Heart Coherence - How to Actually “Follow Your Heart”

May 4

Out of all the spiritual, mystical, and psychological tools I’ve explored in 20+ years of searching for truth, Heart Coherence is the one principle I keep returning to.

In this Weekly Woo-Woo, I want to introduce what Heart Coherence means to me, share some existing definitions, and offer practical ways you can start aligning to it — so you can feel more grounded, alive, and in integrity with your true self.

What is Heart Coherence?

Although the term originally came to me intuitively, I recently asked ChatGPT to summarize how it is commonly used. Here’s what I learned:

1. HeartMath Institute’s Definition:

Heart Coherence is:

“A harmonious state where the heart, mind, and emotions are aligned and in sync.”

Key Points:

Measured by heart rate variability (HRV); a smooth, sine-wave rhythm indicates coherence.
Can be trained using breathwork, focused attention, and emotional states like appreciation or compassion.
Associated with improved cognition, emotional regulation, immunity, and intuitive clarity.
Tools like the emWave and Inner Balance Trainer help users practice coherence through biofeedback.

2. In Spiritual/Energetic Circles:

Heart Coherence is viewed more esoterically:

A portal to your Higher Self and intuitive knowing.
A method of manifestation and quantum alignment.
The energetic state of living from the heart — syncing thoughts, feelings, and actions with inner truth.
A key tool in healing, energy work, and intention-setting.

My Interpretation

The Heart — whether physical, metaphorical, or energetic — is the core of our being.

To me, Heart Coherence means living in alignment with your authentic self.

It means your thoughts, choices, and actions reflect your innermost truth.

Tuning into your Heart means you are present with all of yourself - that you accept and integrate every part of your Self with compassion.

It means there is no emotion, past experience, or thought that you reject.

And that is no small task.

Following your heart is a constant practice of consciousness.

At any given moment you have to discern where your thoughts and emotions are stemming from, and if you agree with them or not.

Do you make choices based on logic, an emotional reaction, a habit, or out of survival?

If you tend to walk blindly through your day, you’re most likely functioning from your subconscious mind - the part of your consciousness that’s built into your body and includes every habit, past wound, judgement, and belief system that you inherited from your ancestors and childhood.

Not only does this mean you are probably struggling with finding fulfillment, are emotionally imbalanced, and easily triggered, but you probably can’t remember most moments in your life. In other words, you’re living in fight or flight, often dissociated from your present reality.

When you live from the Heart you don’t judge past actions or parts of your personality as good or bad, which means you don’t have to try to control how you exist. You carry neither shame nor guilt about who you are. There is a sense of peace and trust that you are always where you should be, and that all of life is happening for you, not to you (you are in charge of life, not a victim of it).

Are you aligned?

When you’re not living in alignment with your Heart:

You feel disconnected, anxious, overwhelmed, reactive, or dissociated.
You’re likely operating from the subconscious mind — a tangle of inherited beliefs, fears, traumas, and habits.
You become a passive passenger to life rather than an active creator.

When you’re in coherence:

Life flows more effortlessly.
Decisions feel clear and grounded.
You experience peace and empowerment.
You’re fully present, compassionate, and embodied.
You reclaim your Free Will.

Alignment doesn’t mean everything becomes easy, but it does become clear.

How to Practice Heart Coherence

Here are two ways I came up with to start tuning into your inner truth.

Whether you’re more reflective (top-down) or body-led (bottom-up), choose the method that resonates most or come up with your own.

The Top-Down Method: Reflection First

This top-down method is great if you like to organize your thoughts and analyze them from a distance.

Rate Your Overall Alignment
To start, check in with how you feel about your life in general.
On a scale of 1–10, write down how aligned you feel in your daily life.
1 = completely lost, anxious, out of sync; 10 = deeply authentic, joyful, and present
Break It Down
Now get more specific. List a bunch of life areas (e.g., career, relationships, finances, health) and rate each one individually.
Pick 1 Area to Focus On
Choose the one that scored the lowest, feels the most urgent, or would improve your day-to-day the most.
Feel Into the Issue
Without using logic, ask yourself: What do I actually feel about this area of my life?
Then jot the first things that come up.
You can write broad statements or go on a rant about what’s bothering you. Just get it out on paper however you like.
Do not pass judgement about what you’re writing. Remember, we are working on fully accepting ourselves.
Identify the Core Beliefs
This next part is essentially what some people call Shadow Work.
In order to figure out why you’re so dissatisfied with this area of your life, you want to identify what subconscious beliefs are at the core of your conflict.
For example, is it that you’re actually dissatisfied, or is it because you’re comparing what you have to what others have, or what others expect you to have?
Here are some questions you can ask yourself:
Where did my choices come from?
Was I working from survival mode?
Social pressure?
Childhood conditioning?
What are the subconscious beliefs I am functioning from?
There can be so many layers to your conditioning. It might take days, weeks, or months of slow self reflection before you land at the very core of your unhappiness. But eventually you will get to the bottom of things, and when you do you will feel a resounding “yes” throughout your whole being when you’ve landed on what the core issue is.
(Tip: If you’re open to it, getting in touch with the subconscious is much more effective using intuitive tools like pendulums, tarot readings, hypnotherapy, dream analysis, or using the service of a therapist or life coach. I personally have used the Emotion Code to clear out of lot of my subconscious emotional blocks/patterns.)
Reprogram
Once you’ve identified the beliefs you were functioning from, it’s time to decide how you want to move forward with them.
Will you throw them out and go in the opposite direction?
Or will you just add to them/tweak them slightly, using new language and definitions.
Write down the new beliefs or values you want to live by.
What does your Heart prioritize now?
Maybe you used to want social acceptance or prestige, and now you value creative expression. Maybe fun and adventures are taking a back seat to security and peace.
Align the Physical
Now that you’ve done the work to reprogram your Mind to follow your Heart, it’s time for your Body to follow suit.
Write down what changes you can make in the real world to support your new truth.
You can make small daily habits to slowly steer your life back on track, or take the leap into a whole new life. Or set your sights on a five-year plan that you feel comfortable with.
Most important is that you’re very clear about what changes you want to see and where you want to end up.
Don’t get caught up in the details, though. Although you have free will to choose your destiny, you don’t have full control over how you get there (that’s a topic for another day).

The Bottom-Up Method: Let Your Body Speak

If structured reflection isn’t your thing, this bottom-up approach might feel more simple and natural.

Get Present
After you’ve identified the area of life you want to change the most, tune into how your body feels about it.
Be present with your emotions and physical sensations that come up.
Your body is very intelligent, and it will tell you when something is off through tension, anxiety, pain, fatigue, etc.
Once you’ve pinpointed where and how this misalignment exists in your body, you can either work with energy healing techniques or somatic therapy to energetically clear out the parts of your body that are affected.
You can also use your biofeedback on a daily basis to make more aligned decisions.
For example, let’s say you get a knot in your stomach every time you go into work or talk to a particular coworker. The next time you feel that knot, give it some space and try to feel out what message it’s trying to tell you. It might come to you like a keyword popping up in your head, an image or memory, a song lyric, an emotion, or any infinite number of intuitive signs.
If you really can’t tap into what your body is trying to tell you, then just keep testing out different choices to see what alleviates the knot. For example, does it get better when you speak your mind more? Does it get better when you choose not to worry about other’s expectations? Does it get better when you set better boundaries? Or maybe it only goes away when you don’t have to go in to that job.
It might take a while, but your body will tell you when you make choices that align to your truth. You just have to give it enough space and attention.
Ask Your Body Questions
You can also just ask your body simple yes or no questions while relaxing in your room.
Applied kinesiology/muscle testing is a very real and useful method for receiving answers from your body.
There are so many ways to apply this that you can research online, including using a pendulum.
You can ask yourself things like:
- Is this the job/relationships/path for me?
- Is [choose an action] aligned to my highest timeline and soul expression?
- Do I want/need to [fill in the blank] right now?
Choose What Fills Your Cup
Trust your body to guide you toward what energizes you — even if it’s not what others expect.
When you do things that are aligned to your Heart you will notice an increase in energy, flow, and joy.
And what you call self care might not look like anyone else’s.
For example, if you feel the need to veg out and watch YouTube videos for a few hours instead of going on that hike with your friends, don’t try to talk yourself into going just because you “know it would be good for you”.
Essentially try to fill your days with things that are a “hell yes” for you.

Balance Both

Whether you decide to go bottom-up, top-down, or a combination of both, it will take consistent practice before you gain confidence in your decision-making.

Here are just a few pros and cons of each to help you navigate what would be most appropriate for you at the moment.

Top-down pro: Allows you to identify root patterns and heightens your consciousness of ancestral, past life, and childhood wounding
Top-down con: Can cause you to overthink or dwell on old issues or wounds instead of integrating them
Bottom-up pro: Helps to make grounded, effective changes on a daily basis; bypasses the mind and keeps things simple
Bottom-up con: Can take time to tune into the subtle sensations and messages from your body, so you might second-guess yourself and will want external validation

Final Thoughts

I promise that the more you intend to touch base with your Heart, the more alive you will feel.

Most importantly, do not overthink things. There really isn’t a right or wrong way to do this work.

The point is to start trusting yourself - to take attention away from your mind and to drop it into your Heart center.

Just breathe and be present with yourself - have compassion and patience about whatever choices you make.

There is no pressure to make changes sooner than you feel that you can.

Self-improvement is not a race or competition.

Deciding to align to your Heart is a choice and process only you can make in the way that feels good to you.

Just the intention of trying to align to your Heart is enough to get the process going.

Once you do, the Universe and your spirit guides will jump on board and support you the whole way there.

Much love on your journey back home. <3

Aika Watanabe