Heart Coherence and Breathwork
- Brainz Magazine
- Sep 19
- 5 min read
Written by Tundie Berczi, Well-being Consultant
Tundie is a Well-being Consultant, Neuroscience MSc student, and expert in breathwork, meditation, and therapeutic coaching. With a background in corporate well-being, neuroscience, and holistic healing, she helps individuals and organisations reduce stress and cultivate mental clarity through science-backed and transformational practices.
Heart coherence breathing is a simple, science-backed way to shift your state in just minutes. By pairing slow, steady breathing with genuine feelings of gratitude or care, you can calm your nervous system, improve focus, and steady your emotions. From high-stakes meetings to bedtime stress, this practice helps you reset your body and mind, one breath at a time.
A short story
Jane was about to join a high-stakes meeting. Tight chest. Fast thoughts. That familiar flood. She did something small. One hand on her heart. Inhale for five. Exhale for five. She pictured her niece’s laugh and felt a flicker of gratitude. After ninety seconds, her shoulders softened and her voice came back. Same meeting, different body signal.
That is heart coherence breathing. It is simple. It is science-based. It is something you can do in minutes.
What heart coherence actually is?
Heart coherence is a calm, ordered pattern in your heartbeat. Instead of a jagged rhythm, your heart shows a smooth, wave-like pattern. Scientists measure this using heart rate variability (HRV), which refers to the tiny time differences between heartbeats. When a strong, smooth rhythm appears around 0.1 hertz, close to six breaths per minute, the heart sends steady, calming signals to the brain. You feel clearer, safer, and more emotionally steady.
HeartMath describes coherence as a state that can be seen in the HRV spectrum, characterised by a pronounced, narrow peak near 0.1 hertz. Their devices translate that pattern into a simple coherence score, so you can track it while you practise.
Why is the breath such a powerful lever?
Your breath plugs straight into your autonomic nervous system, the system that runs fight or flight. Slow, steady breathing tells the body it is safe. The vagus nerve engages. The heart rhythm becomes more orderly. The brain areas for focus and emotional control work better.
Most adults settle well around six breaths per minute, five seconds in and five seconds out. This is close to the body’s resonance point, where heart and breath rhythms line up and the baroreflex helps stabilise you. Each person has a slightly different sweet spot, but 5-5 is a reliable starting point.
What makes heart coherence different from other breathwork?
Many breathing techniques focus only on the breath. Heart coherence adds emotion on purpose. Feelings such as appreciation, care, or compassion do not just improve mood, they change the rhythm pattern of the heart itself toward that smooth 0.1 hertz signature. Pairing slow breathing with a genuine, positive feeling gives a stronger, more stable effect.
The science, in plain English
Five minutes a day can help. In a Stanford-affiliated trial, daily five-minute breathwork improved mood and lowered arousal. Exhale-emphasised cyclic sighing performed best compared with mindfulness over four weeks.
Slow breathing raises HRV. A 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis found that voluntary slow breathing increases vagally mediated HRV across different groups.
Resonance around six breaths per minute is well supported. Reviews explain how breathing near 0.1 hertz engages cardiovascular resonance and the baroreflex, supporting calm and focus.
A note on Joe Dispenza-related research
A 2025 peer-reviewed pilot study followed six pairs of twins during a seven-day Dr Joe Dispenza retreat. The team reported changes across gene expression, metabolites, and physiological signals, and noted alignment in heart rate and brain activity within twin pairs. It is interesting, and it is early. The study is small and was not preregistered, so findings are preliminary and need replication with larger, controlled samples.
Try this now: A 2 to 5 minute heart–brain reset
Use this before a difficult call, after bad news, at your desk, or at bedtime.
Set up. Sit or stand tall. Relax your jaw and shoulders. Hand over heart if you like.
Breathe 5-5. Inhale through the nose for 5 seconds. Exhale for 5 seconds. Keep it gentle. Continue for 1 to 2 minutes. You are near six breaths per minute, close to 0.1 hertz.
Exhale-longer option. If you need extra calm, try 4 seconds in and 6 seconds out for 1 to 2 minutes.
Add emotion. Bring up a real feeling of gratitude, care, or compassion. Even a small, honest spark helps. This shifts your HRV pattern toward coherence.
Add intention. One clear line, for example, “I choose calm and clarity.”
Build to five minutes daily if you can. That is the dose used in the Stanford study.
When to use it
Before a hard conversation
After upsetting news
During panic, dread, or frustration
At the end of a stressful workday
Before sleep when the mind feels tense
Even two minutes can shift your state.
Long-term benefits you may notice
Fewer emotional spikes or shutdowns
Faster recovery after stress
Clearer communication under pressure
Deeper sleep and lower baseline anxiety
A stronger sense of safety in your own body
These gains are consistent with what slow-breathing and HRV research show across multiple studies.
How to track progress without guesswork
Simple self-checks:
How quickly you settle after a stressor
Fewer outbursts, panicky moments, or shutdowns
Easier sleep onset and better sleep quality
Easy physiology:
A morning HRV metric such as rMSSD on a validated device
A session coherence score if you use HeartMath tools, which quantify how much power sits near 0.1 hertz during practice
Coherence together: Teams and relationships
Groups can show measurable synchrony in heart rhythms during shared activities, and greater synchrony relates to stronger group cohesion and better joint performance in some settings. Try a two-minute shared breathing reset before high-stakes meetings to create a steadier baseline together.
Safety notes
If you have significant cardiac arrhythmias, if strong body focus makes panic worse, or if you are pregnant and feel dizzy when slowing your breath, begin gently and speak with a clinician. The goal is comfort, not force. Stop if you feel unwell.
Back to Jane
Jane kept a two-minute reset on her calendar. Same job, same deadlines, different pattern in her body. She felt her emotions, and she stayed present. That is the quiet power of heart coherence, one breath at a time.
Want guided support
If you would like help to learn heart coherence in a simple, science-based way, I offer personal sessions and short audios. No pressure to be still. No performance. Just a clear method you can use in real life.
If you would like more support with heart coherence, you can find me at @tundieberczi on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
Read more from Tundie Berczi
Tundie Berczi, Well-being Consultant
Tundie is a Well-being Consultant specialising in stress management, resilience, and workplace wellness. With over a decade in the corporate world, she understands the demands of high-performance environments and integrates neuroscience, breathwork, and holistic therapies to create effective well-being solutions. She delivers corporate workshops, individual coaching, and breathwork meditation programs designed to help people gain clarity, balance, and focus. As a Cognitive Neuroscience student and certified Pranayama Breathwork and Meditation Teacher, Therapist, and Coach, she merges science with holistic practices to facilitate deep, lasting transformation.
References:
Balban, M. Y. et al. Brief structured breathing exercises improved mood more than mindfulness, five minutes a day for four weeks, Cell Reports Medicine, 2023.
Stanford Medicine summary of cyclic sighing findings.
Lehrer, P. M. & Gevirtz, R. Heart rate variability biofeedback and resonance around 0.1 hertz, Frontiers in Psychology, 2014.
Shaffer, F. et al. Practical guide to resonance frequency assessment, Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2020.
HeartMath Institute. Coherence explained and measured via HRV spectrum around 0.1 hertz.
Laborde, S. et al. Voluntary slow breathing increases vagally mediated HRV, systematic review and meta-analysis, 2022.
Zúñiga-Hertz, J. P. et al. Multidimensional twin pilot at a week-long Joe Dispenza retreat, Mindfulness, 2025, not preregistered.
Gordon, I. et al. Physiological synchrony relates to group cohesion and performance, Scientific Reports, 2020.
