How to do Heart Focused Breathing
Sometimes the simplest things can be the most powerful! Heart Focused Breathing is a very simple technique that can bring you more ease, relaxation and balance in just minutes.
No, you don’t actually breathe with your heart. You breathe with your lungs and visualise the heart part of it (just in case you were wondering!)
As a HeartMath Practitioner, I highly recommend incorporating this technique into your day. As well as being super simple to do, it won’t take much time and you can pretty much do it anywhere.
It’s a lovely, mindful practice to do first thing in the morning and last thing at night, but you can also use it any time you feel stressed. This breathing technique will help you to have more resilience and capacity to cope with anything life throws at you. Here's how to do it:
Heart-Focused Breathing™ Technique
1. Heart Focus: Bring your awareness to your heart. Place your hand over your heart to help with focus if you like. Breathe in for 5 or 6 seconds and out for 5 or 6 seconds. Make sure your breath is smooth and unforced.
2. Heart Breathing: While you are breathing, imagine that you’re doing it through your heart. Visualise yourself slowly breathing in and slowly breathing out through your heart area. Repeat for several minutes.
Maintaining your focus and breathing through the heart leads you naturally into a state of relaxation and calm. If you want to get scientific, the term for this breathing technique is called psychophysiological coherence.
“Coherence is the state when the heart, mind and emotions are in energetic alignment and cooperation. When the physiological coherence mode is driven by a positive emotional state, we call it psychophysiological coherence.” Dr. Rollin McCraty
When you practice heart centred breathing, you may experience a sense of being uplifted and alive, a feeling of more peace and less urgency and a deeper heart connection with yourself and with others.
Experience the benefits of this simple technique by trying it for yourself. I would love to know how you go!
Would you like to learn more about HeartMath?
HeartMath helps you tap into the power and intelligence of your heart – your heart’s intuition – which awakens you to the best version of yourself.
I offer a 6 session HeartMath-focused coaching (over 12 weeks), which supports you in activating your own vagal tone, improving your heart rate variability and your nervous system health. Find out more here.
