Brainwave entrainment is a method to stimulate the brain into entering a specific state by using a pulsing sound, light, or electromagnetic field. The pulses elicit the brain’s ‘frequency following’ response, encouraging the brainwaves to align to the frequency of a given beat.
alpha state of mind | easy meditation
Anxiety and depression are real disorders affecting real people in all walks of life. An increasing number of people are being clinically diagnosed with anxiety and or depression than ever before. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (2014), anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults in the United States age18 and older, or 18% of the population; this rate only reflecting reported cases.
It’s not uncommon for someone with an anxiety disorder to also suffer from depression or vise versa. Nearly one-half of those diagnosed with depression are also diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Life for individuals suffering from these disorders can become unbearable. They can leave a person quite literally disabled in that they experience an inability to function appropriately and productively in at least two or more areas of daily living (i.e., at home, work/school, and relationships).
Be still and know that I am God.
-Psalms 46:10
Stilling one’s mind through prayer or meditation is an effective way to calm anxiety and relieve or eliminate depression. During quiet mindful contemplation, the mind experiences a state of balance. Through relaxation techniques such as meditation or prayer, thoughts become less intrusive freeing the mind allowing it to expand into altered states of awareness. Between Alpha and Theta (brainwave) states, the brain slows down as a response to a mind full of stillness. As the brain relaxes so does the body.
Research shows that meditation, also referred to as mindfulness, significantly affects the effects of stress-induced anxieties and depressive symptoms experienced by those who suffer from the disorders. A three-year follow-up study of the clinical implications of a mindfulness-based stress reduction intervention in the treatment of anxiety disorders revealed that 22 medical patients diagnosed with DSM-III-R-defined anxiety disorders showed clinically and statistically significant improvements in sub- and objective symptoms of anxiety and panic following an 8-week outpatient physician-referred group stress reduction intervention based on mindfulness meditation (Miller et al., 1995). At the 3-year follow-up, of the original 22 patients,18 patients provided data to determine the long-term effects. Repeated measures analysis showed maintenance of the gains obtained in the original study on the Hamilton and Beck Anxiety and Depression scales, the Hamilton panic score, and in the Mobility Index-Accompanied and the Fear Survey.
Similar to Miller et al. (1995), Astin (1997) used an 8-week stress reduction program based on mindfulness meditation. This study examined the effects of training 28 volunteer participants, who were randomly assigned to either an experimental group or a nonintervention control group, to use mindfulness-based meditation. Experimenters believed that mindfulness-based meditation will be beneficial in terms of reducing stress-related symptomology and in helping patients cope with chronic pain. When compared with the control group, data provided by the experimental subjects showed significantly greater changes in terms of the overall reduction in psychological symptomology, an increase in an overall domain-specific sense of control and utilization of an accepting or yielding mode of control in their lives, and finally, higher scores on a measure of spiritual experiences.
Marchand (2012) reported similar outcomes in his study of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), and Zen Meditation for depression, anxiety, pain, and psychological distress. Studies indicated that MBSR and MBCT have broad-spectrum antidepressant and antianxiety effects and decrease general psychological distress. The evidence suggests that both MBSR and MBCT have efficacy as adjunctive interventions for anxiety symptoms, and that MBSR is beneficial for general psychological health and stress management in those with medical and psychiatric illness as well as in healthy individuals.
Astin (1997) concluded that mindfulness-based techniques such as meditation, with their emphasis on developing detached observation and awareness of the contents of consciousness, may be a powerful cognitive behavioral coping strategy for transforming the ways in which we respond to life events. Moreover, meditation techniques may also have potential for relapse prevention in affective disorders.
Circumventing the effects of anxiety and depression is the name of the game. However, please understand that it’s not meditation that heals. Meditation is only a tool or technique that one deploys to cause an effect. For example, if you want to build a home, you will need nails and a lot of two-by-four boards (along with many other materials). However, without a hammer and the source applying the pounding pressure provided by your body, all the nails and boards in the world won’t build your house.
Not unlike the hammer, meditation is the conduit in which something can take shape. Meditation can produce mindfulness, which is the stilling of one’s thoughts so as to slow the thinking-mind. Once stillness is achieved, one’s mind becomes alert, or fully aware of What Is (otherwise known as consciousness, Higher Consciousness).
Mindfulness acts as the portal to your Higher Being. It is composed of a system of language consisting of images, impressions and imagination. Its higher purpose is to open a clear channel of communication with All That Is. Within mindfulness, you meet and become the presence of your Soul Self. Here, your littleness (ego) bows to the magnificence of your mighty Soul. It is here where you are open to receive and it is during moments of mindfulness where your imagination and sensitivities reign.
During meditation, you will want to call upon your Soul. The first thing you need to understand is that it is not necessary to have an actual mortal sense of your Soul’s presence for It to be with you. The most important factor is your ability to use your imagination. All that is needed is for you to imagine your Soul’s presence. In other words, believe! Naturally, trusting that it is so is paramount.
However, if you experience physical, emotional or mental sensations, then review the list below to see if anything matches your experiences.
First, get yourself into a quiet place where you can get comfortable. Relax your body by lying or sitting down where you won’t be disturbed. Close your eyes and begin focusing inward instead of on the world around you. Begin breathing in a rhythmic motion breathing deep into your chest to the count of 3, holding your breath for the count of 2, then releasing your breath slowly to the count of 5. Find your own rhythm and keep your awareness on your breathing.
As you practice this process more and more often, you will begin to experience a sense of flow, of effortlessness in your life; your mind will grow clear and be alert; and you may hear the sounds around you but you will easily let them go.
Become quiet, relaxed and serene. Now, ask your Soul to join you — it is always with you.
At this time, you might experience
a slight pressure in your body in the areas of your Chakras (energy centers) particularly around the Solar Plexus (abdomen area), Heart, Third Eye (area between your eyebrows), or Crown (the top of your head);
a deepening of love and compassion;
a slight electrical charge-like sensation entering your body from either the bottom of your feet or through the top of your head (shooting up or down your body (and out), respectively), or simultaneously;
a tingling sensation on your head (scalp) usually over the right hemisphere of your brain, or in any part of your body, maybe appearing as goosebumps;
a sense of your body opening up in these same Chakra areas likened to a flower opening up to receive the sunlight of a new day;
an inner sense of great joy, ecstatic-ness;
a feeling of peace, an acceptance for what is;
an open expansiveness like you’ve come out of an enclosed area into a vast opening of space that has no limits;
a sense of floating as though you’ve left your body behind;
a sense of knowing you are and everything is alright;
‘seeing’ an inner light within your ‘mind’s eye’ (either as an extremely bright flash or an enduring less bright light that seems like someone turned the light on in the room);
an out-of-body mystical journey to places not of this physical plane of existence;
moments of insights and understanding throughout the day;
the desire to offer love and kindness to whomever;
yourself as sitting within the turmoil but not being a part of it (dramatic events no longer affect you in the same way as they did in the past); and
knowing yourself to be greater than what you experienced in the past.
References
Anxiety and Depression Association of America (2014). Facts & Statistics. Did You Know? Retrieved August 17, 2015, from http://www.adaa.org/about-adaa/press-room/facts-statistics
Astin, J. (1997). Stress Reduction through Mindf ulness Meditation. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics Psychother Psychosom, 66(2), 97-106. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
Marchand, W. (2012). Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, and Zen Meditation for Depression, Anxiety, Pain, and Psychological Distress. Journal of Psychiatric Practice, 233-252. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
Miller, J., Fletcher, K., & Kabat-Zinn, J. (1995). Three-year follow-up and clinical implications of a mindfulness meditation-based stress reduction intervention in the treatment of anxiety disorders. General Hospital Psychiatry, 17(3), 192-200. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
Brainwave entrainment is a method to stimulate the brain into entering a specific state by using a pulsing sound, light, or electromagnetic field. The pulses elicit the brain? ?requency following?response, encouraging the brainwaves to align to the frequency of a given beat.
This ?requency following?response of brainwave entrainment can be seen in action with those prone to epilepsy. If a strobe flashes at their seizure frequency, the brain will ?ntrain?to the flashing light, resulting in a seizure.
On the positive side, this same mechanism is commonly used to induce many brainwave states; such as a trance, enhanced focus, relaxation, meditation or sleep induction. The brainwave entrainment effectively pushes the entire brain into a certain state.
Brainwave entrainment works for almost everyone. It is a great way to lead your mind into states that you might usually have difficulty reaching, allowing you to experience what those states feel like.
THE HYPE
There is a lot of marketing hype around brainwave entrainment. It is sold with promises of increasing IQ, promoting weight loss, ?ind-tripping? enhancing creativity, concentration, inducing spiritual states and more.
While these claims are not entirely true, they are not altogether false either. In practice, the claims are based on an overly-simplistic view of how the brain and the brainwaves function.
THE RUB
People are very seldom deficient in a certain brainwave type in all areas of their brain. Usually the distribution is much spottier, with an excess in one area and a deficiency in another.
We are all different, especially when it comes to the distribution of our brainwaves. Boosting a certain brainwave state may be beneficial for one person, and emotionally uncomfortable for another. Without knowing each person? starting position, entrainment can be rather ?it and miss?
If brainwave entrainment leaves you with unwanted side-effects (see below) or discomfort, you?e probably encouraging a range of brainwaves that are already excessive in some area of your brain. The way around this is to get a brain map to see what your brain? strengths and weaknesses are, and see what (if any) brainwaves could use some encouragement.
Site Title 