In this replay of a classic episode, Dr. Ron Siegel joins Inna and Matt to discuss his new book, The Extraordinary Gift of Being Ordinary, and his decades of experience in mindfulness and meditation.

Sign up for one of our upcoming trainings: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/optimal-hrv-78838069273

Dr. Siegel is an Assistant Professor of Psychology, part-time, at Harvard Medical School, where he has taught for over 35 years. A long-time student of mindfulness meditation, Dr. Siegel serves on the Board of Directors and faculty of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy and the faculties of the Center for Mindfulness and Compassion at the Cambridge Health Alliance and the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He teaches internationally about mind-body medicine and the application of mindfulness and compassion practices in psychotherapy and other fields. Find out more about Dr. Siegel's work at https://drronsiegel.com/

Check out Dr. Siegel's new book at https://amzn.to/3Ik2LpR

In this episode, Inna Khazan and Matt talk about the importance of low-frequency heart rate variability for biofeedback and mindfulness practices. We also discuss the new Optimal Zone feature in the Optimal HRV app to utilize this science. 

In this episode, Joey Scrivani joins Matt to discuss his journey with heart rate variability and healing trauma. Joey shares how he uses his experience to help other first responders deal with the trauma and challenges of their work. 

About Joey: 

My name is Joey Scrivani I’m 34 years old and a happily married father of two young boys. I am offering this course as a way to give back and teach skills I wish I would’ve had when I started my fire service career.

After 10 years in the fire service, I was diagnosed with PTSD. My symptoms included panic attacks, disassociation, suicidal ideations, sleep issues, anxiety and depression. As I began my treatment, I found it lacking as the conventional treatment was aimed at giving pharmaceuticals to help my symptoms while failing to address the nervous system and the body. This approach placed me in a victim mindset and has been ineffective for me. 
After trying the conventional approach, I started to experiment with things outside the mainstream. Ice baths, saunas, breath work, meditation, journaling, TRE, float tanks, EMDR, neurofeedback, plant medicines and many other non-conventional approaches ended up being what gave me relief and allowed me to pull myself out of despair. Fast forward 3 years from my initial treatment and I am now working to give people skills before pills. 

Through Conscious Movements, participates are introduced to the language of body and taught how to use their breath and movement to regulate themselves. Conscious Movements works on a physical, mental, emotional, and energetic level and encourages the practitioner to tune into the body and allow the mind to settle back. Through conscious attention, breath and movement we are able to connect to deeper parts of ourselves and encourage healing in a way conventional medicine doesn’t offer.

Learning the skill of self-regulation allows you to be the best version of yourself, whether that's a friend, parent, partner, boss, employee, athlete, or student.

https://www.conscious-movements.com

https://www.instagram.com/conscious_movements?igsh=MThtZWdlbHdpdHFsNg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

https://conscious-movements-s-school.teachable.com/

In this episode, Dr. Fred Shaffer returns to discuss the frequency domains of heart rate variability and what they tell us about the health of our nervous system and bodies.

In this episode, Dr. Inna Khazan joins Matt to discuss the relationship between skin conductance, sympathetic activation, stress, and heart rate variability (HRV).

Get Inna's Book Biofeedback and Mindfulness in Everyday Life: Practical Solutions for Improving Your Health and Performance

Saša Harper joins Matt to discuss integrating heart rate variability into her work as an Attention Deficit Disorder Coach and someone working to thrive with ADHD herself. 

In this episode, Dr. Dave joins Matt to discuss his new book Heart Rate Variability (HRV) for Chiropractors: A Simple Guide to Understand and Using HRV in Practice.  

Bas Van Hooren joins Matt in this episode to discuss his innovative research using heart rate variability and other metrics to determine athletic readiness. In this discussion we examine the current state and future of HRV metrics across athletic and other types of performance.

Bas Van Hooren is a sports science consultant, strength and conditioning specialist, and athlete. He started his PhD on injury prevention and performance enhancement in running-based sports in 2017 at Maastricht University. Bas has been involved as a sport science consultant for various professional organizations and has been active as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at the Dutch Olympic committee. As an athlete he has won several medals at the Dutch national championships, and he became Dutch National champion in 2017.  

Bas combines his theoretical knowledge as a sports scientist/researcher with practical experiences from being an athlete and coach to translate complex theoretical concepts into useful and evidence-based practical applications. He has published over 50 journal articles on topics ranging from biomechanics to exercise physiology and has given multiple workshops on sport science-related topics for a variety of audiences throughout Europe.  

Website: basvanhooren.com

HRV nerds rejoice! A friend of the show, Dr. Fred Shaffer, returns to geek out about HRV time-domain measures. Fred and Matt take a deep dive into the nature of these metrics and what they tell us about nervous system functioning.

Fredric Shaffer, PhD, BCB-HRV is a biological psychologist and professor of Psychology and former Department Chair at Truman State University, where he has taught since 1975 and has served as Director of Truman’s Center for Applied Psychophysiology since 1977. In 2008, he received the Walker and Doris Allen Fellowship for Faculty Excellence. In 2013, he received the Truman State University Outstanding Research Mentor of the Year award. Dr. Shaffer was the principal co-editor of Evidence-Based Practice in Biofeedback and Neurofeedback (3rd ed.) and authored 12 of its chapters. He was a co-editor with Donald Moss of Foundations of Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback: A Book of Readings. He co-authored with Mark S. Schwartz a chapter on entering the field and assuring competence in Biofeedback: A Practitioner's Guide (4th ed.). He co-authored with Donald Moss, a chapter on biofeedback in the Textbook of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2nd ed.). He co-authored with Rollin McCraty and Christopher Zerr, the Frontiers in Psychology review article "A healthy heart is not a metronome: An integrative review of the heart's anatomy and heart rate variability." He co-authored with Jack Ginsberg, the Frontiers in Public Health review article “An Overview of heart rate variability (HRV) metrics and norms.” He is a contributing editor for the journal Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. His current research focuses on techniques to increase heart rate variability. Dr. Shaffer is a BCIA Senior Diplomate in Biofeedback. Dr. Shaffer is the Past-Chair of the Biofeedback Certification International Alliance (BCIA), director of its Biofeedback and HRV Biofeedback Task Forces, and member of its Neurofeedback Task Force, and Treasurer for the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback (AAPB).  https://www.truman.edu/faculty-staff/fshaffer/

In this episode, Dr. David Eddie joins Matt to discuss his integration of Heart Rate Variability tracking and biofeedback into his therapy and substance use treatment work. We also discuss his innovative research into new ways for continuous HRV monitoring.