Your intrinsic <\/strong>(inherent) heart rate is how fast your heart would beat when you are calm and at rest if it wasn\u2019t slowed down to your (observed) resting rate <\/strong>by your vagus nerve<\/strong>. Your resting heart rate is best measured\u00a0 when you\u2019re comfortably laying down and relaxed. The \u201cnormal\u201d\u00a0 resting rate for a healthy, young adult ranges from about 60 to 85 beats per minute (bpm), slightly higher on average for females than males. Individuals with well conditioned cardiovascular systems may have lower resting rates, often less than 60 bpm.<\/span><\/p>\n Your vagus nerve is the biggest nerve in your body and makes up about 80% of your PSNS<\/strong>. It has many connections to your aortic arch and slows your heart rate down from your intrinsic rate to your observed resting rate. If you are interested in calculating your approximate intrinsic rate you can multiply your observed resting rate times 1.349 and add 13.957. For example, if your observed resting rate is 60 bpm, multiplying by 1.349 equals 80.94, adding 13.957 = 94.897. Rounded off that\u2019s 95 bpm. If you\u2019re not interested in all the math you can just assume an intrinsic rate of 100 bpm. (Formula from the work of John Gottman, Ph.D.)<\/span><\/p>\n If your heart is beating slower than your intrinsic rate that means that your vagus nerve (PSNS <\/strong>nerve) is effectively pulling your heart rate down toward your observed resting rate. In other words, if your vagus nerve were inactivated while you were at rest, your heart rate would immediately go from your observed <\/em>resting rate to your intrinsic <\/em>rate.<\/span><\/p>\n If your heart rate is at intrinsic level or above in the absence of physical exertion, that means your heart rate is being accelerated by hormonal influences like anger or anxiety. It indicates that your SNS <\/strong>is activated enough to cancel out the slowing effect of your vagus nerve. When you\u2019re autonomically dominated by your sympathetic <\/strong>system, you lose the ability to access your frontal lobes effectively \u2013 meaning you lose the ability to do a simple algebra problem in your head, the ability to use active listening skills, the ability to think creatively, and the ability to engage in effective conflict resolution.<\/span><\/p>\n In other words, when your heart rate exceeds approximately 100 beats per minute for emotional reasons, you will react based on training (and habit) instead of deliberate thought. Most people cannot sense when their heart rate passes 100 beats per minute. If you can consciously feel your heart beating rapidly, then it\u2019s safe to assume that even if you believe you\u2019re thinking rationally, you\u2019re probably not. If the situation will allow you to safely step back, take a few breaths, and calm your nervous system, then that\u2019s a good option. If circumstances call for an immediate reaction, then you will be depending on the quality of your training and the frequency of your practice.<\/span><\/p>\n And that\u2019s how a little nerve can control the thoughts in your brain.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. ABPP<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Please share this article from down below.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Please join the email list on the top of the sidebar and you can get these sent to your email.\u00a0 Also follow me on Twitter for other articles and ideas, and YouTube. Feel free to donate if you like the site.<\/span><\/p>\n Save<\/span><\/p>\n Save<\/span><\/p>\n Save<\/span><\/p>\n Save<\/span><\/p>\n Save<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Police Psychology: Intrinsic Heart Rate \u2013 A Landmark for the Ability to Engage in Rational Thought by Doug Gentz, Ph.D. \u2013 Psychological Services Your intrinsic (inherent) heart rate is how fast your heart would beat when you are calm and at rest if it wasn\u2019t slowed down to your (observed) resting rate by your vagus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17168885],"tags":[17168962,17168797,17168831],"class_list":["post-4635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stress","tag-heart-rate","tag-police-psychology","tag-police-stress"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1367,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=1367","url_meta":{"origin":4635,"position":0},"title":"Police Psychology | Appreciate the Limits of Your Cerebral Cortex When It Comes to Managing your Emotions","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"April 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Police Psychology | Appreciate the Limits of Your Cerebral Cortex When It Comes to Managing your Emotions by Doug Gentz, Ph.D Guest Blogger - Psychological Services, Tulsa, Oklahoma People have at least three distinct levels of anatomy and function inside their heads. 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Aumiller, Ph.D.\u00a0 ABPP I just spent the past week at the Society for Police and Criminal Psychology meeting.\u00a0 I had been the first executive director of the group and was the president the year before that, so I (with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Public Information Bureau"","block_context":{"text":"Public Information Bureau","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168888"},"img":{"alt_text":"divorce","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/divorce-164x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p60sbO-1cL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4635"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4667,"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4635\/revisions\/4667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"intrinsic-heart-rate\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Intrinsic-heart-rate.png?resize=264%2C300\")
Let\u2019s start with two systems in your body \u2014 the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PSNS).\u00a0 The sympathetic nervous system raises you up, pumps blood to your muscles, makes you heart rate go up, releases acid in your stomach to chew up the food, makes you breathe shallow and quick and all stuff so you can fight or flight.\u00a0 It throws your brain into the mode that causes tunnel vision, so it affect everything.\u00a0 Now you can\u2019t just keep going up and up, so the parasympathetic nervous system calms you down.\u00a0 It releases the different hormones and stuff that calms all the body down so you can relax. \u00a0 They work in conjunction with each other to regulate your body and make it a mean fighting machine, or a run fast and get away from the Tyrannosaurs Rex running machine.
\n<\/span><\/p>\nSo what\u2019s the point?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n