Lucid Breathing, Positive Feedback Loops, and Wim Hof’s Breath Mastery

1. Why We Should (and Should Not) Care About HRV

“Over the years we've experimented with many different types of physiological and psychological measures. Heart rate variability (HRV) patterns… have consistently emerged as the most dynamic and reflective of our inner emotional states.”

- The Heartmath Solution

I’ve been on an HRV kick lately. And although I’m fascinated by the physiological implications of it—its correlation with disease and diabetes, its impact on stress, and so on—here’s another reason we should care: It’s the “most dynamic and reflective [measurement] of our inner emotional states.”

Of course, this makes perfect sense, as our emotional states impact our physiology, and vice-versa. HRV gives us an index for them all, which is why we should care about it.

But, we should also remember that high HRV isn’t the end goal. It’s the positive states associated with high HRV we’re after.

So here’s to using slow breathing to maximize HRV while (paradoxically) remembering that HRV is not the end goal.

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Related Quote: “‘When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.’ Measurement is only useful when it guides you and adds context to a larger picture, not when it consumes you.” - James Clear, Atomic Habits

P.S. Huge thanks to Crussen for The Heartmath Solution. After taking his genuinely incredible Heart Coherence class, I contacted him, and he said Heartmath helped inspire it. I immediately grabbed the book and loved it.

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