Practicing Stress Management Through Coherence (feat. Rollin McCraty)

Hi, I'm Susan Drum. And welcome to the Enlightened Executive where your personal evolution sparks your leadership evolution. Each episode we feature groundbreaking techniques and strategies to help executives and entrepreneurs get the edge in personal and leadership effectiveness. Today we're focusing on heart brain coherence and the HeartMath Institute. And, and I am very happy to introduce my guest, Roland McCrady. Roland is the director of research at the HeartMath Institute. As a psychophysiologist, Dr. McCrady's research includes the physiology of emotion, heart, brain communication, and the global interconnectivity between people and the earth's energetic systems. Findings from this research have been applied to the development of technology to optimize individual and organizational health and performance. Dr. McCrady has acted as a principal investigator in numerous studies examining the effects of emotions on heart brain interactions and on autonomic, cardiovascular, hormonal and immune system function. So welcome, Dr. McCrady.

Well, thank you, Susan. Yeah, it's great to be here with you. I appreciate the invitation to have this conversation.

Yes. I mean, the concepts have been transformational in my own life and in the leaders I coach so much. So I became a certified trainer for HeartMath and I know the power of it. So that's really why I wanted you to bring you here today to talk about these important concepts. So maybe we could start with sharing a little bit more. What is the HeartMath Institute and what's its mission?

Well, the mission, let me start with that, is awakening the heart of humanity.

I love it.

We used to have this really long mission statement that I could never fully remember. So we kind of really took it down to its essence.

Yes, it is.

That's really what we're about. So we're a little 30 years old now, I guess, and a lot of our work has really been understanding the physiology of how the heart and brain communicate and emotions really, that really run the show. A lot of, especially us men, we don't like to think about and talk about emotions, but nonetheless, they're what run the show and the activity in our body and our nervous system, our hormonal system, and they really bias our cognitive and our mental functions to a way that is quite significant. We really can't ignore that side of things. With that said, we focused a lot on the personal development side in terms of developing really very effective but simple to learn techniques that allow us to become more self regulated so that we're able to maintain our composure, you know, our center, if we want to use that kind of a language. In the middle of stressful or challenging situations because that's when we tend to lose it. You know, it's when we really get challenged and there go our emotions, we get frustrated or impatient and we say the thing that, you know, creates a tone, if you will, in our team or even our company or country in some cases, that really is not healthy for the team and the productivity of that particular group. Whatever we are doing.

Yes. How to self regulate and build resilience. That's the piece that I think the leaders I coach have particularly wanted to focus on. Because we're getting hit with so much adversity right now, particularly with the pandemic and leading out of the pandemic. How do we maintain and build resilience in the face of that? It's not just adapting to change, it's the ability to prepare for change because change is going to come. Right. How do you prepare for that? And I think the techniques that you've developed really influence our ability to stay in a composed state in the face of what can be some very extreme pressures.

So let's just go ahead and talk about coherence, brought it up. That's a term that is used in almost any branch of science. And when we talk about coherence, there's a lot embedded under that term, a lot of different things. So it's almost always used to talk about a complex system. Right. And all that has a lot of parts now that can be within our bodies with many, many different systems that have to work together in a harmonious way for us to be healthy or even alive as far as that goes. But the same thing happens at the team level or the group level. So how well are those parts of the team working together harmoniously? So in a coherent system we have synchronization and harmony amongst those systems. Now another thing that's embedded in the meaning of coherence is energy efficiency. Now that's really important when it comes down to both our personal self regulation. That's really what we're talking about is how do we manage our energy. We wake up at a certain mountain and it really gets down to the end of the day. How intelligent were we about how we extended that energy and about recharging our inner batteries, kind of a metaphor we use? The same thing's true at the group level.

Yeah.

How coherent are the interactions among those team members or group members? And then here's another aspect of coherence that's embedded in the meaning is that the sum of the part, the output of that System or that group is greater than the sum of the parts. So that's all embedded within that little term, coherence.

Yeah, that's what we hope to see. What we're really talking about is when your heart and brain are aligned. And a lot of people don't realize there are neurons in the brain, I mean, in the heart, just as there is in the brain. Right. And that the heart actually sends a lot of signals, in fact more signals to the brain than the brain sends to the heart. So the heart is actually an important aspect or leverage point for us to create this ability to self regulate and be in peak performance. To me, that was the groundbreaking part that when I learned about, I thought, oh my God, we could use this in business so much because we talk about dealing with the stress that's coming at leaders today. How do they stay resilient in the face of this? And the access point is around how you regulate your coherence. And you do that through accessing the right emotions through the heart. And that's all the linkage pieces that I needed to say, hey, I need to bring this to the leaders that I see that are just struggling with the amount of disruption and change.

Absolutely. And in fact, when we bring this into a team or a group, really any kind or size, usually we start with the individual level. Like how do we as an individual learn to better self regulate and manage our emotions? Because after all, any team is built up of the individuals who make up that team. Right. So we've probably all been on teams, you know, where there was one or two people that you just dreaded, you know, going into a meeting with, you know, the cynics and the, you know, them. Right. But also we've all usually been on team somewhere in our career or life, but we just really all gelled together and man, we looked forward to going to work and getting the projects done and everybody was working together in a collaborative way where everybody felt safe.

Yeah, that's what we want to create for sure.

Yeah. Which is now called psychological safety. And that's really interesting because a lot of work at Google, you're probably probably aware of that, Susan, the Aristotle project and also the work at Harvard. And things have actually shown that this, that when the members of a team feel safe to express themselves and that they're not going to be ridiculed or judged, even if it's a crazy idea. That is the number one factor that describes high performing teams. None of the other stuff that was expected to be the thing was it, it was really boiled down to the team members feel safe to really express themselves and not be judged and ridiculed. And the other part of that was everybody has equal airtime is the way they put it, we care about everybody. And it's almost like an intuitive knowingness. When somebody's not feeling well or feeling a little bit out of sync with the team that goes on in those high performing teams, then that's a great example of a coherent team.

You can measure it. This is how we know we're building our coherence levels. And you measure it through heart rate variability. Hrv. Right. And so maybe you could talk a little bit about the linkage between that and our emotions and we'll lead into how we measure it or how I do it every morning. We'll talk about that too.

Great. As you already mentioned, Susan, the heart sends more information through the nervous system, neurally speaking to the brain, than the other way around. That's true. And that's been known since the late 1800s. That's not some new revolution, revolutionary discovery that the what is newer is the fact that I'm just going to call it the quality for right now, but it's really the neural patterning of the information being sent from the heart. That information goes to every major brain center, literally. It has profound effects on brain function, our ability to think clearly, our ability to self regulate, even our emotional experience. What we're actually feeling has a lot to do with what the information from the body, but especially the heart, is being sent to the brain. So when this was some of our work back in the 90s, actually that we kind of are globally known for now, is that what we're feeling, our emotions, whether we're frustrated or impatient. Right. Or feeling gratitude or appreciation or kindness, that changes the patterns of the heart, the heart rhythms, you can actually distinguish what emotional state somebody's in from those rhythms. Right. So, and that's the information being sent to the brain. So when we're in those what we now call regenerative type emotions, we're actually, you know, appreciating, you know, a good job done or these type of things, you know, or you walk out the door in the morning. It's just one of those days. God, what a beautiful day. You know, you're just feeling, you're not thinking about it, you're just feeling that. So your heart is beating out a very different rhythmic pattern than when we're feeling frustrated. And that's going up to the brain and affects the brain centers involved in the frontal cortex. Our ability to discriminate, appropriate behavior, for example, foresight, clear thinking, emotional stability. Can we really maintain our composure or cool when things aren't going the way we want? As I mentioned, we start with teaching people at the individual level the techniques, but then we quickly take that to the team or group level. So how are we getting along now? How coherent are we as a group? So, yes, there's technology that you mentioned that allows us to see our heart rhythms in real time so we can practice these techniques and say, okay, I'm making that shift now from an incoherent state to a coherent state. And there's over 400 independent studies now showing that that's a really good thing to do.

Yes, yes.

Our own well being, our own health, aging processes, all of that. I mean, many, many, many studies, yes, we perform better. All right, Better on tests, we collaborate better and so on. Now, at the team level, that's relatively kind of a new field, but already we're seeing this in teams. One of the things I hear most, for example, is when start people start using these processes within teams is their meetings are much more enjoyable. But they're even more importantly. What I'm hearing repeatedly is our meeting times take half as long as they used to.

Oh my God, that would be a godsend to many people. Half as much time in my meetings. Please sign me up.

Well, that's because we're listening to each other deeper, you know, not talking over one another and, you know, grandstanding and all the stuff that tends to go.

On and me revisiting conversations over and over. Right, exactly.

Because you're more coherent. Right. And trying to. Yes, so that would be one many other examples.

What I learned is that when you're in this state of coherence where you're having optimal function between heart and brain, you're in peak performance. And you mentioned all the right systems of the brain are lighting up then. So you have clearer thinking that it shows up in heart rate variability is like a perfect sine wave.

Maybe not perfect, but a sine wave.

Sine wave. Well, yeah, I guess more of a smooth sine wave versus the contrast is if you're feeling irritation or frustration. It's a jagged line. Right. The heart rate variability, that's how you know. And that shift that you make, you can use it in the moment and some of the techniques that you teach, you can use it in the moment to shift out of that, but you can actually build your ability to stay in more of the sine wave more of the time. So that when stuff comes at you, you're already prepared. And that's what we talked about, being prepared for whatever may come in your day, whatever awful thing.

Right. One of the modules in our training programs, we call it flowing through non flowing situations. Learning how to really maintain our composure and enhance cognitive functions when we're being hit with the challenges, right?

Yes, exactly.

Because that's the key part. I like traffic exam traffic technologies because we all have to do traffic. But I don't mean it just from traffic. It's really everything in life. But it's pretty easy to be kind of in the flow. And when you're driving and you hit all the traffic lights green and you get to where you're going and there's the perfect parking spot, you pull up, it's all great, right? But it's when we hit the traffic jam and we're late, that's when we start feeling the frustration or the irritation or the impatience. And that's when our heart rhythms get incoherent, literally. And that's blocking cognitive functions, literally. We can measure this. So we start making poor decisions. But those emotions are now triggering at least 1400 biochemical changes in our body that basically deplete our energy. So if we're going through the day with lots of those little traffic jam moments, you know, emails and this and that problem, you know, and those are the even under the radar reactions. Because this goes on whether we're consciously aware of what we're feeling or not. Right. And for so many of us, those, those like being impatient or frustrated, it's just being human, Right? Is what we say. But no, it's still having, it's still draining our inner battery and our energy.

Yes, it's still, it's still, yes. And how much of your day are you in that state? How often is that occurring? Because each time you're doing damage not only to your body and your immune system function and not being in the highest reasoning part of your brain, you can't then make the right decisions, as you mentioned, that you need to make.

Yeah. And it's also when we tend to do things we regret later. Right. We get in that, say, a little bit frustrated state. We're now incoherent. We're literally inhibiting the frontal cortex. So that's when we might say something or make a decision or behave in a certain way that, you know, maybe a minute or two later we're going, oh my God, I can't believe I just said that. I didn't really even mean it. But the impact, especially if you're a leader, that it's had on your team. Right. Can last forever in some cases.

Absolutely.

Create more harm than we understand, especially if we're trying to create that. That team of psychological safety and a coherent team.

Right. And so when you're bringing that one time you fly off the handle undoes is basically deletes all the good that the 10, the 20 times that you did the right thing. Because they'll remember that piece because it put them into a fear state, most likely. And we will remember what puts us in a fear state.

Yeah, yeah. In fact, there's a well known saying, I'm sure you know it, Susan, that people often don't remember what you said, but they always remember how you made them feel.

Yes, yes. And so how are you feeling? You got to recognize that how you're feeling, you're transmitting that to other people literally. And there is a literally like, you know. Yes. And how you push that on. So one of the things I wanted to talk about, and I have one of them here, is the inner balance sensor, which is something that basically clips to your ear and you clip it on your lapel. And this will give you your heart rate variability and how well you're in coherence. It's almost like a little game, like, how well do you stay in coherence? And honestly, I want to say I use this now without fail, every single morning. I use it to get into a state of coherence because that's the way I want to start my day. And there's an app that goes with it, so you can see in the app. And I've given it out to the leaders I coach as holiday gifts as well to have them start practicing it. And to me, it lets me know what it's done for me, is shown me over time how I've been able to build the coherence. So when I first started using it, it's got different levels, red, blue and green. And when I first started using it, I was kind of maybe in the blue and in the red a little bit, maybe every now and then in the green. But now with practice, as it is true with anything, the more I practice, there's a specific breathing technique and connection to emotions that Heartmath recommends for doing this in terms of called quick coherence. Now when I do that, the more I do it, the more I'm in the green, like all the time, higher and higher levels. And it's amazing because not only does that happen, I feel different. Throughout the day.

You might be interested. You may not know about this, Susan, using that same sensor. There's another app now that we developed just for teams.

Oh no, I did not know that.

Not only your individual level of coherence, but the coherence of the group collectively.

Oh wow.

What we're finding is in teams, whether it's a sport team or you know, a leadership team or whatever, that as they practice getting coherent together, you're actually strengthening the group coherence and the energetic relationships. Right. So that even just that practice, just like I'm sure you've gotten a lot of benefits you've talked about out of the personal practice. Well, that also happens at the team or group level. Right. So we start having more pro social behaviors and getting a way of clearing out some of those maybe long standing separations or histories that we build up over time that are under the radar. Right. And then they do that thing and there we go, like with a way a lot of energy that's out of proportion with what they really did or said.

Yes, like he always says that and I'm irritated now again, that helps kind.

Of clear the air, if you will. Or the energetic field environment of some of those kind of things. It's what we're seeing when people practice at the group level being coherent together. And this particular app, you don't even have to. In today's zoom world, it works. You can be all over the world and create your own group and still be doing this together and still have the same effects.

Yes. And look how you're influencing each other. I think coming into a team meeting with that level of mindfulness would be extraordinary. Amazing. Well, it's not just leaders using this. Right. And even in my certification program, I remember there was a, an F16 fighter pilot and the head of chief of police for all of Colombia, the country and EMT workers, people that are on the front line that have to make fast decisions and are under tremendous amount of life or death stress. Maybe you could share a little bit. Why are those individuals interested in this type of technique?

Yeah, that's a great question. Because we do. We. You're. You're right. We do a lot of work in front. Frontline health care workers, emergency rooms, nurses. But law enforcement, military. In fact, we sounds honored to that we were got the contract to develop the resilience program for the U.S. navy.

Oh.

For the women that were going into the highest risk mission of all the military. I won't go into details here because of time and one of the reasons that we're, I think so popular in the law enforcement, first responder and sports is the same kind of thing categories is that we're not talking about, you know, this bad guy stress out there. We, we have a stressful world we live in, you know, and all we have to do is relax. That's not our message. Right. Because relaxation, it's a good thing. We should have that skill. Don't get me wrong.

Yes.

But it actually decreases performance.

Just relax. Just relax.

Roland, I guarantee you the coach of a football team or sporting team isn't getting the guys together in the locker room before they hit the field and say, all right, now let's meditate and chill out and relax. It's just not going to happen because we know that's not the way to go. So coherence, I'm going to be a little sciencey here, but try and keep it simple. Is a state that doesn't rely on your heart rate like relaxation does. That literally means you lower heart rate. Whereas with coherence, this pattern that you shift into, we're talking about, you can do it almost with some practice at any heart rate. So in other words, if you're into sports or you're a first responder, you need higher heart rate. A lot of times you got to take care of business or you're an executive or in a leadership role. So it's not about being this kind of relaxed fluff muffin, it's about being ready, active calm is kind of the way I would talk about it. So you can be at a higher heart rate and be in a coherent state. And what's really probably the take home message here is when we're physiologically in this coherent state or rhythm, that's what underlies, quite literally the neural function of optimal cognitive function and emotional stability. That's when we're at our best. So if you're in that first responder role or military role, you really want to be higher heart rates, but you want to be coherent and composed and stable. So that's so important, as we know in the first responder community, especially these days, or if you're in an emergency room situation or a frontline healthcare worker. So we're pretty popular in those circles these days.

Yes. And I even heard that 10 Major League Baseball teams are also using probably coherence.

I'm directed research. So there's a whole other group that works.

There's a whole other group working with that. Yes. So I would say if it works in those high stress, need to stay active, calm situations. It certainly can work for leaders who have to deal with team stresses that are coming at them. And the thing I really want to hit home is you can build your level of resilience and your ability to handle whatever comes at you. And just like anything, it takes a practice and using the heart math techniques that is. It's truly been a game changer, which is why I'm so excited to bring this on and talk about it. Where could people learn more if they're curious about this inner balance sensor or the app or how would this work with teams? Heartmath.org well, thank you for coming on today and sharing this wisdom and the opportunity to let other people know that you don't have to suffer. You can build your resilience. You can get into a state of coherence. No matter what comes your way, you'll be happier for it and so will your teams. So thank you.

Well said. Thank you, Susan. Appreciate the invite.

So if you loved this episode, you'll also love our episode with Dandapani where we focus on today techniques to increase the power of focus and concentration. Thanks so much for joining. Hope you enjoyed today's episode. And I'd like to point you to the next important step. Hit the subscribe button to get notified when we release new content. I'll see you on the next episode of the Enlightened Executive.

Sam.