• The management of the body is under the control of several nervous systems.
• The three main nervous systems are outlined here.
• The autonomic nervous systems manages all the automatic functions of the body.
• The autonomic nervous system is the main system for adaptation and stress management.
• The autonomic nervous system is explained here and the main functions of its to branches (sympathetic and parasympathetic) are summarized for a better understanding of all which follows in this course.

This short introduction for the following lectures explains how disease, whichever it may be is always caused or accompanied with an unbalance of the autonomic nervous system.

Health is the balanced state, disease an unbalanced state.

• How Dr O'Hare explains very simply how disease and unbalance of the autonomic nervous system affects health.
• The Fight and Flight mode must be perfectly balanced by an efficient Rest and Digest mode.
• Several examples are shown on the whiteboard for easy understanding.
• These notions are very important for understanding the biological explanations of the 365 Breathing Zone and its effects on the body.

• You now know that health is difficult to define with a consensual definition. Evaluating health is also as difficult because of the absence of reliable health indicators.
• Health has been compared to a financial budget with the incomes and the outputs, so here, in this lecture, Dr O'Hare explains how body health and well-being can be evaluated with the same principals by measuring the resources (income) and the expenses (output).
• This analogy is directly linked to the main subject of the next section : heart rate variability as a health marker.

• This lecture is more an introduction than a lecture.
• This section on Heart Rate Variability is based on a live demonstration of the heart's rate and the effect of the environment on it. The whole section is based on a demonstration of Heart rate Variability Biofeedback.
• Setting up this demonstration is done here as if it was you seated beside Dr O'Hare.
• Sit down, let's set up the equipment and get watching.

• It is much easier to understand Heart Rate Variability if it is shown on a biofeedback screen with the explanations at the same time.
• This is what this lecture is about : to show and explain.
• Dr O'Hare is pretending that you are seated beside him for a demonstration. He will show you exactly what he shows to his own patients and the explanations on how the heart is not normally very regular and how this heart irregularity also known as heart rate variability is a health evaluation marker.
• This is a really exciting part of the course, you probably don't know that your heart is normally very irregular...

• So, your heart is not beating regularly ... well good for you!
• If you are skeptical about this you must absolutely watch this lecture and maybe even twice.
• The more irregular your heart rate is the more it can adapt in providing you with the energy necessary for fighting or running away and the more it can recuperate that energy.
• Evaluating the amplitude of your heart rate variability is a very simple and efficient way to evaluate health.

• This is the core of health evaluation using Heart Rate Variability.
• The measurement of Heart Rate Variability amplitude gives us a very good idea of general health and energetic balance.
• This measurement is a very well documented and confirmed method to assess health, aging and the impact of stress.
• Stress is, by the way, the state which reduces the most the amplitude of Heart Rate Variability.
• This is another very important lecture for the understanding of the physiological background needed to understand the 365 Breathing Zone.

• At last you have the main simple physiological notions to understand the basics of the 365 Breathing Zone for stress reduction.
• In this short sequence Dr O'Hare is preparing you to watch another live demonstration of Heart Rate Variability and what happens when you change your breathing pattern.
• This is all about breathing and how it has an impact on your health through the autonomic nervous system.
• Get your pulse ear sensor on and watch ...

• Here is where Dr O'Hare plugs in the patient for a second demonstration.
• You all know what Heart Rate Variability is by now so he can show you what a simple breathing technique can do to your heart rate.
• You will discover what Heart Rate Coherence is, this is the foundation of the 365 Breathing Zone and its effects.
• You will discover why when you breathe in for 5 seconds and out for 5 seconds your heart acts in a strange way.
• Just watch!

Just to make sure you understand what Heart Rate Coherence is, here is a second demonstration.

You will see again that the normal state is a chaotic state for heart rate and the autonomic nervous system and that when you breathe in for 5 seconds and out for 5 seconds voluntarily something strange happens to your heart rate. That is heart rate coherence.

• Heart Rate Coherence is a specific state of the heart rate curve recorded on the biofeedback software.
• Whenever a person breathes at a 10-second breathing cycle his heart automatically goes into this coherent state.
• The result is a balancing of the autonomic nervous system and an increase in its oscillations.
• You will learn the notion of heart rate chaos which is the normal adaptive state and the notion of heart coherence which is induced by the specific breathing.
• It is as if this breathing rate overrides the automatic regulation of heart rate.

• What is the science behind this specific breathing rate?
• The science is based on an autonomic reflex which synchronizes breath cycles and heart rate cycles.
• When you breathe in, your heart increases its rate due to a stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system (fight / flight), when you breathe out, your heart decreases its rate due to a stimulation of the parasympathetic nervous system (rest / digest).
• So when you breathe in and breathe out voluntarily you alternatively stimulate the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems.
• And when you breathe at specific resonant rate you have the maximum increase of stimulation which is called Heart Rate Variability.

• Heart Rate Coherence breathing is a way to act on the Autonomic Nervous System and thus have a direct effect on health and stress management.
• The amplitude of the heart rate variability increases.
• Dr O'Hare shows and explains many of the basic physiological effects on the autonomic nervous system.

In this second lecture on physiological effects of Heart Rate Coherence training.

• Effects on the digestive system
• Effects on sleep
• Hormonal balance
• Immunity
• Alpha brain waves

• Heart rate coherence breathing is also very interesting for addressing psychological and emotional issues.
• Dr O'Hare details some of the effects on the psychological level.
• Emotions and feelings are conveyed by the autonomic nervous system. When the autonomic nervous system is balanced the emotional and psychological responses are stabilized.

Heart Rate Coherence breathing can be brought down to the 365 formula:

- 3 times per day

- 6 breaths per minute

- 5 minutes

This short lecture introduces the technique which will be separately explained in the next three lectures.

• Dr O'Hare explains here the reason for the 3 in 365.
• This is about three breathing sessions per day.
• The number of sessions per day depends on the duration of the physiological and psychological effects of heart rate coherence breathing.

• And why is it that breathing voluntarily 6 times per minute has a direct effect on health and stress management?
• That is the basics of heart rate coherence breathing.
• 6 per minute is the only parameter of the 365 formula that can't be changed.
• This lecture explains the reasons why.

• And, at last, why should you start out with 5 minute long breathing sessions?
• The answers are here in this lecture.
• It is a compromise between motivation to continue and physiological effects.

1. Should I sit, stand or lay down to do my exercises?
2. Should I breathe through my nose, mouth or both?
3. Should I do my exercises before or after meals?

Dr O'Hare gives the answers here and explains why.

• Breathing voluntarily at a slow breathing rate of 6 breaths per minute is not a natural breathing rate, it is much slower.
• To get to master the 6 per minute breathing rate (0.10Hz) it is necessary to use a breathing guide for the first few weeks of practice.
• In this lecture, Dr O'Hare will address different methods among which you can chose the one that fits you most.

• Several learning techniques were explained in the first video on learning the 365 Breathing Zone technique.
• Dr O'Hare designed a clever and very efficient way to learn. This method is called Drawing the Breath Waves, it is simple to learn and is probably one of the methods with the best results.
• So, start drawing the waves of your breath.

Introduction to the review of a few breathing guide applications for smartphones.

• Review of RESPIRELAX
• A very interesting and fully programmable breathing guide.
• For Apple smartphones and tablets/

• A review of the RESPIROGUIDE
• Application for Apple and Android smartphones and tablets.

• Review of BIOBREATHING
• A free simple breathing guide fo Apple smartphones and tablets.

• What can you expect from your practice of 365 Breathing Zone exercises?
• First of all the effects will come very soon and most of all will be in the emotional realm with a sense of calm, balance and serenity.
• Dr O'Hare goes more into the detail fo what 365 Breathing Exercises can do for you.

• Another tough one.
• What is Stress?
• Like health and happiness we sort of know what it is but it is hard to define.
• That was the life's work of Dr Hans Selye who wrote 40 books to define his vision of stress.
• He was the first author to characterize stress in the human being.
• We will take and use his own personal definition of stress for the whole section on stress of this course.
• Stress is a General Adaptation Syndrome.
• Want to know what that means, just join us for the next lecture ....

• Stress is the body's reaction to a threat. The complex body reactions are a syndrome i.e. a group of physical signs most of which are muscular to prepare to fight or to flee.
• Dr Selye called stress the General Adaptation Syndrome.
• Dr O'Hare explains the three words of this definition.

• Stress can take an overwhelming toll on our bodies if it is chronic, recurrent or heavy.
• Stress is a normal reaction to normal living, but this normal living was programmed millions of years ago, no real updates have been made to our automatic programming.
• Excessive stress affects the whole body, its physiology, its hormones, its emotions and generally all its functions.
• Dr O'Hare explains the main effects of stress with for objective to explain the positive impact of heart rate coherence breathing.

• In the prior lecture you have learned about the effect of stress on the whole body.
• A normal reacting body with a balanced autonomic nervous system will adapt, this is resilience.
• But what happens when the body is overwhelmed or its autonomic nervous system is not balanced: disease, burnout or exhaustion.
• Many diseases have their roots in a dysfunctional adaptation to stress.
• Dr O'Hare explains some of those diseases here.

There are many way to improve the results of the very simple 365 Breathing Zone exercise.

Dr O'Hare gives a few reinforcers.

• smile
• gratefulness
• music
• happiness

• Another very simple breathing exercise.
• For immediate re-centering and neutralizing emotional balance.
• To do before, while, after you are upset.

This is a general simple review of the possibilities of the Heart Tracker Family Edition which we used in the demonstrations for this course. It is a simple biofeedback software for PC (Windows).

The main screens and functions are detailed here.

This is probably the best application for smartphones (Android and Apple) on the market today.

All the details are in this lecture.

It is complete with a breathing guide you can set to your own settings, all your sessions are recorded to assess your progress.

A must for all stressed owners of smartphones....

This is a general wrap up for the course.

What I hope you will keep up and running is the 3 times a day, 6 breaths per minute for 5 minutes exercise. Please try it out for about three weeks to experience the effects on stress and health. Those 15 minutes per day will never be wasted time. Do you know that your heart rate variability which we described in the second section is correlated to life expectancy....

The ball is on your side.

Thank you for staying to the end and watching.