fitness and autonomic nervous system function.Abnormally low 24-hour HRV is predictive of increased risk of heart disease and premature mortality.HRV is also highly reflective of stress and emotions.4The Heart Lock-In tool is an emotional restructuring technique, generally practiced for 5 to 15 minutes,that helps build the capacity to sustain the psychophysiological coherence mode for extended periods oftime. The Freeze-Frame technique is a one-minute positive emotion refocusing exercise used in themoment that stress is experienced to change perception and modify the psychophysiological stressresponse. For in-depth descriptions of these techniques, see Childre & Martin (1999) and Childre &Rozman (2005).INTEGRAL REVIEWDecember 2009Vol. 5, No. 2At first Chris was not aware of the transformation that was occurring. His wife was thefirst to notice the change and to remark about how differently he was behaving and howmuch better he looked. Then his co-workers, staff, and other friends began to comment onhow much less stressed he appeared in responding to situations at work and how muchmore poise and emotional balance he had. A second autonomic nervous systemassessment, performed six weeks after the initial one, showed that Chriss average heartrate had decreased to 85 beats per minute and it now lowered at night, as it should.Significant increases were also apparent in his heart rate variability, which had more thandoubled! These results surprised Chris physician, as 24-hour heart rate variability istypically very stable from week to week, and it is generally quite difficult to recover fromautonomic nervous system depletion, usually requiring much longer than six weeks.In reflecting on his experience, Chris started to see how profoundly his health and his lifehad been transformed. He was getting along with his family, colleagues, and staff betterthan he could remember ever having enjoyed before, and he felt much more clearheadedand in command of his life. His life seemed more harmonious, and the difficulties thatcame up at work and in his personal relationships no longer created the same level ofdistress; he now found himself able approach them more smoothly and proactively, andoften with a broadened perspective.The true story of Chriss transformation is not an isolated example, but rather is only one ofmany similar case histories that people like Chris have shared with HeartMath, illustrating theamazing transformations that can occur when one learns how to increase psychophysiologicalcoherence.Many contemporary scientists believe that the quality of feeling and emotion we experience ineach moment is rooted in the underlying state of our physiological processes. This view is wellexpressed by neuroscientist Antonio Damasio in the epigram that opened this article. Theessence of his idea is that we call certain emotional feelings positive and others negativebecause these experiences directly reflect the impact of the fluidity or strain of the life processon the body, as is clearly evident in Chris case, above. The feelings we experience as negativeare indicative of body states in which life processes struggle for balance and can even bechaotically out of control (Damasio, 2003, p. 131). By contrast, the feelings we experience aspositive actually reflect body states in which the regulation of life processes becomesefficient, or even optimal, free-flowing and easy (Damasio, p. 131).While there is a