“University of North Carolina psychologists Barbara Frederickson, PhD, and Bethany Kok, PhD, demonstrated this beautifully when they asked 52 adults to track their positive emotions—awe, gratitude, joy—for 9 weeks. They found that the higher a subject’s HRV was at the beginning, the easier and more quickly he or she could experience positive feelings over the next 9 weeks.”
- Leah Lagos, Psy.D., Heart Breath Mind
Do you want to experience more awe, gratitude, and joy? (who doesn’t?! 😂) Research suggests that having a higher resting HRV will let you.
And the easiest way to increase your baseline HRV? Slow breathing. Dr. Lagos says, “The standard rate that works for most individuals is to inhale for 4 seconds and exhale for 6 seconds with no pause in between.”
Even just a few minutes of this will help you feel better. But, consistent practice will increase baseline HRV, thus setting you up to experience more positive emotions all day, every day.