Coping with Stress

Coping with Stress

Enhancing calming brain waves – Alpha brainwaves.

A mind in alpha is a relaxed mind, free of stress and automatically uses more of the right side of the brain.

To understand the importance of the alpha brainwave, let’s quickly look at our 4 types of brainwaves. 

Your brain frequency fluctuates countless times every day, spontaneously, as the need arises.

The best time to identify our brainwave changes is at night when we sleep. You lay down, close your eyes, and your brain starts slowing down so you can rest, dream, and rejuvenate.

Sleep is necessary to maintain our mental and physical health and balance.

 This is also the reason that when we are sick, we sleep more, as our brain slows down automatically into an alpha state to regenerate our body.

Brainwaves – ( Frequencies ) there are 4 types of brain waves.

1. The Beta Wave has a frequency of 14 to 21 cycles per second.
   We use this frequency in our ordinary waking state, with most of our activity at about 20 to 22 cycles per second. At this level, we reason, rationalize and execute whatever chores we need to do.
   However, it will increase with stress; the faster it goes, the more stress and nervousness you will get. Or as more stress you encounter, as faster your brain frequency becomes.
   If your brain wave frequency goes up to about 60 cycles per sec., you will get hysteric, and a bit higher, you will pass out.
   The golden rule; is that the higher your brain wave, the harder you will find it to function.
   A typical situation would be an examination, an important business meeting or similar. You are stressed out, your brainwave is probably up to 30 or higher, and you simply can’t think straight.
2. The Alpha Wave – >that’s the one we like most 🙂 
   The frequency is from 7 to 14 cycles per second.
   This is the State of Mind where you are in a “relaxed alertness“. 
   You are calm and peaceful, with clear creative thinking, ideas, solutions and intuitive breakthroughs. 
   Studying is easy. This is the State of Mind where you can reach your full potential. 
   And by the way, this is also the State of Mind, where your body is regenerating itself, with an increase in health and vitality, and here is where daydreaming and nocturnal dreaming take place. 
3. The Theta Wave. – deep sleep – Between 4 and 7 cycles per second is the theta state. All our emotional experiences are recorded here. 
4. The Delta Wave. Deepest sleep – with frequencies less than 4 cycles per second are encountered in total unconsciousness, the delta state.

In an eight-hour sleep period, you might spend 30 to 90 minutes in delta, 30 to 60 in theta, and the rest of the time in alpha. Obviously, this will vary from person to person and even night to night with the same person.

The critical thing to note is that different states of brain waves are natural phenomena you go through daily, and you can consciously choose to drift into an alpha state of your mind at will.

The keywords for alpha are :

Relaxed alertness – calm and peaceful, with clear creative thinking, ideas, solutions and intuitive breakthroughs – body regeneration and increased health and vitality.

The ability to trigger the right side of the brain function and alpha brain activity is the ability to get in touch with your; intuition – creativity – music – art – painting – writing – dancing – problem-solving – see the bigger picture, and the ability to swing into the left side for logic contemplation.

After all this, how do we actually manage to drift into the alpha brain wave?

1. By playing Alpha Music, your mind will drift into the alpha state. 
2. Listening to relaxing or meditative music.
3. By creative activity, painting, you may start painting with your left side, but if you don’t need to concentrate on techniques, you will soon shift over to the right side and into the alpha state. Most artists know the power of music and play alpha music or similar to help them to get into the right mood.
4. All creative pursuits can relax you, as long as you don’t have to concentrate on techniques.
5. By relaxation or meditation exercise.

The conclusion is obvious… you can influence your personal space, your living space or your working space by playing appropriate music.

Music is extremely powerful; we all know how certain songs can affect us. Music is a powerful medium to trigger emotions and memory.

In years of counselling, I have come across some of the most extraordinary examples of how music can trigger emotions, and not always in a positive way.

One example springs to mind:

A woman client, who had morning sickness when she was listening to a specific song on the radio, still gets morning sickness now when that song is played. This is called an anchor; the song has anchored the feeling.

What has that to do with the alpha brainwave?

Listening to alpha music has two functions.

One is to help you get there … and the second is to work as an ‘anchor’; the music is now linked or anchored to your state of mind, the alpha state. The next time you listen to that music, you will be able to access the alpha, “relaxed alertness” state of mind even faster.

Article supplied by – Dieter Luske, Writer of non-fiction