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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Have you ever joined a gym or health center with the best of intentions, planning on going three or four times a week, getting really fit and toned, only to quit going shortly after you joined? The gym somehow turned into a chore that you had to make yourself do rather than an enjoyable activity like your favorite hobby that you are sure to make time for.
I have talked with several gym managers and owners who all tell me the same story. Their estimates of the number of fitness “dropouts” only range by a few percentage points. Most say that between 95-98% of new members quit showing up at the gym within the first month of membership. Could this be you?
Mindset: Physical fitness is a mindset. The people who regularly attend a health center do not possess some super-human will power that enables them to show up several times per week. In fact, consistently working out has nothing at all to do with will power. These regular attendees actually like working out. For them, it’s about the feel-good endorphins pumping through their system, the liberation from unneeded fat cells, the pride in the strength they gain, and the satisfaction of the body they create! These people truly love their workouts and do them happily, with enthusiasm.
Self-Talk: If you are not one of these “happy to engage in physical fitness” persons, and you desire to be, because you would love to be thin, trim, healthy, and more attractive, then working on self-talk is your beginning. Start by paying attention to the kind of words you use, both out loud and in your head. This simple suggestion will actually increase your awareness of you own self-talk. It will be more obvious to you now than it has ever been.
Being aware of the things you are saying, internally and externally, you can begin to reverse the negatives and turn them into positives. In many cases it is very simple to change the meaning around. For example: “I hate going to the gym,” is easily replaced with, “I love going to the gym.” Remember, even if you don’t feel that you love going to the gym, repeated use of any phrase becomes your reality soon enough. So, just say it! Say it often, and continue. A prime time for saying positive reinforcements is when you are drifting off to sleep because your brainwaves are in the Theta state, which is ideal for receptivity to suggestion.
Surely there are many more things that a person who has been avoiding physical fitness might say than the example listed above. Treat each phrase the same way, change it to fit your desired outcome, repeat it, and repeat it often, internally and externally. You are sure to change your feelings about working out soon enough.
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.