Home

After reading the book Transforming Anger, I decided to purchase a portable bio feedback device called “emWave”. The writer of the book helped develop this device using studies in HRV (Heart rate variability) and coined what is known as “HeartMath”. Apparently, when we think and recall positive experiences our heart and nervous system sync with each other producing a smooth sine wave output or as they say “good coherence”.

The idea behind the freeze frame technique is to ”freeze” a good feeling or experience and to recall this feeling in times of stress, or anxiety. By doing this, you cause the sympathetic and non sympathetic parts of your nervous system to achieve balance lowering the production of nasty chemicals that damage your heart or increase blood pressure.

I went to the HeartMath website and ordered one of their portable emWave machines to provide visual feedback of my heart rate variability. The device works by clipping the heart rate monitor to your ear and breathing according to the flashing lights. When good coherence is achieved you see a blue light for good, red light for bad, and green for excellent coherence. 

To achieve this, you have to breathe slowly and most importantly, recall those good feelings you once experienced and draw that energy around your heart area… You can do this without the feedback device but I thought it might be nice to see if I am actually affecting anything.

I used the Emwave for about 30 days even at work. I mainly used the ear sensor instead of the red finger sensor on the unit itself. It seemed to work well especially when I thought about events that made me feel good in the past. The lights went from red to blue to green.

Essentially this unit is a high tech mood ring that measures heart rate variability and displays the results as colors:

• A red light indicates low coherence which would be normal.
• A blue light indicates medium coherence which shows good improvement
• A green light indicates high coherence the optimal high performance, stress-free state.

I eventually returned the unit because I realized that I could achieve these results myself by simply slowing my breathing and recalling good experiences in my head.  However, if you are not very disciplined or live a busy lifestyle it would probably be a worthwhile purchase.

UPDATE:My partner’s 6 year old daughter who is ADD recently saw me using the EmWave and wanted to try using the device. When I connected the unit to her ear the color strip was immediately red but when I asked her to think about something that made her feel good, the colors changed from red to green within seconds. What I noticed out of this experience was the fact that she had calmed down and was focusing on the task at hand which is totally unlike typical ADD behavior.

To learn more about emWave from HeartMath click here.