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.
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It’s easy to feel excited about a new goal when you first get started, but most people find their motivation tends to wane after a while, once the hard reality of the work that’s needed to achieve the goal sets in. In this article we’ll take a look at five things you should do if you want to keep your motivation levels high, and thus maximise your chances of success.
1. Write Your Goals Down
Why? Because by committing your goals to paper, you’re not only keep them clear in your own mind, but just the act of writing them down is a commitment in itself, and motivation comes from commitment. You’re not going to feel excited about something that you’re not determined to do. Demonstrating your commitment by setting a goal down on paper is one way of keeping your motivation up.
2. Think Carefully About What You Actually Want
Motivation levels are naturally highest when doing things that we enjoy for their own sake. Always remember to stay true to your real values and passions, and don’t be tempted to set goals that are more in line with what somebody else thinks you should want, rather than what you actually want.
3. Be Careful Who You Share Your Goals With
This really is important because negative people can be very toxic to your motivation. If you tell the wrong people about your aims and desires, chances are they’ll try to convince you that you it can’t be done, or that you’re bound to fail, or something similarly nonsensical. Too much exposure to the negativity of others could lead you to start doubting yourself or your ability to get what you want, so protect your dreams by only revealing them to those who you know will be supportive.
4. Take Some Action Towards Your Goals Every Day
Procrastination is a big motivation killer, and conversely, you’ll find that the more actively you pursue your goal, the higher your motivation levels remain. The easiest way to ensure this happens is to commit to taking some small action towards your goal every single day. It’s the consistency of routine that matters here – even if you’re just taking 10 or 15 minutes of focused action, you’re sending a powerful message to your mind that this thing matters to you, and as a result, you’re much more likely to feel excited about it.
5. Visualise Your Success In Advance
You can get a great motivation boost by taking some time each day to relax and form a clear mental picture of how your life will be when you’ve achieved your goal. It’s very easy to get caught up in the day-to-day trials and tribulations of working towards your targets, and lose sight of the reasons why you’re doing it, and just how great you’ll feel when you get there.
By setting some time aside to visualise the end result, you’re in effect closing the gap between you and your desire, and making it feel more real to you right now. This will naturally make you feel happy and excited, which will in turn motivate you even more to make the visualisation of reality.
For best results, try visualising with the aid of a brainwave entrainment recording, as this will naturally cause your brain activity to slow down, and you’ll enter a light trance state which gives you greater access to the subconscious mind. This means that your visualisation will take root in your subconscious more readily, and thus will have a more powerful effect on your life.
When you follow these tips, your motivation will remain higher and you’ll make faster progress towards the success you seek.
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.