I wish I could claim to have come up with this name or this technique, but alas, I can only pass this on to you with my deep admiration from Molly Parker, PT, DPT and the Heart Math Institute.
According to a recent instagram post by Molly Parker, “our emotions have the ability to effect the ‘rhythm’ of our heart rate variability, breathing rate, and even blood pressure.”
So accessing positive emotions like gratitude and happiness can help steady and calm our heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure. One way we can access these positive emotions is to think of things that we are grateful for or that bring happiness and joy to our soul.
Using the breathing technique of taking a 4-count inhale and exhale to a count of 6 while also thinking a thought that brings a sense of happiness or gratitude, and doing this for 2-5 min, you can quickly bring your heart rate into coherence. This will help bring your brain and body into a more optimal state for healing.
When Molly was first introduced to this concept (technically called the Heart Rate Coherence Technique), she was told to “think a happy thought” while doing the breathing technique, and she immediately associated that with Peter Pan’s ability to fly by thinking a happy thought with pixie dust, and she’s called it Peter Pan Breathing ever since.
I loved this concept and wanted to pass it on to all of you 🙂 You can listen to Molly talk about this tool, as well as share her concussion story and other tips for healing and recovery on this week’s podcast episode. (https://youtu.be/yifM-ieIrn0?si=uDwRkLeEly52vgCX) You can also follow her on Instagram (@mollyparkerpt) for lots of excellent information and helpful tools for concussion recovery, and if you want some cool visuals that explain Heart Rate Coherence, look at her post about Heart Rate and Neuroplasticity from March 11, 2024.
I hope this is helpful for you!
Love,
Bethany