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I have been thinking about how coherence comes about. It is what happens when the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems work together. The sympathetic nervous system is about what I call ‘up time’(or ‘fight or flight’), when the body and brain are alert and ready for action. The parasympathetic system is the part of our nervous system in control of ‘down time’; it is about the relaxation response when our system is relaxed, our breathing and heart rate is deep and rythmical and our brain is in the alpha wave state.

These two systems work in a complementary way, rather like an accelerator and the brake. And it seems coherence is achieved when the accelerator and brake are balanced and working together.

When you are in a state of coherence you experience a great sense of relaxation yet within a wide open awareness. There is a sensation of spaciousness and expansiveness yet you have a diamond sharp focus and ice crisp clarity of mind. It is a highly productive state.

These are just some of the benefits it brings me:

• Increased creativity.
• Improved focus and concentration .
• The ability to stay calm and centered in the face of adversity, and maintain positive, resourceful states more of the time. This puts me firmly in control of my mind, my emotions and my being.
• Significantly increased energy, and perhaps a sense of optimal conservation and use of energy. My body and mind are I tune and not overheating; neither am I at risk of running on empty ( apart from in previous case above).

I have had a week of wearing the Teslar watch. I wanted to measure how this watch might have increased my coherence levels, which I believe is the key to peak performance.  The Teslar chips inside the watch make use of the electric field from the watch battery AND the magnetic field from the quartz movement (facilitated by the dual time zone dials) to emit a unique 7-9Hz signal.  This signal is designed to help strengthen the body’s natural electromagnetic energy field and bring heart and brain waves into optimal coherence. 

But, being a scientist at heart, I need proof that this is working.  And how do you prove something like coherence? Coherence is measured by heart rate variability (HRV). Heart rate variability (HRV) is a measurement of the beat-to-beat variation in heart rate. Heart rate is regulated by both the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system therefore the study of heart rate variability allows an insight into the functions of the autonomic nervous system. It is used to provide a measure of health, with low HRV being a predictor of all-cause mortality and high HRV being a sign of good health (see research article). 

Last night, I measured my HRV using the emWave device (more about this later).  Already I notice that with this device in Advanced mode, I am achieving coherence within less than two minutes.  Whilst the display is in green (coherence) I am on ‘level 2′ or 10 bpm with 3 lights on the heart action strip.  Whilst this is some way off the highest level of HRV range, it is still good performance given the stressful week that I have had.  And it is certainly a dramatic improvement over what I normally achieve, considering that I have not had time to use any other techniques (emWave, yoga, breathing, meditation etc) this week!

I started wearing the Teslar watch on Sunday night and then launched into a hectic week.  On Tuesday I drove 200 miles after work, to get to a meeting and was working until midnight.  On Wednesday I launched into a new consultancy project all day and then drove home for another 3 hours. What I have noticed this week is that despite having a lot on my mind I have slept more deeply and soundly than usual.  Despite getting woken up 5 times on Wed night (by my heavily snoring husband with heavy cold!), I didn’t wake as quickly as I normally would, and I got straight back off to sleep. My night away from home in a new hotel would normally ensure poor sleep with me, but again I got off soundly.  My energy levels are higher.  For example, when driving for 3 hours after a full day’s work I didn’t feel tired, and I felt no need to stop for a rest on the way home.  Normally this type of week would leave me feeling drained and tired, but it’s 5.30pm on Friday and I am still going!  But is the watch helping?  It will probably be impossible to say for sure, as this is obviously not a controlled trial.

I am extremely busy at the moment.  It is a fulfilling experience to be running a business where the right work is coming to me of its own accord.  Not only the right work to match my skills and passions but the right kind of companies with whom I feel I share similar values.  I am working long hours and I am being challenged.  Whilst this is energising,  I take care to take time out to recharge (more later).  On Sunday night I started wearing a Philip Stein TESLAR watch.  The watch uses a micro chip combined with TESLAR technology to emit a unique signal which influences and strengthens the body’s electromagnectic energy field.  It is claimed that this helps the body to resist the negative effects of daily stresses such as hectic work environments (!).  I will post more about my experience with this watch in future issues.