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 brain state | zen meditation technique
Self-talk is what we all do in relating to ourselves. It is all the things we say to ourselves about ourselves, as well as all the things we talk ourselves into and talk ourselves out of. It convinces us we are right when wrong and wrong when right. Self-talk has tremendous power over our lives; it makes us what we are and who we are, making us failures or successors. Alone, it is singly the most powerful resource we have for creating what we want for our lives.
The reason self talk is so powerful is because it causes four potent and complimentary effects on us and because each serves to strengthen the others, their power in total is even stronger than their parts.
Firstly self-talk instructs our subconscious. Self-talk is habitual, and without determined effort, or a dramatic change in circumstances, the quality and content of our self-talk does not vary much. Over time this makes its effect on us especially strong because we are constantly reinforcing the same messages to our subconscious about ourselves whether they are credible or not. The subconscious is not discriminatory in its nature. It accepts what it is given as fact and drives us to act in ways that make what we have told it real. Mostly it does this in ways we can’t easily identify. This is why affirmations and creative visualisations can be such powerful aids in eliciting change, if they are used consistently overtime, because the subconscious mind cannot differentiate between reality and fantasy, it treats all information it receives as true.
The second cause is belief. The more we repeat something to ourselves, the more it gets anchored into our psyche and sooner or later we begin to believe it. It becomes a belief and belief is one of the most potent motivators known to man. Behind all great accomplishments lies belief. All great ‘magicians’ know that without belief, there is no magic. Belief is magic and appears to literally cause things into existence.
Thirdly, the nature of our self-talk produces distinct brainwave activity. Each thought we have can be correlated to a brainwave state that either works to our betterment or to our detriment. For example, happy, contented thoughts cause slower brainwaves than unhappy, stressed thoughts and the effects of this are twofold. All brainwaves cause different electrochemical reactions in the brain, which in turn affect the body and the mental state. In the instance of negative self talk where we are upset with ourselves the chemical response might be to release more cortisol into our blood stream, this is a degenerative, ageing hormone. Similarly, the electro, energetic vibration we would be emitting would be unsettling, disturbed.
Each and everyone of us have an energy field surrounding us and this field is directly affected by how we are feeling and thinking. In turn the quality of our energy field also has an effect on how the world responds to us. We have all had experiences where we have had a strong reaction to someone either positively or negatively but do not know why. The chances are high that it had something to do with their energy field. Another example of this is when we have been feeling so good ‘high’ within ourselves that it is as if people want to be around us like bees to their honey. They were responding to our energy field.
And fourthly self-talk is an incessant, albeit inadvertent, affirming of intention. In the ever-expanding field of consciousness, more and more is being understood about intention. Intention is simply a: goal, desire, prayer, request … something we want to have happen. But what is most important to understand is that intentions that are held consistently are most likely to be realised because they cause effect in the greater cosmic unconscious or consciousness, and what is also being realised is that like the subconscious mind the greater cosmic unconscious or consciousness is not biased towards only good intentions. It responds regardless.
In effect the world, the greater cosmos and ourselves is responding to our self-talk all the time, but it is only now, through science that are we waking up to the fact. And the fact is self-talk is the dictator of our lives; but the beauty is, the magic is: each and everyone of us has the ability to self-talk ourselves to a new life, to the life we want and deserve. All we need to do is write a new script for ourselves and stick to it.
For more information on this subject and how to change your self talk please visit: Thought Power
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.
This ‘frequency 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 ‘entrain’ 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, ‘mind-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’s starting position, entrainment can be rather ‘hit and miss’.
If brainwave entrainment leaves you with unwanted side-effects (see below) or discomfort, you’re 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’s strengths and weaknesses are, and see what (if any) brainwaves could use some encouragement.