What Is "Coherence" and Why Does It Matter by Mary Christopher

If you watched any of the Olympics, or either one of the Tour de France races, you were watching “coherence in action”.  Those athletes are great examples of “humans performing coherently”.  As you know, being an Olympic athlete or even qualifying for the Tour de France takes years of training.  Actually, it takes years and years of training!

So, what are all these Athletes training for?  They are training “to win”.  At least that is what it looks like on the surface.  What they are specifically training for is “coherence”.  Because, the better any athlete is at sustaining coherence, the better their chances of winning.

So, what is coherence?  It is the ability to sustain the most effective and energy efficient processes possible with all the amazing systems they have.  In other words, all their emotional, mental, and physical systems are working together in balance and harmony.  Our cars and trucks are usually the most coherent after having an oil change and a tune-up.  A well-tuned and well-designed vehicle seems to purr when we are driving.

Human beings need to have all their systems working together to have coherence.  This means our heart, mind, and body all need to be in sync with each other.  We know it is usually much easier to get cars and trucks in sync than it is for Humans.  We often struggle with mental distractions, losing our focus, or experiencing emotional ups and downs.  We can easily go up and down emotionally 20 times in 10 minutes!  Our wandering minds and our emotional roller-coaster rides can keep us out of sync as we move through the day.

However, that doesn’t have to happen.  Just like any serious athlete, we need to work with ourselves to move back into coherence.  A good example would be worrying about something in the future which of course has not happened yet.  Worrying like this causes anxiety.  When we become absorbed in worry, we generate stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline!  These chemicals produced by our bodies are very useful in specific situations, but not usually in our everyday encounters.

If we catch ourselves judging others or fussing at ourselves for our lack of “perfection”, we can lose our internal balance and equanimity.  Our coherence begins to slip.  We might wake up in the morning, feeling all calm and centered and ready to jump into the day.  Later, we might realize that we are not feeling so great or we might even be feeling discouraged!

So, what can we do?  How can we shift back to the Present and into more equanimity?  We can do it the same way prize-winning athletes do it.  They usually pause, take a few breaths, gently restore their focus, and start again.  This is a process that most athletes and their coaches use all the time.  And, it is the reason that Simone Biles stopped competing during the Olympics in Tokyo.  She had lost her focus and ability to concentrate which greatly affected her coherence.  She was criticized by some people for withdrawing.  It was a very intelligent move on her part!  And, I am sure her coaches agreed with her decision.

Because Simone lost her focus and her inner coherence, she could have been seriously injured.  Fortunately, Simone had the intestinal fortitude as well as confidence in herself to do what she needed to do!  She also had great coaches who stood by her.  Good coaches know how essential coherence is for health and well-being.

We all have days when everything seems to flow, time slows down, and we can think and feel effectively.  Those are great days and we usually get things done as well as have a good time.  When that happens, it means all our systems are in sync.  But, because every day is a different configuration of timing, energy, and expectations, we need to be better at “training ourselves” for coherence.

It helps to remember our heart is the key to greater coherence.  If we can remember to rest with our Heart, or even check in with our Heart during the day, we will create greater coherence.  Our Heart sends more information to our brain than our brain sends to our Heart.  If we are calm and centered with our Heart, our brain will be signaled to stay calm.  And, we will be more coherent.  It has become way too easy to allow the chaos of the world to “grab our attention”!  We can catch ourselves finding fault, blaming, becoming cynical, frowning, and getting all ramped up in a few seconds!  

Anytime you catch yourself getting all ramped up and taking an emotional nose dive into “them and us”, just remember … in Jesus' world there is “no them and us”.  It is all Us, including those “awful money changers” in the Temple!

Have a very Blessed week, be gentle with yourself and that will flow out to others.  As you become more coherent, you will find you are making better decisions, being more intuitive, and even sleeping better!

Mary Christopher