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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The most recent National Health Survey data (ABS, 2007-08) identified that a staggering 26% of all young people between the age of 16 and 24 have a mental health disorder. The prevalence of teens suffering with depression is around 14% and climbing each year. In fact, according to this data, the single most quoted issue at school as identified by the kids themselves is STRESS?
Fortunately, amid the numbers showing doom and gloom, there is a light shining bright and a major wave of changing coming… it is gaining momentum in the USA and the first ripples are reaching our shores now. It is the Mindfulness Education Movement (MEM). A myriad of new scientific reports were released in 2010 finally substantiating what many of us already knew – meditation directly and dramatically impacts student stress levels and can actually make them SMARTER!
Schools across Europe and the United States are implementing Meditation Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) training to their teachers, parents and students to not only decrease stress, but to address the rise of violence in schools, depression and anxiety, and to improve learning outcomes for students.
It works because mindfulness opens our children to their own innate guidance. It allows them to break through stressors like excessive homework, bullying, media barrages, family breakdown, extra curricular requirements, relationships, addictions…the list goes on. Mindful meditation enables our children to hear their own thoughts amidst the ‘white noise’ of the information generation, and find their authentic selves. From here that they can make choices that are in alignment with their beautiful individual spirits and become adults with purpose and self esteem, geared with coping skills to not only survive in a fast paced world, but THRIVE!
Recent studies show that just a few minutes of meditation each day helps a student to return their bodies to a state of homoeostasis. Regular practice strengthens and thickens the cerebral cortex. It creates more and more neural pathways between the brain hemispheres increasing a person’s capacity for utilisation of both sides of the brain in harmony. Meditation regulates brainwaves and brings us out of Beta into Alpha state, a highly receptive and expansive state where increased learning, memory retention, clarity and creativity occurs. It increases the release of stress reducing hormones such as serotonin and dopamine. It reduces the heart rate, blood pressure, and slows breathing to make the body more efficient, conserving energy so that students can work ‘smarter not harder’!
Mindful meditation is a beautiful gift we can give to our kids to help them cope with the complexities of life and the stressors that they face during a school year. We are in a position to empower coming generations to be the conscious, enlightened and in-tune beings that are significantly smarter, stronger and capable of anchoring the MEM transformation. There is a mindful education revolution coming. As parents, educators and guides, we need to ride the wave of this transformation for, and with, our children so that they can grow into content, capable, conscious adults with strong life coping skills and a firm grasp of their talents, wisdom and knowing as unique beings. From a position of mindful awareness, children can consciously choose how they respond to the world. Once aware, they can use meditation tools to create a more effective, more balanced life for themselves and stress less at school.
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.