The Most Important Health Metric to Track
- Sarah Cook
- 47 minutes ago
- 6 min read
Maybe because it's my sphere, meaning, it's my zone, meaning it's my area, but I am seeing nervous system regulation and HRV (heart-rate variability) everywhere these days.
Most people who come into my office for massage, cupping or coaching have some kind of watch or ring measuring their health metrics.
Oura rings.
Fitbits.
Apple Watches.
Elite HRV.
We can now track:
• Resting heart rate
• Heart rate variability (HRV)
• Sleep stages (REM, deep, light)
• Respiratory rate
• Blood oxygen saturation
• Skin temperature
• Stress scores
• Readiness scores
• Step counts
• Calories burned
It’s honestly incredible! We are living in a time where we can see inside our physiology in ways that used to require a lab.
I'm a scientist at heart and love lots of data points to see trends and patterns, but there's a reason I haven't invested into these devices (though I have researched them and almost clicked the "buy now" button several times). And I'm not saying it's better or worse to have or not have because measurements matter and can help us immensely.
But I know myself. I know my tendency towards neurosis and over-care. I know how I can over-do things and become fixed on a number to tell me how I should feel.
You can take 10,000 steps.
You can eat the cleanest foods.
You can optimize your sleep and vitamin intake.
You can do breathwork.
And these are wonderful things. I aspire to do them myself. But what I contemplate deeper is "Who am I BEing when I'm DOing these things?"
Are you eating while relaxed and thankful or rushed and anxious?
Are you working out in joy and peace or an "if this, then this" chase?
Are you breathing to connect and deepen your relationship with yourself or to fix something?
Because while measurements matter, so does our BEing.
I often shy away from giving people stretches or another thing to do unless I can gauge with my intuition that it will really serve them versus overwhelm them with one more thing to do that they're "behind" on or not doing.
One more thing to suck at. One more thing on the to-do list that didn't get done. One more thing I need to do so I can finally feel ____.
Sometimes the very act of optimizing our health or regulating our nervous system can be another stressor.
We can be very unhealthy about being healthy.
HRV isn't just a number
Measuring HRV has become a big deal with good reason. HRV measures the variation in time between heartbeats. Higher variability generally reflects greater adaptability and resilience in the nervous system. But the nuance that often gets lost is that it’s not just the amount of variability that matters.
It’s the pattern of that variability.
What makes HeartMath standout is that it's not just the number of HRV, the pattern shows us the quality of our internal state. Two people can have similar HRV numbers, but very different internal states which is going to have a much different effect on the brain, how it functions and how well the systems of our bodies are in working relationship.
Emotions are the energy-in-motion that sparks the heart rhythms to change the shape of its pattern. It's all energy of course, it's electricity, but it's measured through HeartMath's biofeedback technology so that we can see whether that pattern is jagged and chaotic (incoherent, weak signal, inhibited performance) or smooth and sine-wave like (coherent, clear signal, optimal performance).
According to HeartMath, auto-coherence is a measure of the stability, order, and rhythm of a single signal compared with itself at different points in time. [You can see this demonstrated in the video above]. It quantifies how consistent the amplitude, frequency, and shape of a waveform are, representing high coherence when the wave remains stable and periodic, such as in sine waves.(1)
HeartMath's biofeedback shows us that when we feel emotions like care, ease, appreciation and compassion, the HRV pattern sends a smooth and clear coherent signal to the brain. But when we feel frustration, impatience and worry, the signal becomes jagged and incoherent, impairing cognitive function.
Times have changed, but the main point remains the same
Thirty-five years ago when the HeartMath Institute was doing their research, they didn't have fancy hand held devices for the greater population to measure their coherence. They had labs, bulky machines, and graphs on paper.
Recently in my 6 week class when we had one of the modules on this biofeedback, a woman missed class so I offered to show her again. She very clearly said "That's ok. I can feel it."
Boom. That's the main point. We can know ourselves, we can check in, we can feel.
In a climate that's obsessed with man-made optimizations, it's important to remember that the heart has been regulating us long before we started regulating it. Technology didn't create coherence, it simply created a mirror so we could see how we're BEing. Not our doing, our being.
HeartMath isn't a breathing technique. It uses awareness of the breath, syncing up with the breath, to initiate coherence... but at the heart of it, coherence requires feeling.
Coherence is an emotional state of being that brings order, rhythm, and interconnectedness to, well, everything.
Why getting better at feeling is good for your health
I love what world reknowned physican, author and trauma expert Dr. Gabor Maté says: “It’s not about feeling better. It’s about getting better at feeling.”
Why?
Because when we avoid feeling, we create tension in the body. Suppressed anger becomes inflammation and irritable bowel. Unprocessed grief becomes constriction and stuckness. Chronic anxiety becomes tension and exhaustion.
The nervous system doesn’t calm down because we hit a number. It calms down when it feels safe enough to experience life
Coherence isn’t emotional bypassing. It’s emotional capacity.
It’s the ability to feel disappointment without collapsing, to feel joy without bracing and burning out, to feel anger without harming self or others, to feel grief without shutting down.
When we get better at feeling, our reactions soften, our relationships deepen, we move to the other side of being overtaken by them with more grace and compassion. Our immune system benefits. Our sleep is restorative. Our heart rate doesn't stay elevated. Our decisions become clearer. Our bodies hold less chronic tension. And perhaps most importantly…. we stop needing constant external validation from numbers.
Feeling is an inside job.
Technology is a stepping stone and a friend that can teach awareness for sure. I love, love, love using my HeartMath sensor and getting a screen shot of where I am. I love that it helps keep me on track. I love being able to show you the video above. Biofeedback can accelerate learning, which is such an important first or next step on the journey. But the device is a bridge, not the destination.
If we rely on dashboards forever, we never develop internal literacy. And nervous system literacy - the ability to recognize “I’m bracing” or “I’m open” or whatever you're currently feeling or experiencing (without checking a score) - is freedom. It's union, it's relationship with yourself, it's you "knowing thyself" at the deepest, truest level of the heart. It's wholeness and y'all know I'm all about living life as an Art of Wholeness.
Simplicity returns, basics return, nature returns.
Breath, awareness, attention, presence, tuning in, connection with inner world and outer world at the same time - an experience of wholeness, harmony, stability, right relationship. No subscription required.
So why is it important to get better at feeling?
Because I'm of the opinion that maybe we don't really we need more "optimized humans" or maybe the bigger conversation is optimized at what? I think it needs more regulated humans with coherent heart rhythms which is to say more people practicing love, ease, care and gratitude. If you have a coherent heart rhythm then that means you'd be feeling peaceful. You'd be feeling relaxed in the heart. You'd be awake and aware in the brain. You'd be present. It means you'd be mindfully keeping your attention and focus on how you're already helping, contributing and enriching your life (and therefore everyone else's).
Coherence is relational. It's about being in right-relationship with self, others, and the world. It's about being in a harmonious relationship with who you want to be while you live your life in this human suit.
By all means get your steps in, nail your personal record, optimize your sleep habits, but please oh please do not mistake doing for being. Instead, as an act of wholeness, let your doing be INFUSED with your being. Emotions are the primary drivers of our physiology... so let care, joy and a love for life, curiosity and experience be your why.
Your being, your why, your come-from might just be the most important health metric to track and to stay on track with, activity by activity, day by day, moment by moment.
As Rumi said, "Do it from love, not for love."
Love... only always,
Sarah
Another HeartMath 6 week class begins March 5
This one is in person, in beautiful Moab, Utah.
Thursdays at 10 am (skipping the week of April 2)
Register / Learn more HERE
PS. If you like metrics and measurements, at least check out the graphs on this link.