THE BLUE COURAGE AND HEARTMATH PARTNERSHIP

Who is Heartmath?

The nonprofit Institute of HeartMath is a recognized leader in stress research, the physiology of optimal performance and resilience. Twenty years ago, HartMath research identified the physiological state of coherence — an optimal state of emotional, cognitive and physical functioning that underlies one’s ability to build and sustain resilience. This understanding led them to develop resilience training and mentoring programs which teach people to take charge of and intelligently regulate their energy. To date, tens of thousands of individuals have increased their resilience capacity using HeartMath self-regulation tools and heart-rhythm feedback technology. Their training and mentoring programs have proven especially effective with individuals who work in the service of others—such as nurses, police and active duty service members.

The Resilience Advantage^TM

Building Stress Resilience and Optimizing Performance

For law-enforcement officers, military service members, firefighters, emergency medical services and 911 call-center personnel and other first responders.

This is a special version of Resilience Advantage with several added content modules designed specifically to improve the safety and well-being of first responders. This workshop teaches officers to take charge of and self-regulate unnecessary energy expenditures that deplete resilience and diminish mental and physical performance. As a result, they are able perform at their best and increase and sustain emotional balance, clarity and flexibility while dealing with day-to-day challenges. Other important benefits include improved sleep, situational awareness, reaction time and decision-making, particularly under pressure.

Practicing the self-regulation and resilience-building skills helps:

• Sharpen and maintain situational awareness.
• Increase mental clarity and flexible and focused thinking, especially under pressure.
• Improve reaction times and coordination.
• Reduce fatigue and sleeplessness.
• Reduce symptoms of operational stress.
• Build and sustain resilience.
• Decrease friction in relationships and improve communication.

The graph to the right, from a study of police officers, provides an example of one important benefit of learning and practicing the self-regulation techniques: the ability to reset after challenging situations. 

Before the training, it took on average, over one hour for officers’ heart rates to return to their normal baseline rates. After training, the officers were able to quickly reset and bring their heart rates back to their normal baseline rates in a matter of minutes.

Resilience Advantage participants experience the following benefits:

Significant reductions in:

• Psychological distress
• Anger
• Emotional reactivity
• Blood pressure
• Cholesterol
• Blood sugar
• Fatigue
• Anxiety

Increases in:

• Productivity
• Positive outlook
• Goal clarity
• Motivation
• Perceived support
• Family connection
• Patience and understanding
• Ability to reset after critical incidents