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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Hypnosis is a powerful tool that everyone should have some knowledge about because we use it practically on a daily basis and most often we have no idea we are actually using it. People have used hypnosis to make substantial changes in their lives. Hypnosis helps you create, visualise and achieve your life goals, remain calm in stressful situations and change your attitude for a better you.
When you understand the principles of hypnosis, you can use it to help overcome fears and anxieties, stop unpleasant habits and treat several medical conditions. In some medical illness, hypnosis is far superior to other therapies. You are changing information in your subconscious mind. This way you avoid drugs and their side effects and after treatment, the results are long lasting.
Hypnotherapy treatment may cause apprehension for some people. Stage hypnotists creating a bad image is only partly to blame but mainly because some people feel they are losing control. To counteract this, it is best to find an experienced and reassuring hypnotherapist. The other solution is self hypnosis. This is harder but in the end a much better option. You are acquiring a powerful skill to enhance your life and in time you may well pass on your learned skill to help others.
A hypnotist can during a hypnotherapy session drop you down to very low level of brainwave activity. This enables him you use powerful post-hypnotic suggestions. In reality, you do not always need a deep relaxed state for hypnosis to be effective. By acquiring a good self hypnosis technique, you will relax into a satisfactory level for excellent results.
The best way to use self hypnosis is first find a time in the day that you will not be disturbed. Make your self comfortable. You can sit on a comfortable chair or lie on the floor or a sofa. make sure your head is well supported. Keep your eyes focussed on a object at eye level. If you are lying down, this object could be on the ceiling and on a wall if sitting up.
Decide before hand how long your session will last. Keep your eyes fixed on the object and try to dispel all thoughts from your mind. Focus on your breathing. Take slow deep breaths. It is best to inhale through your mouth and exhale through your nostrils. As you do this breathing exercise, relax your entire body. You can visualise progressively relaxing your body by starting with the legs and working up. You can see yourself starting to walk down a set of steps and with every step down, imagine that you are going down into a deeper and deeper relaxation.
Now that you have reached a very relaxed state, try anchoring this feeling by associating it with a certain word or thing. With persistence, you will be able to bring back this feeling whenever you think or this specific word or thing.
Self hypnosis recordings for numerous illness are freely available on the Internet. They do help but recording your own script targeting your specific needs, is a better option. Write a list of all the issues you want dealt with, write your script adding all on your list then record it onto a CD using your own voice and play it while you relax.
At the end of a session and it is time to come out of hypnosis, start counting from one to five and as you count, tell yourself you are waking up and at the count of five you will be wide wake feeling calm and relaxed. Continue to practice and the more you do it, the better you will be.
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.