Musings on the HeartMath emWave2 🫀 How I saved 70% on it AND the funnest way to HRV train by @jeroseland on 3Speak
▶️ Watch on 3Speak --- A few thoughts on the emWave, a screen-LESS piece of mindfulness tech for mood and energy, that I've had an on-again/off-again relationship with. Access Heart Hacks Library �...
Tags: #biohacking #heart #health #review
What's up, this is Joff, and quick video here with some impressions of the M-wave. I'm back on the M-wave. After a M-wave hiatus that I'd been on for some time, I got one of these, and I, first of all, I saved, I think about 60%, maybe 70% on this M-wave right here, this silver bad boy. by getting it on eBay, and I actually suggest that you get these things on eBay, and I'm still formulating my thoughts on Heartmath. Obviously, they do a lot of good work there, but I kind of think that the devices are overpriced. I think something like this goes for, like, 200 bucks in the MWive store there, and I kind of feel like... it should just be a little bit more substantial for that price. It's kind of a cheap feeling plastic thing. I'm worried that if I drop this three feet, that it would break, and you can get a good deal on eBay for them. So you might want to just do that. So I opted for this one as opposed to the... inner balance sensor. The inner balance sensor is obviously the newer device. It's a little bit cooler looking. It synchronizes with your iPhone. But, God, I already spent enough time with my smartphone, and I wanted to use something like this, that this device is actually kind of more conducive to a mindful zen type of headspace because it doesn't have a bunch of notifications on it. that pop up, it doesn't have a distracting screen, it's not a distraction technology the way that your smartphone is. So it's the kind of thing that you could wake up in the morning and reach over and do 5, 10, 15 minutes of it, and you're not going to be dragging yourself down that hellish wormhole of email and to-do's. This is the way to start a morning. It's about 7.30 a.m. here, about 30 minutes after sunrise, here on the Black Sea Coast. I've just been doing a meditation session, getting coherent. I guess I just kind of use it as a tool for mood and for energy. Like today, I got into, I had woken up like kind of early today. And then by the mid-afternoon, I'd gotten into just a little bit of a slouch, you know, and I think that probably has more to do with me just sitting down. I think you need to get a standing desk, so I have a little bit more energy. And so I did this. And for some reason, that deep kind of breathing, it promotes the coherent state, at least the way I'm doing it, it results in kind of energetic breathing. So I feel a bit energized right now. And so I would say for me, right now, it's more of just a tool for mood and for the energy levels. I think in the future, I might go ahead and order the... Interbalance sensor also, because I am curious about, you know, getting that immediate feedback from it. In fact, I kind of want to do a thing where I put my smartphone into, like, a VR device, and then I connect up the sensor, and then I do one of their HRV games on VR. I will try that at some point in the future, and I'll report back if it's like... totally awesome and, you know, spiritual, because, of course, we're all religious but not spiritual, right? So, let's see, I'm going to do that at some point in the future. I'm going to take this to a yoga class, I think, and see if the Bulgarian yogis here are really fascinated with it, or if they're like, yeah, this looks like, this looks like some kind of, some kind of toy. So that's, if you guys have been wondering what I've been up to, I haven't posted anything recently. I had some family in town. It was a great time. I think using this a bit, it added to the mindfulness of everything that was going on. Current year, Jonathan, here with an update. HRV training still remains an... almost daily part of my biohacking practice. But the tools that I use have evolved some. More recently, I did a deep dive interview with Dr. Torkel-Feroux. He's one of the top doctors in Norway. And he convinced me that Garmans line of HRV tracking smartwatches, which I've got right here, that these are the best option for quantifying HRV. So I got one for my wife, and then she returned the favor last Christmas. She got me one. And the H.R.V. tracking... watches, I think, are what gets my recommendation currently. They're a big step up from the old heartmath devices in the convenience department, because it's just a watch that you wear that passively tracks your HRV. It's not a thing that you have to attach to your ear. Yeah, it's like one of these things you really don't. need to worry about. You can use it as much or as little as you want. What I like about the Garmin is that you can set it to notify you when your HRV drops or when your heart rate is too high, which is a nice prompt to do like some deep breathing to get yourself back into a state of coherence. A lot of times we go throughout the day, and especially if we are in front of a glowing screen, if we're working, if we're an email, we get into this mesmerized state. That's what our screens do to us. They mesmerize us, and this results in shallow breathing, this results in discoherence, this results in poor HRV, and the... Garmin watches can actually kind of, over time, train you to not let that happen, which is kind of a big deal, especially if you're like an IT worker who spends all your time in front of screens. So I think that's the product that gets my recommendation now. I am going to publish a more deep dive review of... the Garmin watch after I've gotten, oh, probably just a few more months experience with it. But I'll link that below wherever you're watching this. I'll also link over to... My review of the HeartMath Interbalance Sensor. In total, I've done over 300 heart math sessions now, and the inner balance sensor, I was not impressed by. Yeah, I don't think I'd recommend that. I actually still use my ancient... Mwave device. And here's why, as I said, it's a non-screen device. I've already got enough devices putting screens in my life. And sometimes I want to use a device that has, yeah, more of a... meditative kind of space that I'm trying to get into. So it's good for use at like the end of the day while reading a book or early in the morning when I'm trying to do some thinking about the day to come. Yeah, that's when it fits in. And I actually discovered a pretty fun way to do M-Waving. No one else talks about this. While playing Deos X Human Revolution, mind-blowing good game, even at 10 years old, I do my HRV training. Or I at least kind of set the device down here next to my computer. just kind of as a passive reminder to train me to practice belly breathing, deep profound belly breathing, even when my nervous system is getting pumped up by this super engaging game. I will clip it to my ear, and I'll place it right next to my computer. So it's in my field of view while... gaming. And I always game standing up at my standing desk here, because, like, with gaming... you really become mesmerized, right? And it's easy to spend hours and hours and hours just sitting down, like really not moving your body very much, while your nervous system is incredibly stimulated by whatever fun game. You're playing, yeah, gaming, while it's an awesome pastime, it's really, really, really unhealthy for you. So the little bit of gaming that I do do, I always use my standing desk. And actually I find that when I'm gaming at the standing desk, I can stand for way longer. Because when I'm working, doing boring things like email or web development, my knees will inevitably get tired. And then I'll want to sit down. But when you're gaming, you're so engrossed by the game that I'll stand there for like hours and hours and hours. So... Gaming, as it is highly stimulatory, and it tends to push you into that fight or flight state, that's actually a really good opportunity to practice consciously controlling breath and physiology. So I've just got my M-wave, right? there while gaming. So, yeah, I make the most of that time. Actually, I'm probably, this would be a thing to maybe explore in the future. Let me know if you want to see this. Is more biohacks for gamers? Because I know there's a lot of gamers out there. And I actually want to get back into gaming. I kind of took a hiatus from my gaming as a brand new dad, but maybe I've got the opportunity. So, yeah, I'd love to hear from, you all, drop me a comment, leave me a message or whatever, let me know what clever little ways you found to use HRV devices. I'm Jonathan with Limitless, looking forward to a continued conversation with you.