The past year has been a joyous crazy roller coaster with an action packed calendar including; starting a new business, international travel, networking, relationships, business ventures, it’s all very exciting but can at times seem overwhelming. Last year I had a feeling like I wanted to press a giant pause button on life and just take a moment to breath, a moment to calibrate all this new information and be still with my emotions. Often life happens so quickly that our brains literally don’t have enough time to file everything neatly away into the right mental sock drawer, colour coding appropriately so we can find that thought easily the next time we reach for it.
While in Cape Town over December I had the privilege of discovering something that helped me sift through the mental sock drawer of my mind, do a bit of cleaning, find the lost socks and pair them up with their rightful partners ultimately balancing my thoughts and bringing me mental harmony. This process liberated me from old residual stress and anxieties, enabling me to be free from mental agitations and feel completely tranquil and deeply happy for the first time in many years. This incredible and fascinating process is called Brain Training.
Now some people might be asking… what on earth is that? And what do socks have to do with anything? My mother discovered Brain Training through a family friend who is a top psychiatrist specializing in the care of traumatized children. She had done brain training herself and found it so life-changing that she now sends the children she looks after to have the training as a part of their recovery treatment and rehabilitation.
So how does it work? Firstly, while sitting comfortably in a very large reclining chair (you will spend a lot of time in this chair!), electromagnetic pads are placed at strategic points on your brain then pulses are fed through the brain to receive a map of your brains activity. This map then serves as a guide for the practitioner to assess where your brain has stored trauma and how these agitations affect your daily life. The reading is so accurate it can process all your brains activity from the day that you were born, feeding back a record that can tell you at what age you experienced certain traumas and how your brain processed these experiences.
The map shows clearly whether your brain stored that information in the left or right hand cortex, whether you have a tendency to experience flight of freeze or if you are prone to depression, anxiety, sleep disorders or addictive behavior. It is a strangely wonderful and curious process that leaves you eager to learn more. The door to the surreal world of your inner most workings is opened. How fascinating to get a glimpse of the cogs working and also know you can get the mechanic in to grease the engine where needed!
It is recommended that one does at least 16 hours (although some will see results after 5 others may need up to 30 sessions). This would normally be broken down into 8 sessions of two hours each, done over a 3 week period as close together as possible, ideally doing 8 days of 2 hour sessions in a row. When committing to the process it is important not to take any stimulants such as coffee, alcohol or prescription drugs as this could alter the effectiveness of the training. Giving yourself this period of “clean living” makes it the ultimate time to consider doing an overall detox. My homage to the process was a daily vegetable juice and sauna. The body is the temple to the mind!
The way I like to describe Brain Training to my friends is to imagine that you were a humming bird sitting in a tree singing your humming bird song… merrily singing. As a happy humming bird you instinctively know what your own tune is. If, for instance you started tweeting like a nightingale or clucking like a chicken, you would immediately notice that something was wrong and you would re-harmonize until your tune sounded more like your normal humming-bird song.
This is the basic principal of Brain Training. While you are hooked up with electrodes, your brain activity creates electromagnetic energy - captured and observed as brain waves with EEG amplifiers and computers. The computers then process the brain wave information and translate the brain waves into an optimized pattern in the form of sound waves which are then played back to you through earphones. Then for the first time ever, you brain gets the chance to listen to its own tune. It’s like the humming bird listening to its song for the first time and realizing where it is out of tune. Your brain then starts to instinctively re tune itself, balancing brain waves to achieve an ultimate state of harmony. Storing the files where they should be and ironing out agitations. This is the state we all search for in life. That quiet still inner place that sits close to your soul.
I found the experience to be life-changing and am still seeing on going changes three months down the line. My brain maps showed that I had a VERY busy mind, prone to anxiety and sleeplessness. This was true. I had come to Brain Training in the hopes of relieving my anxiety and depression and freeing me from compulsive over-thinking. A virtue if one wants to get a lot done but also a suffocating prison that can take the joy out of spontaneous living. During my first session they made me close my eyes and visualize happy moments in my life. As I listened to my brain waves I could feel ripples of powerful emotion come over me. It felt as though my brain was letting go of old energy, releasing sad emotion without actually having to relive or remember the event that caused the pain.
They told me that I may feel very tired during the first week due to all the information and new neurological connections being made, however, I actually felt unbelievably energetic, waking up at 5h30am, wide-eyed with the sudden urge to spring from my bed, tidy my room and hop onto my bicycle 2 hour cycle rides up the coast (if only this was every day!). Eventually after 5 days of this insanely energetic thirst for life I pleaded that they stimulate my sleep neurons. This did the trick.
After day six I was so very tired I literally could not even get out of my pajamas. I proceeded to shuffled around the house wrapped in a big blanket for three days. CSI crime scene investigations and medical detective re-runs were mercilessly watched for hours. Chocolate was eaten. Thank god it was the Christmas holidays or I may have felt very guilty for my unproductive behavior. We even had a house guest who had met me one day one of my sleepy grumpy blanket shuffling behavior and jokingly named me “blanket girl”. I like to think of this time as the period where my body was cocooning like a caterpillar, resting, nourishing and transforming into a butterfly.
Brain balance and harmony is the first step to well being and optimization. Balance in the brain, is subsequently followed by balance in the body. The condition of balance and harmony for the brain is known as homeostasis. It is a “level playing field” for your brain to respond to thinking, feeling, and healing your body in an optimized state. Your brain acts as the hub of the wheel, your nervous system the spokes and your body the rim. When the hub is out of balance everything else suffers.
“Brainwave Optimization with Real Time Balancing – is based on brain observance. It is based on a Quantum Physics vs.a Newtonian Physics understanding of the individual, and this philosophical difference cannot be too heavily stressed. Brainwave Optimization with RTB seeks to show the brain itself – be a mirror for the brain in its ever more optimized state. The client is not trained with learned behavior. In fact, while not optimal, a client may sleep through a session and still realize results because the brain can view itself without direct client participation.”
On the last day of my training I cried and smiled and then fell asleep in the chair. I drove home from the last session with my radio on full blast and remember staring out the window at these beautiful birds gliding in the blue sky… wow… those birds are so amazing… I couldn’t believe how beautiful being alive felt; like suddenly I was plugged into life. I drove to the sea and sat on a bench staring at the ocean… light glittering off the waves… birds flying in the horizon. I smiled for four hours non-stop. My cheeks hurt and strangers probably thought “what on earth is she so happy about?”. I felt an over whelming joy and ecstasy for no particular reason. This is the best part. Why do we have to have a reason to feel this happy? It occurred to me that this was how we are suppose to feel all the time! It is my wish that every one get to experience this feeling. I hope that as many people as possible discover Braining Training and through the process find their own inner balance and joy.
There is a great link on the BBC website with Matthew Stadlen's, Five Minutes With... philosopher AC Grayling on free will and happiness: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8599728.stm
Brain State Technology has been shown to help with the following:
Anxiety • Depression • Panic Attacks • Lack of focus • Memory Problems Addictions • ADD/ADHD • Sleep Issues • Stress • Anger • PTSD • Brain Injury • Learning Disorders • Pain Mitigation • Dementia • Sexual Function • Sports Performance and more Brain State Technology is currently being used by practitioners in over 17 countries, helping their clients restore balance and harmony for a more effective life.
Anxiety • Depression • Panic Attacks • Lack of focus • Memory Problems Addictions • ADD/ADHD • Sleep Issues • Stress • Anger • PTSD • Brain Injury • Learning Disorders • Pain Mitigation • Dementia • Sexual Function • Sports Performance and more Brain State Technology is currently being used by practitioners in over 17 countries, helping their clients restore balance and harmony for a more effective life.
Bristol / Bath: Symphonic Mind: +44 (0)117 973 3509
Isle of Wight: LIFE'S PaLEtt: +44 (0)1983 531424
Isle of Wight: LIFE'S PaLEtt: +44 (0)1983 531424
Info@BrainStateTech.com
