hey cloud-
eeks mentions binaural beats. I'm a big fan of binarual beats and isochronic tones, both of which are methods of brainwave entrainment. Our body's nervous system is an electrical system, which can be measured, and the electrical activity in our brains functions at a wavelength, depending on how 'active' our brain is at the time: when we're asleep, brainwaves oscillate down around 0.1 to 3 Hz (cycles per second), and when we're fully conscious they can be as high as 40 Hz. Mellow, relaxed states occur between 8-15 Hz, and meditative states occur between 4-7 Hz. So enough of the techno, we all function in all of these states at different times all the time, and in standard meditation practice we can produce the lower states intentionally, for whatever reason we're meditating, although that can take years of practice to be effective and to master. So brainwave entrainment is a way to use technology to go there easily. You typically put on a pair of headphones and listen to a soundtrack that has binaural beats or isochronic tones in it, and just sit back, chill, and go with it wherever it's going; different soundtracks go to different brainwave frequencies. So what happens, as you listen to the sounds, is you brain becomes 'sympathetic' as it's called, it matches the target brainwave: if you're listening to a 'mellow out' track (alpha wave it's called), you will just chill, enter a state of whole-body relaxation, a meditative track, theta wave, will take you into a meditative, hypnotic state where all sorts of stuff can show up, stuff you need to process, stuff you need to release, stuff that is empowering, whatever. Then the lowest state, delta, listening to those will just put you to sleep, which is handy at night.
Anyway, to your point, another aspect of brainwave entrainment is that it aligns both halves of the brain, gets them in sync on the same wavelength, which for me feels like my brain is all one instead of fragmented, and I'm thinking and feeling from the center and bottom of my brain instead of the top, which I tend to do. Anyway, a CD full of brainwave entrainment tracks is a few bucks on Amazon, and I recommend at least trying it. What I've been doing lately is taking a portable player and headphones with me and get to a meeting early, and I sit in the parking lot and listen to a track for a few minutes before going in, chills me right out, and folks tell me how relaxed I look, which is cool because that was the point.
There are also folks who are proponents of rebounders, which are those little round trampolines that you bounce on for exercise. The theory is when you're bouncing your brain is momentarily weightless, just floats in your head, and chanting incantations, listening to empowering music, focusing on your future, whatever while you're bouncing, adjusts your focus and conditions your brain when it's totally connected, you get both sides at once, and the conditioning is therefore more powerful and complete. I haven't noticed a huge shift doing that, but bouncing is fun, and intentionally focusing on my bright future with the tunes cranked is always a good thing, so that may be worth a try too.
