Heart rate variability training for fear, anxiety, and focus

How managing your heart rate can improve your mental and emotional state.

Article at a glance:

• Your heart doesn’t beat with perfect rhythm; there are little variations in the time between heartbeats, and how much your heartbeat varies is a good indicator of your mental and emotional state.

• Heart rate variability (HRV) training teaches you to consciously control those variations in your heartbeat, as well as the emotional state and fight-or-flight response that are tied to HRV.

• HRV training can help you manage fear, decrease anxiety, and improve your mental focus for sustained periods of time, all with 15-30 minutes of training a day. Read below to learn how to do HRV training.

Did you know that your heart doesn’t have a steady beat?

The classic, rhythmically repeating thump-thump most of us think of as a heartbeat is actually inaccurate. Your heart doesn’t beat with perfect rhythm — there are minor changes from beat to beat. The difference in time between heart beats is called your heart rate variability (HRV).

“[Our heart] is being affected by our nervous system, and that neural influence provides beat-to-beat changes in rate,” says psychiatric researcher Stephen Porges in a recent Bulletproof Radio podcast episode [iTunes].

Changes in your HRV are a good predictor of your emotional and psychological states. Your HRV decreases in response to stress[1] and sadness[2], for example, and it increases when you’re happy[3].

With a little effort, you can learn to consciously control your heart rate variability, which can influence how you feel day-to-day and how you respond to stressors or negative emotions.

With a little effort, you can learn to consciously control your heart rate variability, which can influence how you feel day-to-day and how you respond to stressors or negative emotions.

HRV training is a quick and inexpensive way to get more control of your emotions and increase your ability to handle scary or stressful situations. This article will cover three major benefits of heart rate variability training, as well as the tools you can use to enhance your HRV and improve your stress response, focus, and more.