When you intentionally shift to a positive emotion, such as appreciation, care, or compassion, your heart rhythms immediately change. This shift in heart rhythms create a favorable cascade of neural, hormonal, and biochemical events that benefit the entire body. Blood pressure drops. Stress hormones plummet. The immune system pumps up. Anti-aging hormones increase. You gain clarity, calmness, and control. The effects are both immediate and long lasting.

It's easy to do.
With eyes oped or closed, begin by sitting in a comfortable position, focusing on your breathing. Think of breating through your heart, using you heart as the command post for brining air into your lungs, through your nose and directing the air throughout your body. Rest your hand on your stomach, feeling the air that you're brining, going all the way into your stomach, feeling you hand rise and lower as you breathe. Imagine that there is a balloon in your stomach that fills up as your breathe in through your nose and empties as you exhale through your mouth. Count to 7 as you breathe in and 7 as you breathe out, keeping an even paced count.

If you have a quiet mind...
As you continue to let your mind focus on one, two, or three thoughts of love, gratitude, or appreciation. Let yourself remember times in your life where you felt any of these emotions and recall how good you felt at these times. Continue to review these times in your life as you remember to breathe through your heart, feeling the air move in through your nose, all the way to your stomach, and out through your mouth.

If you have an active mind...
Imagine there is a totally clean blackboard. Every time a thought comes into your mind, write one thought only on the blackboard and erase it. Keep writing and erasing, the goal being to create an empty blackboard.

Heart Rate Variability