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.
delta waves meditation | meditation waves
Only those who suffer from obsessive thoughts know how tormenting and disruptive they are, or how much of one’s life, energy, and mental resources goes into turning, what is no more than, a mental merry go round that won’t stop and won’t let the thinker off. No matter how hard a person might try, no amount of will seems capable of stopping the intrusive thoughts, they just won’t go away, at least not until they are good and ready to go. Usually this happens when there are some other thoughts that are strong enough to replace them, and the whole cycle begins again.
Maybe obsessive thoughts wouldn’t be so bad if they made us feel good. But this is more like wishful thinking. In addition to taking up tremendous mental space in our lives, obsessive thoughts also tend to cause the thinker increased anxiety and, or distress. And if that isn’t bad enough, here’s another fact about obsessive thinking to clinch the deal: it is common wisdom that repetitive thinking about a thing, over a period of time, will tend to make the thing, being thought of, to show up in one’s life, but usually not in the way one would expect.
Understanding this, one starts to get a true picture of how much power obsessive thoughts wield over a person’s life, because obsessive thoughts are really no more than concentrated mental focus. And concentrated mental focus is the key to any great success story in life. Unfortunately in the case of obsessive thoughts, it is concentrated mental focus on something that does not tend to benefit the thinking. Rather, it’s a way of pouring all of one’s thought power down the drain.
Any true obsessive thinker has at least some inkling that the malaise of their thinking process is effectively putting their life on hold, stagnating their ability to act wholly on their own behalf. But between knowing this and knowing how to change the pattern of obsessive thinking can lie a long journey through: cognitive behavioural therapies, techniques, tools, medications … all offering anywhere from no relief to complete relief for some.
I am about to offer another solution, but hear me out on this. This one is unknown to the mainstream and only came to my attention because I think I’ve probably exhausted nearly, if not all, solutions being offered from the multitudes of conventional wisdom claiming expertise in this problem. The solution I am about to explain is brain entrainment using binaural beats, but a little first on the workings of the mind and brain.
As we know, thoughts are really no more than an interactive response resulting from electrochemical activity in the brain. In turn the thought feeds back stimulus to the brain, which in turn affects the thoughts again. Pretty well everything in the natural world can be observed as cyclical patterns. And what causes these patterns to change over time is a series of constant subtle changes. Change is never immediate. When it seems immediate, it is only because there have been enough subtle changes overtime to result in the more obvious change. What has this to do with obsessive thinking you might be asking? Everything because changing thoughts requires changing the electrochemical activity of the brain, or in other words brainwave frequency.
Sitting reading this, your brain’s electrochemical activity is operating at a certain frequency. This also means that whatever obsessive thought a person might be experiencing corresponds to a particular frequency. Lets say your obsessive thought occurs around a brainwave frequency of 30hz, the higher beta brainwave state (this is completely reasonable). At this frequency your brain’s electrochemical activity will be different from that of say 10hz, the alpha brainwave state, and accordingly your mental, thinking, state will be different. At 30hz, you might feel anxious, agitated, stressed… whereas at a frequency of 10hz you will most likely be experiencing a much more relaxed and calmer state.
Now here’s the important bit. If you can get into a habit, be it through manual means, to change your brainwave frequency, you will be able to change the habit of your thoughts. Complicated as that might sound, its not. Binaural beats are the manual means by which to change your brainwave frequency and it is easy, relaxing and lasting.
To understand a little about how binaural beats work, it is useful to understand a little about meditation. The benefits of meditation are numerous and can be profound. This is because meditation gradually reconditions the electrochemical activity of the brain by lowering its brainwave frequencies and accordingly altering its mental habits. Those who practice a disciplined meditation technique over time are found to benefit immensely in all aspects of their lives: physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.
But meditation is a serious and often considered rigorous practice that is not suitable for everyone. This is where binaural beats brain entrainment comes in. Binaural beats in effect, causes the brain to enter the same brainwave frequencies as meditation and in so doing, effects many of the same benefits of meditation. What’s more is if binaural beats are listened to regularly over a period of a few months, the results are lasting because the brain establishes new neural pathways, new electrochemical ‘habits’ and thus a different mental state. Binaural beats offer an alternative ‘off beat’ therapy for obsessive thoughts, but they are also scientifically proven.
If you are tired of obsessive thinking and have tried many, or all, of the therapies and solutions conventionally offered, binaural beats might just be what you have been looking for.
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.