The Science: Personal Best Relaxation Breathing Rate with Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback (HRV)

Why are breathing techniques critical to calming your body and mind? Let’s look at the scientific explanation as to why slow-paced breathing at your Personal Best Relaxation Breathing Rate is calming and relaxing.

It is well known that slow paced breathing will help calm your body and mind. Harvard Medical School wrote an interesting article on the subject: Relaxation techniques: Breath control helps quell errant stress response.

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Relaxation breathing exercises are important in daily life. We suggest using the ichoiceRelax breathing coach. During your exercises, make sure you inhale deeply using your abdominal muscles to fill your lungs. When you exhale, make sure you exhale completely during your breathing exercises. When you feel stressed, always resort to deep abdominal breathing exercises.

When you inhale your heart naturally speeds up and when you exhale, your heart naturally slows down. The difference between the heart beating fast and the heart beating slow is called Heart Rate Variability (HRV). The greater the difference, the more resilient you are to stress.

HRV is the measurement of the activity of the parasympathetic nervous system. Longer exhalation and slower respiration at your perfect breathing rate increase your HRV. A higher HRV is associated with a stronger parasympathetic (calm) nervous system and improved health.

Our ichoiceRelax Heart Rate sensor detects the change in heart rate from beat to beat in real time during inhalation and exhalation. In other words, it measures your HRV and sends data to the app. ichoiceRelax isn’t your average breathing coach app. The app guides you to breathe at your Personal Best Relaxation Breathing Rate by guiding you to slow down your breathing and to extend your exhalation at the right time to naturally slow down and calm your heart and increase your HRV. Slow paced breathing at your Personal Best Relaxation Breathing Rate strengthens your entire parasympathetic nervous system - calming your heart, body and mind, and may reduce anxiety in the process. This is the goal when practicing with the ichoiceRelax technology.

Optimally, if you practice breathing for at least 20 minutes each day at the rate ichoiceRelax determines is best for you, your heart will begin to naturally calm down, your blood pressure and blood sugar levels, as well as your muscle tension will decrease. Your anxiety and stress may decrease and your sleep, concentration, and performance will improve.