Effect of Heartfulness cleaning and meditation on heart rate variability.

BACKGROUND

Meditation has been a key component of eastern spiritual practices. Heartfulness meditation is a unique heart based system with key practices like cleaning and meditation aided by yogic transmission.

OBJECTIVE

To study the effects of Heartfulness cleaning and meditation (guided by Heartfulness trainer) on heart rate variability (HRV), blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR).

METHODS

A total of 30 participants (21 males, 9 females; age range 19-70 years, M = 45.1 years and SD = 12.7 years) participated in the study. HRV, BP and HR were studied before, during and after the three stages of rest, cleaning and meditation.

RESULTS

There was significant effect of cleaning and meditation on normalized unit of power in low-frequency band (LFnu) for the three conditions [F (2, 87) = 9.98, p < 0.01] with mean values for baseline being 70.82 ± 14.55, cleaning being 55.62 ± 15.06 and meditation being 55.17 ± 16.63. There was also a significant effect of cleaning and meditation on normalized unit of power in high-frequency band (HFnu) [F (2, 87) = 7.31, p < 0.01] with mean values for baseline being 30.86 ± 16.51, cleaning being 44.37 ± 15.06 and meditation being 44.83 ± 16.63. Significant effect of cleaning and meditation was also seen for LF/HF [F (2, 87) = 4.98, p < 0.01] with mean values for baseline being 3.45 ± 3.40, cleaning being 1.63 ± 1.30 and meditation being 1.82 ± 2.19.

CONCLUSION

Heartfulness cleaning and meditation had a positive effect on sympathovagal balance.