Productivity Multi-Tool – Quick Brain-Body Reset

Rob Pilz
July 4, 2023

Have you ever felt out-of-sorts with just minutes til your next meeting?

The Quick Brain-Body Reset is a practical solution that anyone can do when feeling out of sorts and need to show up! Reduce fatigue, increase energy and elevate the performance of your mind and body. In our experience, it’s one of the best and easiest bio-hacks ever.

One simple step, which you can do anytime, wherever you are!

Step 1. Breath with your attention on your heart

Guidance

that’s it! It’s that simple … and if you found yourself distracted, feel free to do another 5. Do this technique anywhere anytime, like before a big meeting, or anytime you’d like to feel more balanced, connected and smart. Even before a phone call or writing an email…you may find that being in a more coherent state influences positively what and how you speak and write. I also use it in business planning – with some clients we do heart-focused mapping of ideas on an issue, after first doing a traditional “mind (centric)-map”, and they are often shocked by the difference and quality of the ideas and connections.

Why does this work?

Because of a concept called physiological coherence, which is easily created using this simple technique.

You can visually see the difference between coherence and incoherence, by the smooth versus choppy heart waves on an EKG, like this.

It’s a state in which the heart, brain, and systems of the body, are synchronized and balanced.

The benefits of being in a state of coherence include:

increased oxygen into the blood resulting in improved detoxification and recovery after exercise,
reduced stress and anxiety coinciding with a rise in "happiness hormones" like serotonin,
increase in positive emotions like gratitude, compassion, and love,
improved mental clarity and focus,
improved immune function,
enhanced resilience,
increased ability to communicate coherently, and
enhanced creativity and intuition.

Studies supporting the benefits of practices that bring one into a state of coherence include:

Studies	References
HeartMath Institute studies on heart coherence have shown a range of benefits, including reduced stress, improved mood, and increased emotional resilience.	McCraty, R., Atkinson, M., & Tomasino, D. (2003). Science of the Heart: Exploring the Role of the Heart in Human Performance. HeartMath Research Center.
A study published in the Journal of Psychophysiology found that participants who practiced heart coherence experienced reduced levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, and increased levels of DHEA, a hormone that promotes well-being.	McCraty, R., Atkinson, M., Tiller, W. A., Rein, G., & Watkins, A. (1995). The effects of emotions on short-term power spectrum analysis of heart rate variability. The American journal of cardiology, 76(14), 1089-1093.
A study published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine found that heart coherence practice improved immune function in individuals with chronic fatigue syndrome.	Fukuda, S., Morimoto, K., Matsuoka, M., & Miyazaki, K. (2007). A pilot study on the effectiveness of heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback in patients with fibromyalgia. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 32(1), 1-10.
A study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that practicing heart coherence improved heart rate variability, a measure of cardiovascular health and resilience.	Lehrer, P. M., Vaschillo, E., & Vaschillo, B. (2000). Resonant frequency biofeedback training to increase cardiac variability: Rationale and manual for training. Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback, 25(3), 177-191.
A study published in the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine found that heart coherence practice improved mental well-being and reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety.	Karavidas, M. K., Lehrer, P. M., Vaschillo, E., Vaschillo, B., Marin, H., Buyske, S., & Malinovsky, I. (2007). Preliminary results of an open label study of heart rate variability biofeedback for the treatment of major depression. Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback, 32(1), 19-30.

Additional tips:

If you feel it isn’t working:

1. ensure your full attention is inside your heart, allowing for any competing thoughts, feelings, noises etc. to pass outside of your primary awareness,
2. imagining your attention unhooking from your brain and sliding into your heart can help, as for most people, their sense of the source of their awareness is in their head,
3. If you’re finding it challenging to connect with your heart, it may simply be that like many people, the conditioning to use the mind for everything is still very strong. It literally is a muscle, and so the best thing you can do, just like training the muscles of your body to do a sport, is to keep on training yourself to connect with your heart with this exercise, and it will start to happen. The “Fake it til you make it” approach sometimes works!;),
4. try just focusing on your breath for a while, which will give you some of the benefits, and then focus on your heart when that feels more possible.

If you’re finding this practice useful and want to try more like it:

watch for additional posts where we expand the application into areas like accelerating the body’s ability to repair an injury (any area of incoherence in the body), improving stretching and flexibility after a workout, decision-making, and communication.

Now go BE amazing!

From our hearts to yours, the team at Evolving Human.