the heart (where many people subjectivelyexperience positive emotions) which the self-induction of a positive feeling, such asappreciation. Our work has shown that this shift in focus and feeling experience allows thecoherence mode to emerge naturally and helps to reinforce the inherent associations betweencoherence and positive feelings. Our research also suggests that the intentional application ofthese coherence-building techniques, on a consistent basis, effectively facilitates a repatterningprocess whereby coherence becomes increasingly familiar to the brain and nervous system, andthus progressively becomes established in the neural architecture as new, stablepsychophysiological baseline or set point (McCraty, 2003; McCraty & Childre, 2004; McCraty& Tomasio, 2006). Once the coherence mode is established as the familiar pattern, the systemthen strives to maintain this mode automatically, thus rendering coherence a more readilyaccessible state during day-to-day activities, and even in the midst of stressful or challengingsituations.At the physiological level, the occurrence of such a repatterning process is supported byelectrophysiological evidence demonstrating a greater frequency of spontaneous (withoutconscious practice of the interventions) periods of heart rhythm coherence in individualspracticed in the HeartMath coherence-building techniques. Furthermore, a number of studiessuggest that this repatterning process can produce enduring system-wide benefits thatsignificantly impact overall quality of life (discussed below).While evidence clearly shows that the HeartMath positive emotion refocusing and emotionalrestructuring techniques lead to increased psychophysiological coherence, other approaches havealso been shown to be associated with increased coherence. For example, in a recent UCLAstudy, Buddhist monks meditating on generating compassionate love tended to exhibit increasedcoherence, and another study of Zen monks found that the more advanced monks tended to havecoherent heart rhythms, while the novices did not (Lehrer et al., 2003). This does not imply,however, that all meditation approaches lead to coherence; as we and others have observed,approaches that focus attention to the mind (concentrative mediation), and not on a positiveemotion, in general do not induce coherence.Benefits of Psychophysiological CoherenceIn terms of physiological functioning, coherence is a highly efficient mode that confers anumber of benefits to the system. These include: (1) resetting of baroreceptor sensitivity, whichis related to improved short-term blood pressure control and increased respiratory efficiency; (2)increased vagal afferent traffic, which is involved in the inhibition of pain signals andsympathetic outflow; (3) increased cardiac output in conjunction with increased efficiency influid exchange, filtration, and absorption between the capillaries and tissues; (4) increased abilityof the cardiovascular system to adapt to circulatory requirements; and (5) increased temporalsynchronization of cells throughout the body. This results in increased system-wide energyefficiency and metabolic energy savings (Lehrer et al., 2003; Langhorst, Schulz, & Lambertz,1984; Siegel et al., 1984).INTEGRAL REVIEWDecember 2009Vol. 5, No. 2Psychologically, the coherence mode promotes a calm, emotionally balanced, yet alert andresponsive state that is conducive to cognitive and task performance, including problem-solving,decision-making, and activities requiring perceptual acuity, attentional focus, coordination, anddiscrimination. Individuals generally experience a sense of enhanced subjective well-beingduring coherence due to the reduction in extraneous inner noise generated by the mental andemotional processing of daily stress and the positive emotion-driven shift to increased harmonyin bodily processes. Many also report increased intuitive clarity and efficacy in addressingtroublesome issues in life.The use of coherence-building interventions has been documented