Heart Rate Variability, what is that?
Is Your Nervous System Flexible — Or Stuck in Stress Mode?
Your heart doesn’t beat like a metronome.
And that’s a good thing.
Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is one of the most powerful biomarkers of stress resilience, emotional regulation, and nervous system health. Higher HRV is associated with better psychological flexibility, improved emotional control, and greater adaptability under pressure.
In this video, I explain:
• What HRV actually is (in simple terms)
• Why it predicts resilience and wellbeing
• The science linking HRV to emotional regulation
• Evidence-based psychological tools to improve HRV
• Practical techniques you can start using immediately
No supplements.
No fitness hacks.
Just science-backed psychology.
If you want to strengthen your stress response, increase vagal tone, and build a more adaptable nervous system — this is for you.
Watch to the end for a simple daily HRV-enhancing protocol.
Topics Covered:
Heart rate variability explained
Vagus nerve and emotional regulation
Slow breathing and HRV
Cognitive reappraisal and autonomic balance
Compassion meditation and vagal tone
Hypnosis and guided imagery
Psychological resilience tools
As mentioned in the video, here are the self-hypnosis resources. Learn self-hypnosis here.
Have some of themes here resonated with you? Then have a read of these pages:
Would you like a satisfying and meaningful career as a hypnotherapist helping others? Are you a hypnotherapist looking for stimulating and career enhancing continued professional development and advanced studies? Adam Eason’s Anglo European training college.
References
Butler, E. A., Wilhelm, F. H., & Gross, J. J. (2006). Respiratory sinus arrhythmia, emotion, and emotion regulation during social interaction. Psychophysiology, 43(6), 612–622. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.2006.00467.x
Carnevali, L., Koenig, J., Sgoifo, A., & Ottaviani, C. (2018). Autonomic and brain morphological predictors of stress resilience. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 402. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00402
Fredrickson, B. L., Cohn, M. A., Coffey, K. A., Pek, J., & Finkel, S. M. (2008). Open hearts build lives: Positive emotions, induced through loving-kindness meditation, build consequential personal resources. Psychological Science, 19(10), 1045–1052. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02191.x
Goessl, V. C., Curtiss, J. E., & Hofmann, S. G. (2017). The effect of heart rate variability biofeedback training on stress and anxiety: A meta-analysis. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 42(3), 137–150. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10484-017-9368-1
Gross, J. J., & Levenson, R. W. (1997). Hiding feelings: The acute effects of inhibiting negative and positive emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73(5), 970–986. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.73.5.970
Lehrer, P. M., Kaur, K., Sharma, A., Shah, K., Huseby, R., Bhavsar, J., & Zhang, Y. (2020). Heart rate variability biofeedback improves emotional and physical health and performance: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Public Health, 8, 187. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00187
Shaffer, F., & Ginsberg, J. P. (2017). An overview of heart rate variability metrics and norms. Frontiers in Public Health, 5, 258. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2017.00258
Thayer, J. F., & Lane, R. D. (2000). A model of neurovisceral integration in emotion regulation and dysregulation. Journal of Affective Disorders, 61(3), 201–216. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-0327(00)00338-4
Thayer, J. F., & Lane, R. D. (2009). Claude Bernard and the heart–brain connection: Further elaboration of a model of neurovisceral integration. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 33(2), 81–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2008.08.004
