Heart, Breath, Mind by Leah Lagos

Heart, Breath, Mind by Leah Lagos ISBN-13: 9781328604408 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Released: May 5th 2020

Source: ARC review copy from the publisher through Amazon Vine.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Leah Lagos, PsyD, BCB is an internationally known expert in biofeedback and sport and performance psychology. In this book, she shares with readers for the first time the same program that she uses with top athletes, CEOs, business leaders—anyone who wants and needs to perform at their best. What makes her scientifically proven 10-week program unlike any other is that she recognizes the link between heart rhythms and stress to create specific, clinically tested exercises and breathing techniques that allow you to control your body’s physical response to stress. She pairs this training with cognitive-behavioral exercises to offer a two-tiered process for strengthening health and performance, enabling readers to respond more flexibly to stressful situations, let go of negative thoughts and emotions, and ultimately be more focused and confident under pressure.


My Review:
Heart, Breath, Mind talks about combining HRV biofeedback or resonance breathing along with visualization techniques to train your body to switch from a state of stress to relaxed much more quickly. I've previously heard some information on HRV and was told that a breath pattern of 5.5 seconds inhale and 5.5 seconds exhale creates resonance breathing, but she stated that "the standard rate that works for most individuals is to inhale for four seconds and exhale for six seconds with no pause in between.... The magic ratio here is 40:60 – you spend 40% of each breath inhaling and 60% exhaling." She never explained why this was a magic ratio; you just have to take it on faith. However, breathing in that ratio does not feel comfortable to me but the 5.5 seconds inhale and 5.5 seconds exhale does. This special breathing is the basis of her method, so I wish she spent more time explaining why this is the "magic" ratio.

Anyway, she started the book by describing the benefits of resonance breathing and how she discovered the benefit of combining it with visualization techniques. You do not need to have an HRV biofeedback device to do her technique, but she does talk about several devices if you want to get one. Each day for 10 weeks, she has you breathe for 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening following a breath pacing app set to her resonance breathing ratio. The first week is learning to breathe at that ratio, and the second week is learning belly breathing. Weeks 3 through 10 each introduce a new visualization technique that you can use to switch between a stressed state back into a relaxed state. The goal is to find one or more techniques that you find easy to use that will help you deal with stressful situations.

The author was not always clear when describing a technique. For example, she said to identify how your heart feels. I thought she meant physically only to later realize she meant what emotion are you feeling. However, the visualization techniques seem reasonable and doable. She wasn't clear about if these visualization techniques would work with a different ratio of resonance breathing. I'd be more inclined to commit to her system if I found the four seconds in and six seconds out breathing to be comfortable and calming, but she describes many people that she's worked with where this breathing technique has been very successful.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.