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.
calm meditation | soothing sleep music
The hustle and bustle of our everyday life keeps one on their toes. Stressful events, social pressure, competitive work natures, complicated relationships etc combined with the person’s deep rooted perception of self and of the world may trigger or cause imbalances within the individual’s subconscious mind. Therefore it’s not a surprise that the incidence of depression and anxiety disorders have been high in the last few years.
We live in an era where we are attuned to the needs of our mind, body and soul. We seek to treat or cure the “cause” as opposed to relieving the “symptoms” of our illness. Previously we relied on pharmaceutical drugs to fight our psychological conditions like depression, anxiety, panic attacks and stress.
However, off late society has begun to question the effectiveness of these drugs. People have reported that the drugs provided only a temporary relief and soon stopped working. On presentation of these problems to the consulting doctor, the individuals felt that the doctors either prescribed a different drug or increased the dose of the medicine after reporting that the illness had become more severe.
The fact that most drugs are off the market due to their potentially harmful side effects has also contributed to the low popularity of pharmaceutical drugs. Thus more and more people are turning towards natural remedies and holistic solutions to help them heal their psychological ailments.
Alternative treatments for Anxiety:
What are the alternative treatments for dealing with anxiety? One simple method is to bring about changes to the diet. This is done by reducing meals that have more carbohydrates or products that contain coffee and tea and supplementing it with yoghurt, kefir or similar products.
On a holistic level, techniques like Neuro-linguistic programming, hypnotism, and other cognitive techniques can help to reduce stress and anxiety.
Brainwave Entrainment Audios are also a simple and powerful natural remedy to ease an individual with anxiety. The audio consists of explicitly selected musical rhythms which allow an individual to enter a deep state of relaxation. I do encourage you to learn more on the process of Brainwave Entrainment and its potential uses.
Brainwave Entrainment as an Alternative therapy for Anxiety
Brainwave entrainment is a great self help method to control anxiety. How?
For starters, constantly listening to the audio stimulates an individual to reach a state of mental rest that is so deep and has not been experienced by the individual previously.
It encourages them to set aside time daily to release their pent up tension and achieve a re-energized state of mind. It also helps to decrease various physiological imbalances like increase in blood pressure, heart rate and physiological stress reactions which in turn improves their overall quality of life.
The habitual use of brainwave entrainment audios assists in development and improvement of neural connections in the brain. These pathways are necessary to allow a person’s consciousness to attain these deep brainwave states. For example, people who are constantly stressed rarely produce alpha waves. These waves are found below the beta waves and facilitate the mind and body’s ability to relax and denote the state of an individual’s normal life.
When such an individual starts listening to an entrainment track with alpha waves, the brain is trained to generate alpha waves and to shift towards an alpha state from the beta state. With repetition or practice the brain may integrate this newly learnt skill throughout the day. Therefore with the help of the audios it is possible that an individual can reduce the stress felt on a daily basis.
In addition to the neural connections, the track also stimulates the production of neuro-chemicals and hormones like serotonin and dopamine that contributes to relieving stress and anxiety and develops feeling of wellness within the individual.
The deep brainwave state also is a form of meditation by which the individual can access his/ her subconscious mind. In this state the individual can learn the nature and causes of their anxiety and adapt to or develop skills to limit these causes. Therefore brainwave entrainment audios also assist an individual to master their internal psyche.
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.