Heart Coherence Technique:

1) bring your attention down into the heart and maintain your focus on this area; youmay place your hand on your heart to help you focus

2) breathe slowly and deeply through the heart area in the centre of your chest; keepyour focus on the heart by gently inhaling and exhaling 5 seconds in and 5 seconds outwith a pause in between breaths

3) imagine a sense of ease as you inhale and exhale and add any of the following:

a genuine feeling of appreciation or care for someone or something youappreciate

thankfulness or gratefulness for someone or something in your life

a feeling of compassion for someone or some situation

a sense of gladness and joy about a situation you have experienced

Focus on the good heart feelings and positive emotions as you continue breathingthrough the area of your heart; practice this on a daily basis so that it becomes ‘a habit’and part of the hard wiring of the neural pathways in the brain.

Freeze Frame Technique:1) freeze a stressful situation, as if it were a frame in movie2) intentionally shift to a positive emotion in order to reverse the effects ofhostility/stress/anger/etc, e.g. “open your heart and feel your love for your children”;“describe the thing in life that you love the most”

When practiced (5x per day), this emotional self-regulation technique of radiating love,appreciation, compassion, etc. shifts the energy from the head to the heart andgenerates consistent changes in the ECG output as well as health benefits to the brainand body.

References

HeartMath.org; “The HeartMath Solution”; “Institute of HeartMath” on YouTube

“Let Your Heart Talk to Your Brain” – from Care2.comhttp://www.care2.com/greenliving/let-your-heart-talk-to-your-brain-2.html

“The Science of the Heart “ – from The HeartMath Institutehttp://www.heartmath.org/research/science-of-the-heart/head-heart-interactions.html?submenuheader=3

Question for reflection:

In which way/s would you consider implementing an understanding, awareness of, oruse of the Heart Coherence Technique including the information about the propertiesof the heart?

practice a daily heart-coherence meditation (several minutes or longer)

use it in-the-moment during the day or times of stress or before a meeting

attune to the heart center in order to create a deeper rapport with a client

discuss and invite a team member to hold heart-centeredness during a four-waymeeting or non-verbally during emotionally charged moments

discuss this type of awareness with clients during 1:1 meetings to use duringupcoming four-way meetings

suggest that your client breathe from their heart during the meeting (just say it)or suggest it individually to your client during a break-out session

ask "what would your heart say" about any particular aspect or point in theprocess

bring out a photo of the child/ren to help clients focus on their heart center atthe beginning of a four-way meeting

other ideas to consider …

Prepared by:Deborah Brakeley, M.Ed., R.C.C.501 - 1587 West 8thVancouver, BC, V6J 1T5Tel: 604.224.8937www.deborahbrakeley.com/