Inner Balance for iOS

You will aslo need to be logged into the third party applications such as Facebook or Twitter and in some cases allow specific access to share.

Split screen on iPads

Backgrounding with BTLE Sensors

Inner Balance will continue to record your session in the background, if you switch from the app to any other application. This will allow you to seamlessly integrate your training into your daily life. Here are some of the things you might be doing while staying in a session:

• Select some music to play or change the music - this may be in the Music app or Spotify or whatever app the user might want.
• Note that the music app has to be able to continue in the background, when you switch back to Inner Balance. Apple Music and Spotify work great, Youtube will stop, when you leave that app.
• Make or answer a phone call.
• Send or respond to a text message.
• Open up a text editor to take notes.
• Add an action item to your ToDo, if you suddenly remember it.

This only works with BTLE sensors. If you have a Lightning sensor, IB will pause on going to background and restart the session when you reenter the app.

Be careful to stay in Coherence during these activities. Note that if you record super long sessions (60 minutes or more), plotting the charts in Session Review might take a moment depending on the device model.

Inner Balance allows Slide Over and Split View on iPads that support it

Slide Over and Split View is relatively recent functionality for compatible apps that was introduced with iOS, but really is much more usable in iOS 11 or newer due to the introduction of the doc on iPad. The new version of Inner Balance is compatible with this feature. You can share the screen with compatible apps by dividing it. An example of sharing the screen in Split View mode between Inner Balance and Messages looks like this:

Split View and Slide Over are similar in functionality to backgrounding, but they allow both tasks to stay on screen at the same time. For example, you can actually add to your message while still looking at the Mandala. Note that Split View works with all sensors - Lightning and BTLE!

Run A Session

By default, there are five views you can swipe through while running a session:

The first two screens are the Mandala and the Chaser. They help pace your breathing, show your coherence level, and display helpful coaching messages.

Detail Session screens plot the Coherence Over Time, Pulse and/or Heart Rate in Beats Per Minute, HRV Rhythm, and the Power Spectrum. You will also find (unless disabled in settings) a small breath pacer in the form of a moving ball at the top of the screen.

PLEASE NOTE: For users of the bluetooth sensor only, you will not see the Pulse graph. Instead you will see a larger display of the Beats Per Minute (BPM).

The two views above display a number of metrics for your training. The Score Board includes Coherence, Length (Session) and Achievement. Coherence, in the purple section, is your current Coherence Score. This is a measure of the degree of Coherence in the heart rhythm pattern.

A Coherent heart rhythm is a stable regular repeating rhythm resembling a sine wave at a single frequency between 0.04- 0.24 Hz (3-15 cycles per minute). The scoring algorithm continuously monitors the most current 64 seconds of heart rhythm data and updates the score every 5 seconds.

The more stable and regular the heart rhythm frequency is, the higher the Coherence Score. Scores range from 0-16. Typical scores range between 3.0 - 6.5, but values as low as 0.0 and higher than 10.0 are not uncommon. With practice and regular use, you will begin to notice your normal Coherence Score Level and how it fluctuates when you have more or less focus and when you experience greater levels of Inner Balance. Use your score range as your guide to setting the Challenge Level and Achievement Goal.

The pink section is the Length of your Session.

The Orange section shows your Achievement. This is the sum of your individual Coherence Scores during the length of a session. It can be improved by achieving higher Coherence Scores and the length of time spent in Coherence during the session. It is the total of all Coherence. The scoring algorithm updates your Coherence Score every 5 seconds during an active session and adds them together giving you a sum which is called Achievement on the app displays. You may want to set a daily Achievement Goal for yourself. An Achievement Score of 300 points per day is a good place to start. This could be accumulated in a single session or split across two or more sessions depending on your schedule or preferences.

On the detail screens you also see these graphs right below the Score Board:

HRV is Heart Rate Variability. This is the normally occurring beat-to-beat changes in heart rate. Analysis of HRV is an important tool used to assess heart-brain interactions and autonomic nervous system dynamics (function, synchronization and balance). HRV is considered a key indicator of aging, cardiac health, resilience and overall well-being.

Coherence Over Time (COT). COT charts your Coherence Scores over the entire length of the session. The chart is updated every 5 seconds with each new score. The background of the chart reflects the Coherence Level Thresholds for the current Challenge Level Setting: red = low, blue = medium, green = high. When you achieve higher levels of Coherence Scores, the plot window will auto scale and the red and blue portions will get smaller.

Pulse graph.Pulse data is collected from the sensor and shown on the pulse graph. Please Note: Pulse information will only be displayed when a wired Lightning connection ear sensor is used.

Beats Per Minute (BPM). Your current heart rate is displayed in beats per minute. The BPM is constantly changing, consistent with your heart rate variability.

Spectrum graph. displays a mathematical transformation of the heart rhythm data into its frequency components. The slowest (low) frequencies are shown on the left hand side of the graph and faster (high) frequencies on the right. As the heart rhythm becomes more Coherent the frequency distribution becomes more concentrated into a signal peak. The Spectrum is updated every 5 seconds.

Stop a Session and Review

To stop your session, tap once to activate the menu bar with the Start and Stop button. Tap Stop to end your session. When the session is stopped, you will see this summary view below. It is similar to the detail of the History views below.

Review Tab

Select the Review Tab to access your session History, Progress, Awards and Goals.

Select a Session from the list to see the Session Report / History Detail. For longer sessions, notice you can zoom the left column of BPM (y-axis) on the HRV chart using a pinch out gesture. To reset the chart, double-tap on it.

To Delete a Session, tap and slide to the left on the session you wish to delete.

The Coherence Score displayed in the History view is an average of the Coherence Score throughout the entire session. It will differ from the last Coherence Score displayed in the Session view.

Goals, Awards and Progress

On the Review Tab, tap Goals to see our initial set of personal goals.

Tap Awards to see any Awards that you achieve.

Tap Progress to see a graphical display of your Minutes in Coherence, Achievement, Average Coherence Score and Challenge Levels over time.

Journals

On the Journal tab, you can add, edit or delete Journal entries to document your journey and moods. Use the "+" icon in the upper right corner to add new entries. Tap the Edit Entry button to add text. Slide to the left on a Journal entry to delete.

Journals can be linked to sessions. Open a session from the Review History tab. Tap the Journal icon on the bottom of the screen to create the association.

Mood Selection

The Mood Selection Visibility is controlled in Settings. By default you can choose the emoticon that matches your mood. You can have it prompt you when you start a session, stop a session or enter a new Journal entry. If you did not select an emotion, it will display as a gray icon.

Reminders

Go to Settings to add encouraging "Reminders" to use your Inner Balance. They can be set daily or weekly.

Reminders will be displayed on your device home screen. To delete, slide to the left on the line item of the reminder you wish to delete.

Guides Tab

From the Guides Tab: You can view several video and audio guides that are designed to assist you on your Inner Balance journey. Experiencing them prior to or during a session will help you to better understand the modality as well as providing a gentle guidance to achieving coherence.

HeartCloud

HeartCloud is more than just a place to view your session data across multiple devices and programs... It’s a whole active and engaging community that shares achievements, awards and encouragement!

Select the HeartCloud tab to connect and view your Sessions, Goals and Achievement scores. Daily Coherence Ratio, Achievement Totals and Community Achievement Scores are all visible by swiping upward. Your Latest Awards and additional Tips and Announcements are also viewable. Tap the blue list icon to see other HeartCloud options.

HeartMath Bluetooth Pulse Sensor

Do not "pair" the Bluetooth sensor to your phone or tablet in the device settings. Instead, simply launch the Inner Balance App and "bond" the sensor this way through the automatic dialogs presented when tap the start button to run session.

Special Instructions for using BTLE (Bluetooth) in groups or classrooms

To avoid sensor confusion in a classroom setting, Inner Balance has the Classroom Mode. The main purpose of the classroom feature is to ensure that once a student bonds the App to their unique sensor, their installation of Inner Balance will not bond to another BTLE sensor nearby that might be in advertising mode. The user can still use a lightning sensor to run sessions with no effect on the Classroom Mode.

When a sensor is bonded to a user's installation of Inner Balance, it is still available to bond to other nearby devices because of the advertising nature of BTLE. All students in the classroom need to be in Classroom Mode to avoid this.

To set up Classroom Mode, go to Settings -> App and Sensor Info and tap Classroom Mode.

The following dialog will pop up:

• Turn on your sensor
• Enter the alpahnumeric ID code located on the back of your sensor
• Tap submit
• Inner Balance will scan for the sensor with that unique id. If that sensor cannot be found by the app, it will present a dialog for you to confirm the ID number you entered. Confirm that is your ID and tap Continue. If that is not your ID, tap Cancel. Classroom mode will be disabled. Return to step one and try again.

• Close Settings.
• On Session View, tap Start.
• The app should find your sensor and run the session, however, if it does not find that unique sensor, it will say No Sensor Found.
• iOS users can run with a wired sensor at any time.
• To use a different BTLE sensor, return to Settings and disable the classroom feature.

Understanding the lights (Advertising Mode) on the Bluetooth sensor

You will notice there are two LED colors that may display when your sensor is on, blue and red. Of course, when the device is powered off and/or out of battery, there is no light display.

Each time the device is powered on, first you see blue LED light blinking rapidly indicating the sensor is ready to connect to Inner Balance. This state remains for 3 minutes. If the sensor is not connected to Inner Balance, after 3 minutes of trying, it will go into standby mode for 1 minute and 15 seconds, indicated by the blue LED light blinking slowly. At 4 minutes and 15 seconds the device will power off to save the battery.

Note, the sensor will not power off while the Inner Balance is running and connected to it. The battery life has been tested to last nearly 80 hours, but something you may want to consider if you leave all devices and apps running most of the time.

The battery will indicate low charge levels first at 20% by a red LED light blinking every 2 seconds, and then at 15% capacity the red LED light will begin to blink every second.

While charging your sensor, you will see the red light blink every 2 seconds until it reaches an 80% charge. It will then start to blink every 4 seconds until it reaches 100% charged when the red LED light will stay as solid red display. The blue LED continues to flash while charging, as it remains ready to connect.

If necessary, or instructed by HeartMath Support, a device can be reset by gently inserting a paperclip or pin into the tiny hole on backside of your sensor until you hear a slight click. In the rare case of an internal error, the red LED light will blink rapidly.

Understanding HeartMath Terms and Metrics

Achievement Score: The sum of your individual Coherence Scores during the length of a session. It can be improved by achieving higher Coherence Scores and the length of time spent in coherence during the session. It is the total of all coherence. The scoring algorithm updates your Coherence Score every 5 seconds during an active session and adds them together giving you a sum which is called Achievement on the app displays. You may want to set a daily Achievement Goal for yourself, an Achievement Score of 300 points per day is a good place to start. This could be accumulated in a single session or split across two or more sessions depending on your schedule or preferences.

Heart Coherence: Coherence refers to your internal order or harmony. Increased coherence enables better balance, greater health, and new levels of creativity, resilience and productivity.

Coherence Indicator: The small colored circle near the top of the Session View. Reflective of your state of coherence over the last 64 seconds, it indicates your current state of Coherence. Green for High, Blue for Medium and Red for Low.

Coherence Score: A measure of the degree of Coherence in the heart rhythm pattern. A coherent heart rhythm is a stable regular repeating rhythm resembling a sine wave at a single frequency between 0.04-0.24 Hz (3-15 cycles per minute). The scoring algorithm continuously monitors the most current 64 seconds of heart rhythm data and updates the score every 5 seconds.

The more stable and regular the heart rhythm frequency is, the higher the Coherence Score. Scores range from 0-16. With practice and regular use you will begin to notice your normal Coherence Score level and how it fluctuates when you have more or less focus and when you experience greater levels of inner balance. Use your score range as your guide to setting the Challenge Level and Achievement Goal.

Coherence Score Guide

Challenge Level: These settings are thresholds for the levels of coherence that determine if you are in low (red), medium (blue) or high (green) coherence. There are four different Challenge Levels: 1, 2, 3, and 4. As your Coherence Score rises, you shift from one range (low, med or high) to the next. The Coherence Score threshold between the three ranges is gradually increased at a rate of 15% for each higher Challenge Level 1 ‐ 3 and 30% between 3 ‐ 4. The following table and figure shows the threshold setting for each Challenge Level. Coherence and Achievement Scores are not affected by the Challenge Level Setting.

Coherence Over Time is a graphical display that charts your Coherence Scores over the entire length of the session. The chart is updated every 5 seconds with each new score. The background of the chart reflects the Coherence Level Thresholds for the current Challenge Level Setting: red = low, blue = medium, green = high. When you achieve higher levels of Coherence Scores, the plot window will auto scale and the red and blue portions will get smaller.

Heart Rate Variability (HRV):  The normally occurring beat-to-beat changes in heart rate. Analysis of HRV is an important tool used to assess heart-brain interactions and autonomic nervous system dynamics (function, synchronization and balance). HRV is considered a key indicator of aging, cardiac health, resilience and overall well-being.

Spectrum: The Power Spectrum is a mathematical transformation of the heart rhythm data into its frequency components. The slowest (low) frequencies are shown on the left hand side of the graph and faster (high) frequencies on the right. As the heart rhythm becomes more coherent, the frequency distribution becomes more concentrated into a signal peak. The Spectrum is updated every 5 seconds.

Updated for release IB 3.11 on 01.15.17