling that synchronises the body as a whole in pleasurable feelings such as love. The author shares a personal reflection that illustrates the power of love in the life and death struggles of early infancy.

COMPARATIVE EFFECTIVENESS OF CANINE- OR EQUINE-ASSISTED THERAPY FOR RESIDENTS WITH DEMENTIA

Older adults with dementia may manifest symptoms such as apathy, withdrawal, and aggressive actions (NIA, 2019). Even surrounded by people in LTC, residents with dementia may lack social engagement. Non-pharmacologic approaches are promising (Brodaty & Arasaratnam, 2012) and are reflected in the newer CMS F-tag guidelines (CMS, 2017), but there remains a gap in research about the most effective approaches for LTC residents. Limited research exists on animal-assisted interventions (AAI) as a non-pharmacological approach to increase engagement in people with dementia (Friedman, Thomas & Chung, 2015; Huff-Mercer, 2015) and no known research compares equine- and canine-assisted therapy protocols. This study employed a within-subject alternating-treatments design for three single subjects. Completing the similar tasks of grooming, walking, and interaction, the independent variables are two conditions: 1) Condition A: Equine-assisted activity 2) Condition B: Canine-assisted activity. Using the Dementia Interview Rating (Strauss & Sperry, 2002), apathy was measured before and after each phase. During each session, three outcomes were measured: 1) Engagement in Preferred Activities Scale (Nelson et al., 2014) was used to measure the level of engagement in the interaction; 2) Heart rate variability, a measure of coherence, was measured using the Emwave pro (Heart Math Institute, 2018), and 3) targeted observed social responsiveness (initiation, verbal response, non-verbal response, motor response to one-step instructions) using a smart tablet application. Preliminary results suggest past experience/preference impact the individual client’s response to differing protocols. Effective non-pharmacological interventions for older adults with dementia are an essential alternative to current practice.

Heart-Brain Coherence; Heart-Rate Variability (HRV); Reading Anxiety; TestEdge Program

Based on psychophysiological research, coherent heart-brain interaction can change afferent cardiac signal pattern sent to the brain. Accordingly, the present study aimed at facilitating the emotion-cognition interaction through HeartMath Institute self-regulated emotional techniques to investigate the efficacy of heart-brain coherence on reading anxiety reduction that significantly enhances attention, memory, comprehension, and efficiency in learning. Participants were 63 Iranian university and high school students. In order to enable the participants to self-generate high psychophysiological state and optimal heart rate variability (HRV), TestEdge program, a biofeedback remedy that teaches students skills to self-regulate negative emotional learning impediments, was administered. Findings indicated that the combination of intentional heart focus with the generation of sustained positive feelings increased heart-brain coherence and resulted in a beneficial mode of psychophysiological state. This heart-brain coherence affected and controlled the HRV patterns significantly among the participants on average which, in turn, reduced reading anxiety. Particularly, this study found significant differences among the EFL students with high, mid, and low levels of coherence and their reading anxiety level.

Psychophysiological Coherence in Community Dynamics – A Comparative Analysis between Meditation and Other Activities

(1) Background: Psychophysiological coherence has been widely studied as a bodily state associated with general well-being and cognitive clarity. Heart Rate Variability (HRV) has been shown to be a good biomarker to assess psychophysiological coherence. This paper presents the first general set of results concerning a study that is part of a team effort between a body of researchers in five countries led by the HeartMath Institute under the name, International Heart Rate Variability Synchronization Study (IHRVS). This study focuses on the effects that meditation has on both HRV and the Coherence Ratio. It is hypothesized that meditation improves coherence. (2) Methods: Our research study was conducted at The Embassy of Peace in Whitianga, New Zealand with 22 participants, whose cardiac activity was measured via a FIRSTBEAT wireless HRV recorder, for a period of 15 days, 23 hours per day, (plus?) with an hour break per day for individual care of the body. In order to have an initial qualitative impression of the data, we developed a cinematic movie, which allows us to visualize very clearly both individual and collective HRV dynamics at different times during various activities. (3) Results: We observed via the movie, a clear difference between meditation and other periods. We qualitatively demonstrate an improvement in coherence and we found, amongst other things, that one type of meditation, the Paradise Landing Meditation (PLM) conducted every day at 6:00 PM, shows significantly higher values for coherence. We compared quantitatively the PLM with other daily activities and show a significant improvement in coherence when in this meditative states. (4) Conclusions: We infer that meditative states might be beneficial to cognition and general well-being and propose that the heart together with the brain and the respiratory system are engaged in modulating cognitive clarity, something that we briefly explore and recommend for further investigation.

Emerging dynamics of workplace stress of employees in a large organization in Hong Kong

Purpose Research on workplace stress measurements varied without much accuracy and effectiveness. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new quantitative assessment tool emWave Pro Plus (Institute of HeartMath) and compare heart rate variability (HRV) results with the Personal and Organizational Quality Assessment (POQA) and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Design/methodology/approach This research opted for a correlational study which involves 85 full-time employees who were working at least 40 h per week in a large corporation participated in this study. The POQA and PSS were used to correlate with HRV. Findings Astonishing findings emerged in this study. Significant positive correlations were found between emotional stress and HRV, and between intention to quit and HRV. In other words, the researchers have to make sense the following surprising findings: the higher the emotional stress an employee faces, the healthier they are. Healthier employees may have higher intentions of quitting their jobs. The surprising results may be attributed to personality, culture, emotional regulation and age among others. Originality/value This research fulfills an identified need to validate quantifiable stress measurements especially in a corporate environment. The research also shows promising results, and future studies should continue to tap into HRV as an objective measure of mental health and workplace stress.

Heart Rate Variability

Introduction: Cardiovascular diseases are the highest cause of death in the world. Many of these deaths may be workplace related. Long hours at work seem to be influencing the increased risks of heart diseases. Workplace stress can be defined as the “discrepancies between the physiological demands within a workplace and the inability of employees to either manage or cope with such work demands.” The varied nature and perception of stress are exemplified from literature that shows stress being either a stimulus, or a response, or a stimulus–response combination, also known as a transactional relationship between one or more individuals and the environment, leading to an initiative toward a physiological standpoint. Methods: This research opted for a correlational study which involves 85 full-time employees who were working at least 40 h per week in a large corporation participated in this study. The Personal and Organizational Quality Assessment and Perceived Stress Scale were used to correlate with heart rate variability (HRV). Objectives: The primary objective of this study is to introduce a new quantitative assessment tool emWave Pro Plus (Institute of HeartMath) and compare heart rate variability (HRV) results with the Personal and Organizational Quality Assessment (POQA) and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Results: Astonishing findings emerged. Significant positive correlations were found between emotional stress and HRV and between intention to quit and HRV. In other words, the researcher has to make sense the following surprising findings: (1) The higher the emotional stress an employee faces, the healthier they are. (2) Healthier employees may have higher intentions of quitting their jobs. Conclusion: The surprising results may be attributed to personality, culture, emotional regulation, and age among others.

Heart intelligence: heuristic phenomenological investigation into the coherence experience using HeartMath methods

The HeartMath system refers to various methods, tools and techniques developed by the HeartMath Institute, a global research and educational organization. Working from an interdisciplinary, scientific foundation, the institute has adopted a coherence model to promote its vision and mission of education and health. This model is based on empirical, predominantly natural scientific foundations. Although many, rigorous studies have provided a substantial evidence base of the science and praxis of personal, social and global coherence, the actual coherence experience has not yet been investigated. To address this gap in the HeartMath research evidence, this heuristic phenomenological investigation was organized into three phases, with the goal of eliciting the essential structure of the coherence experience. The first phase consisted of a quantitatively orientated review of the author’s personal HeartMath practice records, with special focus on examples of highest coherence levels and achievement scores, as measured on HeartMath instruments, and as available on Heart Cloud records. In the second qualitatively orientated phase, ten selected descriptions, perceived to be good examples of coherence experiences, were synthesized into an essential review summary. The third, pilot study, phase explored the actual coherence experience of ten consecutive HeartMath sessions, varying with regard to context, duration, time, place and manner of practice. Essential summary findings of the coherence experience are discussed with regard to personal, social and global implications for research, education and health promotion.

Does Mindfulness Improve After Heart Coherence Training in Patients With Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain and Healthy Subjects? A Pilot Study.

Background:Mindfulness and heart coherence training (HCT) training are applied increasingly in the treatment of patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP). Questionnaires have been developed to assess changes in mindfulness but no gold standard is available.Objective:Explore the relationship between changes in mindfulness scores and changes in heart coherence after 3 sessions of HCT in patients with CMP and in healthy subjects.Research Method/Design:Ten patients with CMP and 15 healthy subjects were trained in self-regulation with the use of HCT following a standardized stress relief program developed by the HeartMath Institute. A heart coherence-score (HC-score) was constructed with scores ranging from 0-100 with higher scores reflecting more heart rate variability (HRV) coherency. Change scores, Spearman correlation coefficients, and Wilcoxon Signed Rank test were calculated to test relationships and differences between HC-score, the Mindfulness Attention and Awareness Scale (MAAS) and Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ). A new questionnaire was constructed to explore on which mindfulness-related domains patients with CMP report changes after HCT.Results:Increases were present on HC-score in healthy subjects (P<.01) and in patients (P<.01) between baseline and follow-up. Effect sizes on change on the MAAS and FFMQ were low. Weak (r<0.25) and non-significant correlations were observed in change scores between HC-score and MAAS or FFMQ. Patients reported significant favorable differences on 6 mindfulness related domains in the new questionnaire: breathing rhythm, physical awareness, positive or negative emotions, recognition of stressful situations, thoughts, and tendency to actively self-regulate.Conclusions:In this pilot study, mindfulness as assessed by the MAAS and FFMQ does not appear to improve after HCT. HRV coherency, MAAS, and FFMQ measure different constructs and are weakly related. It is of great importance to choose and develop valid measures that reflect patients' states of mindfulness. Content and face validity of measures of mindfulness may be considered in the light of performance-based measures.

The Path of the Heart

The experts in psychology field have tried to develop new strategies to improve the state oh health of people. One of this is new approaches is “The Path of the Heart”. This approach is a highly effective, short-term educational process, based on the electrocardiograph “vionadrasi” and on in electrodermal techniques developed by the “Institute of Mathematics of the Heart” [Institute of HeartMath) and by the “Foundation Monroe” [The Monroe Institute]”. This paper has the main goal to reveal the main features of this new psycho-therapeutically approach - “The Path of the Heart”-.

A healthy heart is not a metronome: an integrative review of the heart's anatomy and heart rate variability.

Heart rate variability (HRV), the change in the time intervals between adjacent heartbeats, is an emergent property of interdependent regulatory systems that operate on different time scales to adapt to challenges and achieve optimal performance. This article briefly reviews neural regulation of the heart, and its basic anatomy, the cardiac cycle, and the sinoatrial and atrioventricular pacemakers. The cardiovascular regulation center in the medulla integrates sensory information and input from higher brain centers, and afferent cardiovascular system inputs to adjust heart rate and blood pressure via sympathetic and parasympathetic efferent pathways. This article reviews sympathetic and parasympathetic influences on the heart, and examines the interpretation of HRV and the association between reduced HRV, risk of disease and mortality, and the loss of regulatory capacity. This article also discusses the intrinsic cardiac nervous system and the heart-brain connection, through which afferent information can influence activity in the subcortical and frontocortical areas, and motor cortex. It also considers new perspectives on the putative underlying physiological mechanisms and properties of the ultra-low-frequency (ULF), very-low-frequency (VLF), low-frequency (LF), and high-frequency (HF) bands. Additionally, it reviews the most common time and frequency domain measurements as well as standardized data collection protocols. In its final section, this article integrates Porges' polyvagal theory, Thayer and colleagues' neurovisceral integration model, Lehrer et al.'s resonance frequency model, and the Institute of HeartMath's coherence model. The authors conclude that a coherent heart is not a metronome because its rhythms are characterized by both complexity and stability over longer time scales. Future research should expand understanding of how the heart and its intrinsic nervous system influence the brain.

An Institutional Case Study: Emotion Regulation with HeartMath at Santa Cruz County Children's Mental Health

This case study from Santa Cruz County Children's Mental Health Agency (CMH), California, reviews the use of measurement of heart rate variability (HRV) to enhance emotional regulation of patients. CMH serves seriously emotionally disturbed youths, many of whom have been separated from their parents for a prolonged period or have been vulnerable without the consistent presence of their caregivers. In this study, the HRV pattern was calculated as high coherence, medium coherence, or low coherence. According to Thurber et al, heart rhythm coherence “is experienced as a calm, balanced, yet energized and responsive state that is conducive to everyday functioning and interaction, including the performance of tasks requiring mental acuity, focus, problem solving and decision making, as well as physical activity and coordination.”1(p39) In the HeartMath program, there was a game in which high coherence was rewarded with a rainbow that dropped coins into a vessel. When coherence was low, the rainbow and coins disappeared until coherence was reached again. We measured HRV using a finger or ear sensor in individual sessions using a computer-based program from HeartMath Institute, Boulder Creek, California.After juvenile offenders overcame their initial fear of being hooked up to a potential lie detector, I instructed them in “Quick Coherence”1 and asked them to imagine breathing into the area of their heart. The participants created a library of positive feelings, thoughts, and memories on which they could focus. After a period of positive focus and rhythmic breathing, the clients were often able to move into medium or high coherence. In this state, they noticed that they felt calmer. I explained that they could use this tool to improve their mood. I also practiced alongside the youths in order to demonstrate the technique.The detained youths learned quickly, requested repeated sessions, and learned to combine breathing with recalling the good people, places, foods, and feelings in their lives that sustained them. We could also decrease coherence through the use of negative words such as “loss of privileges” on their side or “pay cut” on mine and then move back to coherence with suggestions of positive mental images.

Health care starts with the heart

Some of you may have heard of the Caring Behaviours Assurance System (CBAS), which supports clinical governance and the assurance of high-quality, personcentred care for service users and their families. The CBAS approach addresses culture, improvement, accountability and assurance. It provides a framework that supports conversations about values, care and caring behaviours; their assessment, the identification of what works well or less well, staff resilience, and the incorporation of current improvement approaches and measures of patient experience within NHS Scotland. CBAS allows the recognition of context and that no organisation is starting from the beginning, and may already be undergoing a number of initiatives that can align with CBAS. CBAS consists of a number of components that provide the framework, tools, and techniques that support leadership and accountability for the service users’ care and caring experience. These include multisource data collection, feedback techniques of what is important to service users and staff, action planning to support improvement and measurement of impact. It supports the training of quality champions to promote and coordinate these activities and ensure involvement and ownership of the healthcare team. The first step in the CBAS process is to develop a Person-Centred Quality Instrument and ensure ownership of this process by involving staff and service users. A list of approximately 100 items describing a range of caring behaviours, across the 6Cs, is used as a basis for a team to discuss priorities with patients, carers and each other. This assessment tool provides staff with a framework to collect data about caring behaviours. The process stimulates conversations and feedback from team members and service users on what caring is and its importance. The outcome has raised awareness of what caring means from different viewpoints in order to promote a shared view of the team and service users’ values and beliefs about caring; identify good practice, and highlight concerns that require improvement. Multiple methods of data collection to support feedback from staff, service users and family members are explored and practiced. The data collection methods include interviews with patients, families and managers, including emotional touch points, observation of practice, an environmental review and review of documentation. The aim is to integrate these methods with every-day practice and work processes. Once data is collected, the quality champions are encouraged to give feedback on the outcomes of this review to the team or individual staff members through caring conversations. These conversations held between colleagues are practised in a caring and respectful manner, with recognition that they may be challenging, in order to enable reflective practice. It is proposed that Rory Farrelly NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Director of Nursing Acute Services Division the skills that are needed involve listening and remaining resilient when conversations become stressful. CBAS recognises that managing stress using the ‘HeartMath’ technique supports staff ability to enact these caring conversations and to achieve a personal balance, and coherence in life. Since 1991, the Institute of HeartMath has been studying the links between stress, physiology, care, productivity and clinical outcomes. What emerged was the discovery that the human heart plays a significant role in creating a healing environment both for the care-giver and the patient. This discovery

History of Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback Research: A Personal and Scientific Voyage

This paper reviews the history of heart rate variability biofeedback. Interest in the method has evolved from several directions, eventually mutually influencing each other, and often through workshops provided by the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. My own work was influenced by long-term use of the technique in Russia, and from research by Evgeny Vaschillo using transfer function analysis among heart rate, respiration, and blood pressure, to show how the technique stimulates the baroreflex; also by Richard Gevirtz in frequent workshops given together. Work at the HeartMath Institute independently evolved from experience with music relaxation and “heartfelt emotion,” and other research evolved from American psychophysiological research. Brief descriptions of the development of interest and work in this field are provided by Richard Gevirtz, Rollin McCraty (HeartMath), Fredric Shaffer, and Robert Nolan, as well as myself.

Personality and Heart Rate Variability: Exploring Pathways from Personality to Cardiac Coherence and Health

Background: Personality and heart rate variability (HRV) are each strong predictors of well-being, particularly cardiac health and longevity. The current project explores the correlates of personality traits on heart rate variability (HRV) to clarify how autonomic regulation may mediate the development and maintenance of health and disease. Hypothesis: Personality traits will be significantly correlated with specific measures of HRV. In particular, the Character traits of Self-Directedness, Cooperativeness, and Self-transcendence are known to promote physical, mental, and social aspects of well-being, so they were expected to be associated with indices of HRV indicating autonomic balance. Methods: Participants were 271 volunteers from the community, adult men and women. They received an extensive self-report questionnaire, allowing for a comprehensive personality evaluation. Of these participants, 118 underwent ambulatory—24 hours recording of HRV. The HRV recordings were sent to the Institute of HeartMath for interpretation. Data Analysis: Data for personality was retrieved from the Qualtrics site after online administration, into which the HRV data were entered. Analyses were conducted in SPSS 20. Results: Systematic and significant associations between personality traits were found. In particular, the Temperament and Character Inventory’s character traits were related to autonomic balance as measured by the ratio of low frequency (sympathetic) to high frequency (parasympathetic) activity. Openness, aggression, avoidant attachment, and forgiveness were found to relate to several HRV variables. Conclusion: The relations among personality and HRV support the validity of the measures in ways that clarify the strong relations among personality, HRV, and health. Further work to replicate and extend these preliminary findings in a larger sample is underway.

Using emotion recognition technology to assess the effects of different multimedia materials on learning emotion and performance

With the gradual adoption of multimedia technologies in curriculum designs, the need has increased for in-depth studies that explore how different presentation techniques for multimedia materials affect learner emotions and learner performance. This study employed the emWave system, a stress detector for emotional states that was developed by the Institute of HeartMath for measuring changes in learner emotional states when presented with different multimedia materials with the same learning content. By analyzing the collected emotional data and assessment of learning performance, this study explores how different multimedia learning materials affect learning emotions, and ultimately, learning performance. Preliminary results show that the video-based multimedia material generates the best learning performance and most positive emotion among three types of multimedia materials assessed in the study. Moreover, a partial correlation exists between negative learning emotion and learning performance. This study confirms that simultaneously considering pretest score and negative emotion can predict learning performance of learners who use video-based multimedia material for learning. It also finds significant gender difference in learner emotional states while using different multimedia materials for learning: female learners in this study are more easily affected by different multimedia material than male learners.