Heart Rate and Meditation

Another long one, about a extremely intriguing subject. Probably a trifle too simple a view, based purely on self-experimentation for the past year or two.

Not sounding trivial, but just like diets there are a many meditation techniques that exist. Like the variety of diets, many of these meditation techniques have proven beneficial to many. Like no one diet technique works for all, don’t think there is a single breathing technique which works for all.

Taking a few steps back, I asked myself …..why would I want to consciously follow a breathing technique? Loosely speaking, why would I want to meditate? There were only two simple reasons.

One, to feel good about myself &

Second, to think better.

Feeling calmer, sleeping better, eating better, feeling physically healthier, taking decisions better, reduction in feelings of anger, reduction in feelings of extreme emotions, were are all corollaries of the two simple objectives set, as I discovered in hindsight.

Most, if not all breathing techniques focus on conscious breathing. Breathe through the nose, breathe through the mouth... Breathe in 10 seconds, hold 10 seconds and breathe out 10 seconds. Extend that to 20 seconds and continue. Some teach a technique of inhalation, exhalation, multiple times and then hold the breath for extended periods of times and then repeat the whole process again. Monks and mountaineers meditate in a very structured way, with the objective of efficiently using every ounce of oxygen available in their rarefied environs. Some techniques require holding your hands and fingers in a specific mudra. Some techniques require you to consciously chest breathe, sometime through the stomach.

All of them require you to ‘think’ of every step, to be sure that your fingers are in ‘chin’ mudra, use your hands to close one nostril, breathe in through the other. Each step, each process requires an ‘effort’. Each step, however small adds to your body and mind ‘doing’ something. Your mind being occupied, your body being occupied. At each and every instant, your heart gets occupied.

Most, if not all of these techniques are proven, and obviously they work for many people.

Heart rate (HR) is somehow intrinsically linked to everything that is consciously done. The more you think, the more the HR increases. The more exciting the thought, that much more is the HR.  If you ever wake up from a bad dream, or you wake up feeling anxious and sweaty, and if you had a Oximeter clipped to your finger, you would realise the HR would have gone up significantly

The more we move physically, the HR increases. Athletes, especially long distance runners, are all aware of ‘heart rate training’. That you could train, run till your HR  touched the 220 - age figure. That a 50 year old could safely push a body till the HR touched 170. It obviously comes back to a ‘at rest rate’ when the thoughts plateau, when the physical movement stabilizes. That was about knowing how high could you push the HR.

None of this is obviously rocket science, but only putting it in perspective.

Think about the reverse? How low can a HR go? Why would the HR go low? What would that do the body? And…where does meditation come into the picture.

Take a example of the most popular technique to “calm down” Take a nice long breath and slowly release the breath. Not sure if you ever tried looking at your HR at this time. Oximeter time again ! If your at rest HR is 66, you would see troughs and crests of 76/77 and 68/69. I was very surprised to see the HR fluctuate so much.

A popular technique of forceful exhalation and automatic inhalation, increases the HR significantly, much much more than the numbers mentioned above. Might easily touch a 3 figure number.

Another example….inhalation, hold breath, exhalation. Always found the HR becoming a bit irregular after a technique involving holding of breath, especially if the hold is prolonged.

An alternate nostril breathing (ANB) technique varies the heart rate by a much smaller amount, as compared to the above two.

All of these techniques are conscious breathing techniques requiring you to think and do an activity consciously, implying taking that extra effort. But at the end of the session, at rest, they end up reducing your HR relative to the time you started.

The lower the HR, lesser is the stress on the heart, lesser is the stress on the body and especially the mind. Higher chances you can think better. All elementary stuff. All of these are proven techniques having benefited countless people. The feeling of calm and comfort can be seen on most practitioners after any of these sessions

Is there a way we can reduce the HR even more? What happens to the HR when you sleep?. The HR drops by a about 5-10 bpm, sometimes even more when you are in deep sleep, with no dreams, at absolute complete rest. The only reason it does that, is because nothing is pushing the heart. There are no thoughts and there is no movement. Its maintenance time ! Repair and Recover. Heart rate is an excellent (but not the only) way to judge how much your body and mind is recovering from a nights sleep. 

What about a possibility of mimicking this state while being awake. Of sub conscious breathing by doing nothing, thinking nothing and letting the body be.

It implies you letting the body be in the most natural position. There are multiple meditation techniques which talk about breathing sub consciously, i.e not thinking of breathing in a specific way while meditating. Allow the body to breathe, let the body control the breathing and ‘watch’ the process of breathing. Some talk about the body being in the most relaxed state possible and “let it go”. Some talk of keeping the spine erect, as the only conscious part of the act. With the hands and the legs in a position of your choice, but not requiring any effort. Some even talk of doing this in a state of lying down, with the body being absolutely loose. Each of them have a unique conscious processes to be followed before you start the process of sub conscious breathing. Goes without saying that, the concept of ‘doing nothing’ and ‘thinking nothing’ is ridiculously difficult. To get to a state of 20% perfection took me many months. The first few weeks were frustrating. To ensure the body does not move at all, is the easier part. The mind always tricks you, never lets you ‘not think’. Even though its taken me many months to reach a 20% perfection (and will very likely take me a few years to reach 40%), I decided to trust the process.

Over a period of time, the gains are enormous, mind boggling. Scroll up to the corollaries I mentioned earlier. They all work like a charm.

On the topic of HR, my at rest HR sometimes goes below 60. That’s reduced from a previous number of between 66 and 70. Sometimes numbers make sense !! 😊