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I recently decided to purchase two mind machine AVS (Audio Visual Stimulation) devices which are basically light and sound generators that alter your brainwave states through entrainment. Why do this? Altering your brainwave state can help decrease anxiety, pain, depression and even help with ADD and memory tasks. 

In a nutshell, our brain operates at different frequencies throughout the day depending on what we are doing or thinking. (see graph on left, click to enlarge)

When we are wide awake and concentrating we are operating in Beta and as we relax our brain waves shift to a slower Alpha state.  Then next lower state ,Theta, usually occurs when we are ideating or day dreaming followed by Delta which is the sleep and dreaming state. Finally, When we when we are in a deep dreamless state our brains are operating in Sub-Delta.

The mind machines in this comparison are designed to induce the desired brainwave state using pulsing tones and flashing lights which cause our brain to sync or entrain to the frequency of the chosen brainwave state.

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To all those with high blood pressure you might be interested in a study performed by the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Rush University Hypertension Center in Chicago. In this study they had a chiropractor perform what is know as an Atlas adjustment to the first cervical vertebra and study the effects over 8 weeks.  Apparently, this adjustment may reduce pressure on the arteries in the neck causing dramatic reductions in blood pressure.

The adjustment is supposed to be safe and very gentle so I might just give it a try.

Here is a link to the original study  plus the webmd article.

Yesterday was my last “Meditation for Health and Focus” class at Queens University in Charlotte, NC. The class lasted 6 weeks and was taught by Rebecca Nagy. She is very knowledgeable about different forms of meditation and I learned much from the class. She introduced me to the concept of Chakras and how they can be used in meditation to help certain areas of the body.

Chakra is a Sanskrit word meaning wheel, the chakras are energy vortices allowing energy to pass freely through the body. Seven of these are referred to as the main chakras these are the root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye and crown chakras.

They allow for the free flow of energy, which promotes good health and vitality. If an energy blockage arises this may cause physical ailments that correspond to the area of the blockage, by working with the chakras one can help heal the areas that are causing the problems.

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I recently ran across an article about EFT or Emotional Freedom Technique and decided to take a class at Unity Church in Charlotte taught by Jan Luther of the Rejuvenation Station. When I arrived their were 15 people mostly women with about 4 men. The teacher was very confident and knowledgeable about this technique and had us fill out a form about someone who made us feel bad at anytime in our life.

We then told her the words  and feelings that we used to describe our negative experience such as fear, anxiety, sadness, anger etc. Jan then formulated some affirmation we were to repeat as we tapped on certain areas on our body (meridian points)

Looking around I felt totally ridiculous tapping my face and repeating what the teacher was saying. It almost felt like we were playing Simon Says.

Anyway, we did it twice for about 15 minutes total and against my expectations, I actually felt a little better. Maybe it was the positive affirmations or maybe the tapping distracts from my negative mental chatter… who knows, but it seemed to help.  You can also do it for other people… might try it on my partner. 

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I recently read some promising articles on Transcendental Meditation® and did some research on the web. I found out the classes are close to $2500 and there is much controversy surrounding the organization. Upon searching further, I found a site called Natural Stress Relief® which uses some of the same concepts of TM for about $25 without any religious overtones ie. you don’t have to believe in anything. For $25 you get a downloadable ebook and a sound file with no email assistance.

I followed the instructions to the tee and read the book before listening to the sound file. You only need to listen to the sound file once as an example of what you have to do. Basically, you are asked to repeat a sound or mantra over and over in your head (not out loud) for 15 minutes twice per day.

You then record how you feel after each session with the included forms. Apparently, by repeating the mantra over and over you are causing your mind to focus on this word blocking out all the junk that is constantly running through your head.

I really didn’t expect much from this technique but was surprised that at the end of 15 minutes I actually felt more relaxed and calm. It was not easy, as thoughts like “this is stupid” or “I wonder if the Simpson’s is coming on” kept running through my head. However, as long as I continued to repeat the word I noticed that all the mental dust seemed clear itself out like a Swiffer on a hardwood floor. I will continue to practice the Natural Stress Relief technique for a month and report back my results.

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Several weeks ago I ordered a game called The Wild Divine. This game comes with a biofeedback device called a “Light Stone” that measures heart rate, and skin conductance. The object of the game is to relax by controlling your breathing and heart rate. This makes for a very challenging game because in order to progress you have to “slow” yourself down and develop a sense of calm. If you get agitated or angry you will get stuck and not be able to move forward in the game.

The Wild Divine uses cool 3D animation to create a beautiful dreamy world where you can wander around and explore. I am currently at the stage of exploring and will probably need some help to get any farther. I can say I feel very relaxed after I play the game and feel this could be a great way to relieve stress. Time will tell..

Here is a link to the The Wild Divine Site.

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After reading the book Transforming Anger, I decided to purchase a portable bio feedback device called “emWave”. The writer of the book helped develop this device using studies in HRV (Heart rate variability) and coined what is known as “HeartMath”. Apparently, when we think and recall positive experiences our heart and nervous system sync with each other producing a smooth sine wave output or as they say “good coherence”.

The idea behind the freeze frame technique is to ”freeze” a good feeling or experience and to recall this feeling in times of stress, or anxiety. By doing this, you cause the sympathetic and non sympathetic parts of your nervous system to achieve balance lowering the production of nasty chemicals that damage your heart or increase blood pressure.

I went to the HeartMath website and ordered one of their portable emWave machines to provide visual feedback of my heart rate variability. The device works by clipping the heart rate monitor to your ear and breathing according to the flashing lights. When good coherence is achieved you see a blue light for good, red light for bad, and green for excellent coherence. 

To achieve this, you have to breathe slowly and most importantly, recall those good feelings you once experienced and draw that energy around your heart area… You can do this without the feedback device but I thought it might be nice to see if I am actually affecting anything.

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Many years ago, I took a class on Out of body experiences (OBE) and Near Death Experiences.  In that class we learned about Bob Monroe, and visited his research foundation into OBE’s.  I actually had the good fortune of meeting Bob Monroe in person and spent the day at his foundation in Virginia. He believed that his tapes could induce out of body experiences with the use of binaural beat tones. He came up with something called Hemi-sync that involves hearing slightly different frequency tones in each ear with the difference in the tone frequencies being created in the brain. This difference was supposed to entrain you mind and alter your brainwave patterns(Beta, Alpha, Theta, or Delta) which could be measured on a EEG machine.

Anyway, to make a long story short, they soon learned this technique could be used to lower stress, anxiety, and even induce a meditative state.  Rather then buying the CD’s on the internet for each issue, I decided to find a program that could generate the tones.

I came across a program called the Neuro-Programmer 2 that generates the audio tones necessary to alter your brainwave state. I just started using the high blood pressure preset which definitely makes me feel very relaxed and even groggy after I listen to it for 30 minutes. 

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Well, last night I suddenly awoke to a very loud ringing in my ears. I have had problems with tinnitus for several years but it has never been this loud. Anyway, I started panicking and tried to slow my breathing down but that did not seem to help, so I immediately went to the hot tub on my porch and sat in it for 10 minutes. This seemed to lower the ringing and allowed me to get back in bed and fall asleep.

The worse thing you can do when the sound gets loud is to panic as it will only get louder.

Could be the the blood pressure medicine making it worse. Another obstacle to overcome…definitely makes it hard to meditate in a quiet room. 

Some suggested vitamins that help: Zinc and Niacin.

I found product on the Internet called RESPeRATE which is supposed to reduce your blood pressure naturally through controlled breathing. I researched the product and it was approved by the FDA and received good write ups in medical journals.I ordered one from Amazon.com and it arrived today.

The way it works is you strap the breathing sensor onto your upper abdominal area and plug the headphones into the unit. The device has a display with a human figure and arrows that point in and out to represent breathing in and out.

When you first turn on Resperate you will hear a voice telling you to breath normally as it calibrates the unit to your breathing patterns. Once finished, you hear some music as a pleasant voice tells you to breath in and out. The display shows your breaths per minute and when you achieve 10 breaths per minute the machine lets you know you are in the therapeutic zone. At first it is sort of hard to keep up with the system but later into the session it gets easier. The voice also goes away after a short time and you have to breath in and out according to the rise and fall of the music.

You have several choices of music and most of them are pleasant and relaxing. Personally, I like the device because it makes me feel relaxed after I use it for the specified 15 minutes but I am not sure if it will really work to lower blood pressure. Time will tell as the instructions inform you: “results are at hand… be patient” … results occur in 6 to 8 weeks with only 15 minutes a day of use.

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Well, I made an appointment to see my Doctor today. He took my blood pressure and I told him my family history of high blood pressure and cholesterol. He looked at my last blood work and promptly gave me a prescription for Diovan which he informed me had little side effects. 

I felt a sinking feeling come across me when he gave me the medication sample as though I had some how failed and I was a sick helpless person.  He took an EKG but found nothing wrong with my heart (that was good news). Anyway I will have to return in a month…

The good news is I lost ten pounds. All the healthy eating and exercise are paying off. I am determined to lower my blood pressure naturally and will continue with my body and mind exercises.

Well, I just found out I have high blood pressure and maybe high cholesterol. I have worked out for the last 15 or so years and this came a shock to me. My father has high blood pressure and has had bypass surgery. I hope this is not where I am headed. I guess I will have to lose some weight, eat better, and learn how to relax which is the hardest part. Those still meditative moments seem to elude me. I am spending too much time in front of a computer screen with little human interaction. It seems I have lost the ability to find beauty in the world around me. This is my next part of the my journey…