Quick Coherence Breathwork + Biofield Tuning For Nervous System Relief

We explore heart coherence as a real, measurable shift in the nervous system and a lived experience of coming home to the body. We guide a quick HeartMath-style coherence practice, then move into a tuning fork heart-space session to support release, integration, and more life force. 
• defining coherence as harmonious connection in the body 
• linking stress and joy states to heart rhythm and heart rate variability 
• reframing incoherence as a trainable state rather than a personal flaw 
• connecting trauma to fragmentation and the felt sense of “pieces” returning 
• guiding the quick coherence technique with breath and heart focus 
• using gratitude and appreciation to build nervous system resources 
• practicing pendulation to feel emotions without bypassing 
• grounding before working with the electrical body and biofield 
• exploring left heart themes like sadness and disappointment 
• exploring overgiving and saying yes while meaning no 
• closing with integration breaths and gentle reflection

 And if your body is asking to go deeper, I would love it if you checked out my free resources or learned how I can support you 1-to-1 below. 

Sign up for my free course, Nervous System Embodiment for Real Life. https://leahmcquade.com/resources/

Be a part of the Somatic Self Healers Community https://mailchi.mp/leahmcquade.com/mg2urgzy6d

Want 1:1 support? Book a virtual Sacred Somatic and Intuitive Healing Session here: https://leahmcquade.com/sacred-somatic-intuitive-healing/

Website: https://leahmcquade.com/

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Transcript

Welcome And Settle Into Your Body

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Somatic Self-Healers Podcast. This is a space for people who are tired of living in survival mode and are ready to start feeling safe in their body again. I'm your host, Leah McQuaid, and here we don't just talk about nervous system healing, we experience what it actually looks and feels like to come back to yourself in real life. Through somatic practices, breath work, and guided energetic healing sessions using sound. These episodes are designed to support you in shifting out of survival mode and into a deeper sense of presence, connection, and aliveness. So wherever you are, take a moment. Let this be a place you can soften and slow down. Take a nice big deep breath in. Settle in and let's begin. Hello! Welcome to Somatic Self-Healers. My name is Liam McQuaid, and I love to help people move from just surviving their life to feeling safe enough to fully live it. I'm excited to talk with you all today. Welcome, by the way. Welcome, welcome. I'm excited to talk about coherence. So we hear this term a lot. We hear it a lot in the energetic healing world. We hear it a lot with HeartMath Institute. And so we're gonna talk about what coherence means. And then I'm gonna invite you all to participate in applying this idea of coherence through a quick coherence meditation process from HeartMath. And then we'll also use the tuning forks in your bioelectrical field to help bring some coherence to your heart space. So let's jump in.

What Coherence Actually Means

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Coherence, it's a scientific term and it describes order and harmonious connection between parts. So if we think about our body, everything's connected to everything, right? Not just in our body, but in the universe as well. So we want to think about coherence as this synchronization between all of the parts of our body. So we want our hearts and our lungs and our nervous systems and our endocrine systems and our immune systems all to be working together and to be synchronized. So back in the 1990s, Heart Math Institute started studying this idea of coherence around the heart space. And so we know that anything that has an electrical voltage running through it has a bioelectrical field around it. And so they've been studying this bioelectrical field around the heart. And they've been measuring the nervous system and how the nervous system is affected by this rhythm of the heart space. And they measure this and they call through heart rate variability. Maybe you've heard this term, heart rate variability. So the idea is if we're stressed, if we're anxious, if we've got anger or sadness, all of those have a those emotions, right? Those states have a certain rhythm to them that can be expressed and measured scientifically from the heart, right? From the electricity of the heart. And these sort of stressful, anxious vibes, depression, these can be considered incoherent. And they're reflected within the nervous system. And so what's also reflected in the nervous system as well as in the bioelectricity surrounding our heart space is joy and happiness and contentment. So that's going to have quite a different read, so to speak, than the stress or the sadness or the frustration. And so this is what we call coherent or incoherence.

Stress Versus Joy In The Heart

SPEAKER_00 4:46

And I like to think of coherence as integration over time. And when there's an incoherence within the field, this concept of biophotons plays a role. And so biophotons are really just this intracellular communication and synchronization of the parts. So when there's a high concentration of these biophotons, it's linked to things like stress and anxiety, like we've talked about, more of this incoherent state. And it's also linked to inflammation, other diseases, fear. So this is what we pick up on when we use tuning forks within the bioelectrical field surrounding your body. We can pick up on these incoherent vibrations, and just by striking the fork in the bioelectrical field, it can help to bring more coherence into those high concentrations of biophotons that have been expressed out in your bioelectrical field. I know lots of big words here. I hope that this is really resonating in a different way for you for you. I'm trying to make it a little simpler, right, for you to understand. And then also I want you to be able to apply this to your life because why study all of this and gain all this knowledge if we can't apply it to our lives? So we're gonna apply it in just a moment. So stick with me here.

Trauma As Fragmentation Over Time

SPEAKER_00 6:27

The other thing I just want to mention, right, is that mystics and indigenous people have been talking about this for a very long time. So before it was studied by HeartMath and all the other people studying this out there, it's been talked about for a very long time through indigenous cultures and mystics. And they talk about it being a fragmentation. So when there's been trauma or high stress experiences, they speak about it as being fragments of our soul. And you might have heard of like soul retrieval, right? And there's even, you know, trauma specialists talking about this now as yeah, as it being fragmentations and starting to put pieces of the puzzle back together, right? And so yeah, yeah, I think that's that's good for now because I want to really get into heart math again and and and give you an experience, and then I want to go through a tuning session, right, for you all as well. Because once again, I like to help you apply these things to your life. Um,

Heart Rate Variability As A Signal

SPEAKER_00 7:46

so heart rate variability, so it helps us find that middle path, right? So when there's a heart coherence, right, it creates heart rate variability and it helps us bring more awareness to our state of coherence when we use some of these heart math techniques. So when there's a lot of stress, a lot of anxiety, it's gonna be reflected through the nervous system, right? And so yeah, this is this is one of the things that I want to just go ahead and and and drop into, right? Let's just let's just get into it now.

Quick Coherence Guided Practice

SPEAKER_00 8:23

So, ha, take a few deep breaths. Enough talking about the science of all of this stuff, right? And um, yeah, just begin to wherever you're at. What I love about the quick coherent technique, right, is that it can be done anywhere, right? And the first thing I want you to do is I want you to take some deep breaths and allow the breath to focus in on the heart space. So it's so interesting, right, as you're just breathing in and out the heart space. One of the things that the Heart Math Institute has so beautifully discovered is that the heart communicates to the brain more than the brain communicates to the heart. And so just by pausing and putting your awareness through the breath into the heart, and you might also place your hand on your heart space. And just focusing on the inhale and the exhale. And then bringing your awareness now to appreciation or gratitude. You might think about a situation that you're really proud of, something you did that you're really proud of, or a person or a thing you're really grateful for. Maybe you think about your pet, your favorite place in nature, and just allowing yourself to drop into that appreciation, that gratitude for just a few moments as you're breathing and noticing the heart rising on the inhale and falling on the exhale. Inhale, heart lifts, exhale, heartfalls. And so what you're doing by just taking a few moments, placing your hand on your heart, bringing your awareness to your heart, and allowing yourself the best you can for one minute, five minutes, ten minutes, just bringing yourself into a state of appreciation, of gratitude. Maybe you visualize yourself in your favorite location, on a beach, on a mountaintop, underneath your favorite tree. Whatever it might be, that brings you that sense of appreciation and gratitude, just bringing that into your consciousness and focusing on that for just about another minute here. What I love about this technique is that it helps to create some space in your day from the stress, whatever you might be carrying, that's might be causing that incoherence.

Pendulation Without Emotional Bypassing

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Maybe there's a frustrating thing that happened at work. You notice yourself going through some grief. So we're not bypassing those emotions because we have to feel those emotions and ride that wave of emotion to completion, right? Remembering emotions are energy in motion. So we let the emotion work through us like a wave, and so we have to feel that emotion, right? So this isn't bypassing, but what I love about this technique is it can give us a little bit of space to actually feel what we're feeling, so then we can ride the wave of that emotion, yeah. And then as you notice, you might be able to tap into a little bit of what's really there for you. Some of that irritation or that anger. You might feel a little bit of that physical pain or that like clenching in the belly. You might start to feel some of what's happening for you in your body. And then what we can do, you can feel that and you can pendulate back into the heart coherence where you are breathing into your heart. You're focusing on gratitude, appreciation, putting yourself somewhere that you love, imagining you're on top of that mountain or sitting on a beach. You think back to a situation that you're really proud of, something you are really proud of yourself for. Maybe you think about your pet. You can even think about something funny, right? Maybe you last time you laughed, and so you drop into that for a moment or two. And then you come out of that, and it gives you once again a little bit more spaciousness to feel the dick dysregulation, the incoherence, and however it might be showing up for you. You let it move through you, and it may not be moving through you fully to completion, and that's okay. Maybe you're just feeling that tightness in the right shoulder, or that tense feeling in the low back, and you feel it 30 seconds or a minute, or two minutes, or three minutes, and then you have this technique, the quick coherence technique where you come back to the heart, hand on heart, breath into the heart, thinking about appreciation and gratitude, helping to bring some more coherence into whatever feels incoherent for you right now. Yeah, so it's a really beautiful tool. Especially when used with pendulation coming into what's discomf uncomfortable and then coming into that appreciation and that gratitude. Yeah. Beautiful. And then we'll go ahead and shift now. Of course, you're more than welcome to flow with this a little bit more.

Grounding Before Tuning Fork Work

SPEAKER_00 16:06

If you'd like, we're gonna move into the tuning fork portion of our time together. And we're gonna start with the left side of the heart space. So in biofuel tuning, the left side of the heart space represents uh some holding or tension in the body related to disappointment, sadness. We can hold those emotions there in our left shoulder and our left heart space. So just taking a moment and beginning to ground first. So anytime we're working with the electrical body, it's a good idea to ground the energy. So before we get into that left side, I want to ground the energy here, just helping to bring your energy down. You might imagine breathing those deep inhales and full exhales out your tailbone, beginning to relax your pelvic floor, your hips. Okay, so we're gonna start on that left side. Left side from the heart, and as I'm in the field, just using the vibration and the sound of the

Left Heart Sadness And Release

SPEAKER_00 18:19

fork to bring that coherence into white me what might be stuck for you. Just listening in and just noticing if anything wants to be spoken. Yeah, nice big deep breaths throughout our session. Nice big deep inhales. Exhale helps to move the energy, anything that's stuck in your field, those biophotons.

Lineage Patterns In The Outer Field

SPEAKER_00 19:27

The outer edge of the field is where we carry we carry things in our DNA. It's it's our lineage, generational traumas, or in this case, any anything from our parents or their parents or our grandparents, right? Like anything in the generational past. Deep breaths. Just noticing what you notice in your body. And I'm getting the sense that that left shoulder wants to move, so feel free to roll out the left shoulder, both shoulders if you'd like. Maybe you shake out the upper arm. If any emotion wants to come up, let it once again. Emotions are energy in motion. Expressing those emotions or how we release them from our body. That's it. Nice big deep breaths, full breaths. Just noticing what you notice in your body. Let that anger be felt, maybe just for a moment, knowing you always can come back to that quick coherence technique. If it's too much, just letting that anger wash through you. You got this, move through you. Yeah, that's it, my friends. Make sure you take a nice big deep inhale and really make some sound on that exhale. Ah, or shake it out. Breath movement sound. Almost done with this side for now. We're gonna drop in to the body, let the body begin to integrate. Okay, we're gonna go back to start now the left side.

Overgiving And Life Force Depletion

SPEAKER_00 27:42

Left side is where we overgive. We say yes when we mean no. So I'm gonna use the same side, but I'm just gonna intentionally flip over. So I'm on your uh right side now. Now feel free, you can stay where you're at. This is just intentional kind of flipping over, or if you'd like, you can flip over. It's totally up to you. Okay, here we go. Yeah, so sounds very different on this side for sure. And once again, just down on the outer edge of the field. So there's like a dullness coming through, like a dimming of our life force, is how I'm getting the sense I'm getting here. Which makes sense if we're doing things that aren't in alignment when we're saying yes, but we mean no, and we're overgiving. Yeah, that'll make sense that there'd be this sort of depletion of our life force. Yeah, so I'm going to breathe some coherence. So that, yeah, some coherence so you can increase that voltage, get that life force back, right? Yeah. Yeah, some depression coming up.

unknown 29:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:56

So once again, that quick coherence heart math technique can help you just tap into that hard sadness, that depression, but not without being resourced, right? You're you're resourced with that technique. Yeah, because it really wants to move through that depression. Yeah. Ah, nice big deep breaths. Make some sound on the exhale, letting whatever emotions want to come up, let them come up. And maybe there's not any, and that's okay. That's it. Yeah, and I just got a really beautiful image of another piece of the puzzle for you. We talked about that fragmentation that chronic stress and trauma leaves in our field and in our bodies and in our psyches and in our souls. So I just got this beautiful image of another piece of the puzzle here for you. That's really beautiful. Yeah. So just noticing that there's some more awareness around this puzzle piece for you. Like there's some connecting of the dots, and maybe there's not, and that's okay. No expectation. Right, that mystic mystery of it all. Yeah, beautiful. That's it. Yeah, lots of breathing for me. So moving a lot here, my friends. Yeah, so lots of breathing for you will be helpful to keep moving whatever's coming up. That's it, my friends. Yeah. Clearing what's ever in the way for that embodied feeling of life force and prana and chi flowing through you. So we're clearing it here at the heart, the right side of the heart. That's it, my friends. Feeling whatever you need to feel, and pendulating back to the heart, pendulating back to the sound of the fork, pendulating back to my voice, finding that rhythm in the breath. Last little bit here, finding that rhythm. That's it, that rhythm of the breath. Inhale, exhale, that's it. Now, let the body integrate it.

SPEAKER_01 36:59

Okay.

Integration And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 37:16

Maybe that's stirred up a little bit. Always remember you now have a new tool. New tool that quick heart coherence. Help you create some space between how you're experiencing the stress and then the stressor. Yeah, you can use this technique anytime. We'll just take three nice big deep breaths together to close up our time. Inhaling deeply through the nose. Exhale, side out. Inhale through the nose, all the way from the feet to the crown of the head. Exhale back down to the feet. Last one. Inhale from the feet to the crown. And then back down. Exhaling, making some sound. All right. Until next time, sending you so much love. Thank you for being here with me today. And if something in this episode resonated, don't feel like you have to change anything right away. Or at all. Just take a moment, notice what landed, what's alive for you in your body. Let that be enough for right now. And if your body is asking to go deeper, I would love if you checked out my free online program, Nervous System Embodiment for Real Life. You can find that in the show notes. In this course, you'll learn how to regulate the nervous system, at least store its survival energy, and build a foundation for embodied living. And if you want 101 support or you want to join my somatic self-healers community, you can find all of that in the show notes as well. Until next time, my friends, take care of yourself gently and gracefully.