Heart Rate Variability & Biofeedback: What Your Body Knows About Stress Before You Do
A while back, I was telling a friend I felt fine. Rested, even. My schedule had lightened up, the kids were in a good rhythm, things were manageable, or so they felt.
Then I checked my HeartMath device.
My heart rate variability — the measure of how regulated my nervous system actually was — told a completely different story. My body was running on high alert while my mind had convinced itself that everything was okay.
That gap between how we think we feel & how our nervous system is actually doing, that's what heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback therapy helps you see & change.
What Is Heart Rate Variability?
Heart rate variability measures the variation in time between each heartbeat. It sounds counterintuitive, but a heart that beats w/ some irregularity between beats is actually healthier than one that's perfectly steady.
Higher HRV = your parasympathetic nervous system is engaged. You're in a state of recovery, clear thinking, & genuine calm.
Lower HRV = your sympathetic nervous system is dominant. Your body is in protection mode, whether it’s fight, flight, or freeze mode, even if you don't feel it.
HRV biofeedback is one of the most accurate real-time windows we have into how the nervous system is functioning — which is exactly why I use it w/ clients at my Spokane therapy practice.
Why High Achievers in Washington Have Low HRV
Here's what I see over & over in my anxiety treatment practice: someone comes in and describes their stress as "manageable." They're sleeping okay, still hitting their goals, holding it together.
But when we look at their HRV data during biofeedback therapy, their baseline is consistently low. Their nervous system hasn't had a real rest in months, maybe years.
High achievers are remarkably good at performing through dysregulation. They've built a life that rewards pushing through discomfort, overriding fatigue, & treating rest as something to earn. Over time, the nervous system adapts but not in a good way. It just stays in the elevated, activated state because that's become the default.
You stop noticing how dysregulated you are because dysregulation becomes normal.
What Low Heart Rate Variability Actually Feels Like
Because "dysregulated" can feel abstract, here's what low HRV tends to show up as in daily life:
Waking up & already feeling behind
A short fuse w/ people you actually love
Fatigue that sleep doesn't fix
Trouble making decisions, even simple ones
Dreading things that used to feel exciting
That low-grade, hard-to-name tension that just sits there
None of these are character flaws. They're what happens when your nervous system has been in overdrive for too long without real recovery.
What HRV Biofeedback Therapy Does Differently
The reason I love using HRV biofeedback with clients in my therapy practice is simple: you can't argue w/ the data.
When someone tells me they're calm & the device shows otherwise, it opens a really different kind of conversation. We're not talking about what they think they should feel — we're talking about what's actually happening in their body.
Biofeedback therapy teaches your nervous system to recognize the difference between "looking calm" & actually being regulated. Through breathing techniques & coherence training, you can learn to shift your HRV in real time. And with practice, that shift starts happening more automatically — your baseline rises, your recovery improves, & you spend less energy just holding it together.
This is the part that matters for high achievers: you don't lose your edge. You get access to it more reliably, without burning through your reserves to get there.
Where Brainspotting Therapy Fits In
HRV biofeedback is a powerful tool for building awareness & regulation. But if there are deeper patterns — stored stress, past experiences that trained your nervous system to stay on high alert — biofeedback alone won't clear those.
That's where Brainspotting therapy comes in. By using eye positioning to access the deep brain, Brainspotting helps release the stored experiences that are keeping your baseline activated in the first place. Once those are cleared, the regulation work you do w/ biofeedback goes much further, much faster.
Together, they create something I don't think you can get from talk therapy alone: measurable, lasting change in how your nervous system operates day to day.
What You Can Do Starting Now
Even without a biofeedback device, you can start noticing your nervous system's signals. Notice when your jaw is clenched. When your breathing gets shallow. When your thoughts start racing. These are your body's way of flagging activation.
Slow, rhythmic breathing (around 5-6 seconds in, 5-6 seconds out) is one of the fastest ways to shift your HRV toward coherence. It's not a cure, but it's a real tool.
If you want to go deeper & especially if the standard advice of "just breathe" hasn't quite cut it — that's what therapy is for.
HRV Biofeedback Therapy in Spokane, Washington
For folks in Washington State who are ready to look at what their nervous system is actually doing (not just what they think it's doing), I have openings for new clients.
We work with HRV biofeedback, Brainspotting, & nervous system regulation tools — all of it tailored to you, not a program.
Reach out at info@hellobree.co or visit www.hellobree.co to schedule a free 15-minute consultation.