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In his book, as well as in his audio program, he [Dr. Alan Watkins] proposes that one should start from buttom up and that means getting your physiology into a coherent state first. For that, he proposes that getting your heart into a coherent state (since it is the most powerful electromagnetic force in the human body) via a coherent Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is a major step into that direction. He explains very well how extraordinary the heart actually is and what major influences (driving force) it has on all the other body systems.
The HRV is one of the most important aspects of heart health and body health there is. A couple of key points he discusses about HRV are:
-HRV can predict death and illness and reveals biological age
-HRV quantifies energy levels and levels of dynamism
-HRV alters brain function
And about the heart itself he also describes a couple of key points:
-The heart is not just a pump
-The heart is the most powerful signal generator in the human body
-The heart has its own neural network or "brain".
-The heart creates hormones
Some astonishing heart facts he describes are:
-Your heart begins beating four weeks after conception and doesn't stop beating until you die.
-Your heart beats about 100,000 times each day, which equates to around 35 million times a year, and by the time you reach to years, your heart will have beaten 2.5 billion times.
-Your heart does more physical work then any muscle during your lifetime.
-Grab a tennis ball and squeeze it tightly: that's how hard is working every time it beats
-The heart produces 40 to 60 times more electrical power and 5,000 times more electromagnetic power then the brain.
-The heart's electrical or electromagnetic energy radiates up to 50ft off the body (thus if the HRV is incoherent people around us can literally feel it and are effected by it [HRV is explained further down])
So although he makes it clear that he thinks the the technology we have today has made things worse in terms of human relations and development, he has created an APP that measures your HRV and how coherent it is. He teaches a specific breathing pattern that gets your heart into a coherent state (which is also included in the App). I know it probably sounds not much, but it is truly amazing to actually see with the app how your HRV gets into a coherent state very quickly when you use the BREATH skill. The important parts of the skill are:
1. Rhythmicity - fixed ratio of in:out breath.
2. Smoothness - even flow rate, in and out.
3. Location of attention. [he recommends to bring the attention on the heart itself]
The BREATH skill is as follows:
Breathe
Rhythmically
Evenly
And
Through the
Heart
Everyday
I'm using myself as lapdog right now with the APP, while I'm at work, since it is only meant to make you aware how to actually breath and how it immediately brings your HRV into a coherent state and how your body feels from moment to moment. The goal is to make that smooth and rhythmic breathing instinctive without a mobile device and get full control over it. Since we know that cellphone use and especially with a heart measuring devise connected via Bluetooth is pretty toxic, I think I've found a way you can train it without it. I have noticed through the test phase with the APP that it is pretty difficult to hold the rhythmically and smoothness of the breath, even though I'm practising music! Rhythmically and Smoothness is really key here here since as soon as that is not present anymore your HRV coherence drops like a fly (especially for touchy people like me) which you can see on the APP.
So I've found another solution to train myself this breathing (to make it instinctive). I take my metronome instead of the APP:
https://www.amazon.com/Korg-MA1BL-Visual-Counting-Metronome/dp/B0055BMQG0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469775215&sr=8-1&keywords=KORG+MA-1
You can set the metronome into any rhythm pattern and speed you want and then plug in little earphones. No evil radiation from that device. So now I'm training myself to count in rhythm in and out (metronome gives you the count). Watkins also says that counting is a good way to get the rhythm. By the way your HRV can be coherent in any state (high physical activity or low) since what counts is the rhythmicality of the breath and not the speed. So if you do sports for example, you can breath rhythmicality fast and when you are relaxing, rhythmicality slow. The eventual goal with using the metronome is to get a instinctive feeling of what rhythmic is, so that you do it automatically. The metronome is just a way to get that into your body and mind so that you can use that skill anywhere and as often as possible without it later. From my experience so far at the beginning, you can believe that you are breathing in that BREATH way that actually makes your HRV coherent, when in reality it is not happening, since you do not breath rhythmically and evenly. To really make BREATH instinctive, I've found I need to practise with the metronome first.
So I've tested it long enough now and this rhythmic and smooth breathing really changes and makes you aware on how your body reacts. You start to get a feeling when you are in a coherent HRV or not. This breathing pattern becomes eventually your default mode. It is also interesting to note that through my experiments with the App I noticed on the records of the App that the HRV gets into a coherent state during the Beatha portion of EE and the meditation at the end as well! In fact that BREATH skill produces very similar sensations in my body to the Beatha portion.
To make BREATH your default mode, Watkins then says you should try the skill in varying difficulty degrees, starting with 1 and work up until 10:
I can tell you so far, it is very hard to hold the BREATH skill for me above level 3 at the moment even with the metronome. But constat practise is key here, as with all the other skills Watkins proposes, and it starts to improve.
The BREATH skill is essentially a tool that is there to make you aware of your body and how it reacts and get control over it rather then the reaction control over you. That Breath skill is just a part of getting in control of your physiology. He explains the other components in his book and audio program.
Here is a live demonstration from Watkins about the Heart Rate Variability and how our physiology effects our brains:
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