Conclusions about beta brainwave stimulation

Theta brainwave stimulation can help you to increase your creativity, intuition, and spiritual connection with your inner self and the fellowman. On the other hand if you are a "daydreamy boy" it is advisable not to use this training beacuase this will make you more distracted.

Beta brainwaves describe the electrical activity of the brain in the frequency from 12hz to 40hz. These brainwaves occur naturally in normal waking consciousness and are considered to be the dominant brainwave pattern in healthy adults. However, beta waves are also associated with active, busy, or anxious thinking and active concentration.

Benefits of stimulating your brain with beta brainwaves

Rapid thinking
Beta waves may help people to speed their brain making them to capable of fast thinking, generating new ideas quickly, and living in a high-state mind functioning. Beta waves definitely helps to increase mental processing at work and study.

Socializing
When a person speaks, its beta brainwave naturally increases and became dominance. If you are interested in becoming more social, an increase in beta brainwaves may be beneficial. In most people, an increase in beta activity fosters conversational energy and ability to keep conversation going.

Peak-performance
Though a specific peak-performance brainwave pattern is heavily debated, beta brainwaves can certainly help in performance ability. When a person’s focus skyrockets, and their energy levels skyrocket, their performance abilities will naturally increase.

Energetic
Do you feel a lack of energy? Are you always tired and wish you had more energy? Beta brain waves could definitely help you to boost your energy. People low in beta brainwaves feel tired and report less overall energy through the day. To get out of a sleepy state and lift some mental fog, consider increasing your beta waves.

Positive thinking
in a high-beta mental state I’ve certainly noticed that I feel less depressed and constantly am able to generate positive thoughts. Positive thinking and beta waves dominance are related because the left-hemisphere is associated with rational thoughts.

Improvement of Intellectual Skills
Studies have been done and show that people higher in the beta brainwave range actually have higher I.Q.’s than the average population. It makes perfect sense, since activities like reading and solving math problems can definitely help build a smart brain.

Feeling aroused
Each time that you feel adrenaline rushing in your body or feeling of excitement in your stomach is caused by an increment in the amount of beta brainwaves. Beta waves participate when people get excited and definitely feel invigorating.

Goal oriented
When people have a beta brainwave dominance, they naturally feel more goal-oriented. It could be because of they have more energy, are more social, and have high levels of focus that cause them to naturally be more goal-oriented. It could also because of an increase in left-hemisphere brain functioning is associated with goals and goal setting. Either way, it definitely will get you more pumped up and inspired to achieve your goals.

Disadvantages of an excess of beta brainwave stimulation

An excess of beta brainwave activity can be adverse. If you have already have high levels of beta brainwaves it would not be a good idea for you to increase these brainwaves. Indeed, you may experience the horror of beta brainwaves because they can cause:

Anxiety
High beta brain waves are associated with fear, anxiety, OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) and addiction. Therefore, if you are highly alert, nervous, or a hypochondriac, you have likely experienced your share of high beta brain waves and it is not advisable to stimulate your brain in these frequencies.

Stress
High beta brainwaves, usually over 18Hz, can result in feelings of: tension, anxiety, stress, and nervosity. When your brainwave levels increase over 30Hz, they may interfere with your ability to think clearly and effectively, even you will not understand your own thoughts. Though there are many good things that come with beta waves, there is also a huge possibility that they may stress you out. They are linked to increased stress, which is why it is important to learn how to shift your brainwaves when needed.

Paranoia
Paranoid schizophrenia brains is actually able to produce much more high-beta activity than those of healthy population. Are beta brainwaves the cause of schizophrenia? No, they are a side-effect and schizophrenia is a much more complex disease. Increasing beta brainwaves will not increase the likelihood of you becoming crazy, but they could make you feel more paranoid than usual.

Muscular tension
Another drawback to the beta brainwaves is that your body will feel rigid and muscle tension will increase. Nobody enjoys feeling tensed and unable to relax their muscles. Avoid high amounts of beta activity to avoid tense muscles.

High blood pressure
High levels of beta brainwaves affect the amygdala and Hypothalamus, which are involved in vasoconstriction, fear and the fight-or-flight response. Therefore, high blood pressure is a consequence of these brain dominance. If your blood pressure is already high, you should avoid this brainwave.

Unwanted thoughts
Beta brainwaves can be a source of unwanted or anxious thoughts. Too much beta activity can cause one to experience a mild form of obsessive compulsive disorder. Rapid, random thoughts that are beyond control have potential to haunt the person that is high in beta.

Insomnia
Want to stay up all night? If so, I recommend increasing your beta activity. It is probably a bad idea to do any beta geared activity right before falling asleep. Keep your brain healthy, get that sleep, and work to prevent insomnia.

Recommended Ways To Increase Beta Brain Waves

Brainwave entrainment
Brainwave entrainment is the stimulation of the brain using special sounds and music (binaural beats). It is without doubt a revolutionary technique to help you naturally increase brainwave activity in a specific range. If you want to increase your beta brainwaves, I recommend trying any of the beta sessions mentioned in the links section.

Neurofeedback
Neurofeedback is very effective at increasing beta brainwave activity for people who have ADD and ADHD. Still expensive and requires harware, but there is a very high success rate for helping ADD in neurofeedback. Consider give it a chance.

Games for train the Brain
Brain training games increment the thinking speed and naturally boost beta activity. Not all brain training games are boring. Check out the games from Luminosity.com.

Homework
Doing math problems and solving short tests is a powerful, natural way to increase your beta activity.

Book reading
Reading is a left-hemisphere oriented activity that everyone should do. Not only may you actually learn something, you will get smarter and increase your beta waves.

Caffeine
Caffeine is a booster of energy for the brain and body. In fact, caffeine increase beta brainwaves for awhile. The caffeine effect is different for everyone, but you’ll learn that caffeine is definitely a beta brainwave propeller.

Not Recommended Ways To Increase Beta Brain Waves

Cocaine
In fact, cocaine does increase beta activity in the brain, causing adrenaline precipitations, rapid heartbeat, and positive thinking. However, drugs are just plain unhealthy, addicting, and life threatening. Stay away from this temptations and increase your beta waves naturally.

Pills for diet
Many diet pills contain dangerous drugs such as amphetamines, ephedrine and caffeine and they are powerful stimulants of the body. Non obstante, they have many side effects such as the increase of heart beats and blood pressure.

Energy drinks
Energy drinks, such a redbull, they give you a shocking amount of energy temporarily. After the energy comes, a crash occurs and your energy is completely zapped for the rest of the day. I recommend avoiding these to increase your beta activity.

Tobacco
The nicotine found in cigarettes is a beta brainwave booster. But exists the risk of cancer.

Conclusions about beta brainwave stimulation

Beta brainwave stimulation can be beneficial for people that feel tired, unmotivated and lack of energy. It would be useful also for those people that need extra power to accomplish extra workload or overtime. However, if you already are an energetic person or you are a stressed, accelerated person it is better to avoid beta brainwave stimulation.

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What are alpha brain waves?

Alpha waves describe the electrical activity of the brain in the frequency from 8 to 12 hz. That activity occurs naturally in periods of light relaxation or when the eyes are closed but the person is awake.

It is generally believed that alpha waves are dominant brainwaves in people who are in a relaxed or meditative state. It is also present in creative or day dreaming states. It has been also detected also that children tend to stay more time in alpha states than adults.

What is alpha wave stimulation?

Alpha brainwave stimulation is the process of inducing the brain from any state to a state of alpha  brainewave dominance. This process of induction is made through the brain entrainment process. You should know that our brains always produce all the range of alpha waves and an mental state means that one particular brainwave have dominance over the rest, but all coexists.

Here an example of alpha dominance:



Even though alpha wave state has a series of benefits that state is not a cure all brainwave. Every brain is different than others and some people can have a deficit of alpha brainwaves and other people not.

Advantages of stimulating your brain with alpha brain waves

Body and mind relaxation

Alpha brainwaves are associated with relaxed body and mind states. The brain’s thought process is slowed and the mind became lucid. The body is completely relaxed and free of all tensions and nervousness. Boosting the alpha brain wave is a great way to enjoy the feeling of relaxation and a great way to let go of all worries and tension.

Achieving a creative mental state

Alpha brainwaves are generally associated with a creative state of the mind. These state can be found in artists, musicians, and creative thinkers. Creative problem solvers are what many companies are currently looking for. If you want to increase your creativity at work consider stimulate your brain with alpha sessions.

Problem solving increased skills

Hard work and heavy concentration for long hours can lead your brain into a state of dominant beta brainwave pattern of our brain. This state can take you to the called "mental block". Have you listened the writer’s block? Well, you can unblock your brain by stimulating your brain with alpha brainwaves and in this way take your brain to the "flow state" quick enough to finish your paper or article on time without getting "stuck."

Emotional enhancement

The alpha brainwave state is associated with a very stable state of mind. This  mental state is related to a balanced mood and stable emotions. Anxious hyperactive, and unstable people could greatly improve their moods by increasing their alpha brainwaves. Feeling emotionally stable means not to overreact to stressful circumstances.

High athletic performance

If you are an athlete, you should prepare your mind as well as your muscles. In fact, you could significantly improve your performance by entraining your mind with alpha brain wave sessions. There is published evidence showing that elite sportsmen such as professional basketball players and golfers increase alpha activity just before hits their best shot.

Another fact is that the EEG (electroencephalography) of professional athletes are very likely to show the alpha state, whereas newbie athletes and even decent athletes demonstrate low or any alpha activity.  The best brain wave to entrain for peak athletic performance is considered the 10 Hz (i.e. 10 cycles per second). I recommend athletes to try alpha entrainment before a competition a shot and see if it puts you "in the zone."

Stress and anxiety reduction

A beneficial effect of alpha brainwave entrainment is the reduction of stress and anxiety. Increase your alpha brain waves and quickly you will feel a decrease your fears, tension, stress, nerves, and anxiety. If forgot how to relax, by increasing your alpha brain patterns you will feel like you’d been taken a miracle drug.

Achieving the flow state

The state of "flow" refers to the mental state in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing driven by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the performance. You are in a mental state with optimal brain waves balance, you are neither overstimulated nor under stimulated. You feel "balanced" and understand that you are in a desirable state of mental working.

Super learning state

Alpha brainwave has been identified as the optimal brainwave to learn quickly and effortlessly. It is called also the "super learning" state. The alpha brainwave state mostly improves one’s natural ability to passively absorb large amounts of information. Basically, you don't need to make as much of an effort to learn a new ability, language, or skill.

Immune system improvement

Increasing your alpha brainwaves can lead to self-healing and prevention of diseases. This is due to the fact that alpha waves reduce stress and relax the patient. The excess of stress and anxiety can harm the immune system by releasing harmful chemicals such as adrenaline and cortisol.

Positive thinking

Recent research has shown that as a consequence of the relaxation produced by the increasing of alpha wave activity, positive thinking and positive emotions also are produced. I can personally testify this: After having stressed for a long time for my job, in which negative thoughts came to live, my thinking became increasingly positive after a few sessions of alpha entrainment; likely resulting from increased mental peace and tranquility.

Serotonin increase

Alpha brainwaves are associated with the release of neurotransmitter serotonin. Low levels of serotonin have been one factor that some researchers have linked to depression.

How do I know if I need alpha brainwave sessions?

Regarding alpha waves, there are three kind of people: those with normal levels of alpha brainwaves, those with low levels, and those with high ones.

The following people can be considered with healthy levels of brainwaves:

Extroverted people

Generally, if you are more outgoing and consider yourself extroverted, you have more alpha brain waves dominance than introverts.  The consensus seems to be that if you have dominance of alpha activity, you are more than three times as likely to be extrovert. It has sense because introverts are less comfortable during social interaction whereas being social comes natural for extroverts.

Meditators

The objective of Meditation is the increase of slow brainwave patterns such as alpha ant theta. Each time you close your eyes to meditate, you experience a natural surge of alpha activity. Meditators with long practice can recognize and control this state of awareness. Like any exercising, the more you practice it, the easier it becomes to getting alpha dominance through meditation.

Kids

Children tend to have their brains in a state of alpha and theta dominance. As we get older, patterns of beta brainwaves tends to dominate the other patterns. For this reason adults would definitely benefit from alpha brainwave stimulation rather than younger population.

Disadvantages associated with an excess of alpha brainwaves

Like any of the other brainwave patterns, too much dominance of one particular brainwave can cause problems. For that reason, it is not advisable to induce a brainwave that you already have in high levels. In fact, if you overstimulated the alpha waves you may experience some negative effects such as:

Lost of focus

If you have some degree of Attention Deficit Disorder, alpha stimulation will not work with you but it may make things worse.  it can created a fuzzy state of mind. If you are already unfocused, stimulating the alpha brainwave pattern is usually not recommended.

Daydreaming

As you increase the alpha dominance in your brain, you may have too much daydreaming. Some daydreams are fine, but living in the moon wouldn’t be of much benefit if you are already daydreamer.

Depression

Depression has been connected to high dominance of alpha brainwaves compared to beta brainwave activity specially in the left-hemisphere of the brain. There is a rule of thumb: If your depression is resulting from over stimulation (e.g. stress, fear, anxiety), then the stimulation with alpha waves will be beneficial. However, if you are lazy, tired, drowsy and feel depressed (e.g. under stimulation), you should avoid the alpha range and use beta entrainment instead.

Fatigue

Alpha brainwave patterns have been linked to tiredness and drowsiness in some individuals. Therefore, if you are feeling tired during the day, sleepy, or fatigued, your do not need an increase of alpha waves. Indeed, when you are receiving alpha wave entraining, you may experience temporary feelings of lethargy; this is an evidence that your brain is adjusting to a new frequency range. As I said before, alpha brainwaves are the ones that are naturally produced right after you close your eyes before fall asleep.

Boredom

Although this problem is not common, some people with excessive alpha activity may feel a lack of excitement for anything in life. If you by now feel relaxed and have a clear mind, you should not stimulate your brain with alpha waves. Instead, look for some excitement activity. Indeed, this is a signal that you already have adequate alpha activity.

Lack of visual sharpness

A lack of visual acuity and visual awareness are associated with alpha brainwaves. Instead, beta brainwaves are associated with augmented visual awareness and acuity. When slowing your brainwaves down to the alpha range, the visual area of the brain is also much less clear.

Excessively receptive

In the alpha brainwave state, your brain may be in excess receptive to suggestions and new information. This state isn’t always a good thing because your subconscious is open to accepting even negative suggestions.

Healthy ways to increase alpha brainwaves

Brainwave entrainment

Brainwave entrainment stimulation is a great way to fine tuning your state of consciousness and awareness. Even more, you can build and try your own alpha session in the range from 8hz to 12hz with open source tools. Brainwave entrainment is an easy process that involves simply listening to a sound (tones) and your brainwaves naturally will match the frequency associated with the sound. Note that no special training, experience, or practice is needed.

Meditation

The objective of meditation is to lower the brainwaves to the alpha-theta brainwave range. A safe and healthy way to increase your alpha brainwaves is to make meditation a daily habit or start up a meditation routine. If you are already meditating you will naturally increase the easiness of getting alpha brainwaves. Note that for meditation you need some training and practice.

Self-hypnosis

The goal of self-hypnosis is also to target the lower brainwave ranges (e.g. alpha and theta). Doing self-hypnosis on a consistent basis will definitely help you reduce stress by increasing the natural control of your alpha brainwaves. This practice also requires some training and practice.

Visualization

Every time that you close your eyes and visualize, alpha activity automatically takes the control. If you are the type of person that often enjoys closing your eyes to imaging or picture things, you’ll get a naturally dominance of alpha brainwave activity. Visualization can go hand-in-hand with a meditation practice, but if you’s rather only visualize, you’ll still be promoting your alpha brainwaves.

Yoga

Like meditation, yoga is also another activity that boosts relaxation and well being by shifting your brainwaves to the calming patterns of alpha and theta. There are many different types of yoga, and if practiced right, they’ll definitely allow you to connect to your alpha awareness.

Deep-breathing

Deep breathing is not only a great way to improve overall oxygen levels in the brain and body, it is great also to achieve a state of relaxation. When you make deep-breathing a habit, you will begin to feel more relaxed and your brainwaves will shift from the somewhat stressful beta brainwaves to the alpha cadence.

Saunas / Hot Tubs

Saunas and hot tubs cause your entire body to feel completely relaxed and cause your mind to quiet and drowsiness to kick in. The brainwave associated with those feelings of relaxation like you’ve been sitting in a hot tub or in a steamy sauna are known: the alpha waves. Same would apply for laying in the sun tanning on a nice warm beach, feeling the hot sun soak into your body is deeply relaxing. That feeling of deep relaxation is due to an increased amount of alpha brainwaves.

Watching T.V.

Just after 30 seconds of watching T.V. your alpha brainwaves will show up. Even if you happen to be reading captions or text on the T.V. screen, the alpha waves still emerge. Normally, beta brainwaves surge while reading, but not while reading on T.V. The radiant light from cathode-ray technology in T.V.’s and other appliances automatically cause the brain to idle and shift to the alpha state. I personally don't recommend watching T.V. to be the best way to increase your alpha brainwaves, but I’m not going to put it in the unhealthy category.

Unhealthy modes to magnify alpha brainwaves

Alcohol

Alcohol is a huge alpha brainwave propeller. In moderation, alcohol probably won’t kill your appreciated brain cells, but it isn’t a healthy activity for your body or your brain. Are you a person that need to get drunk to relax? Alpha brainwaves are the reason that anxious and stressed people turn to alcohol. When you are drunk, your brain produces lots of alpha brainwaves and lowers your inhibitions. Even more, alpha brainwave stimulation through brainwave entrainment is a recommended therapy to fight against alcoholism and drug addiction.

Marijuana

Though there is controversy as to whether or not smoking marijuana is good or bad, I personally don't recommend marijuana or any other illegal substance to be healthy. Smoking marijuana does increase alpha brainwaves, which is why smoking marijuana makes people feel relaxed. However, marijuana will not give you the aware, synchronized, and peak-performance alpha brainwave that most people are looking for.

Conclusions about alpha brainwave stimulation

I personally think that generally speaking alpha brainwaves are great to stimulate and the recommended frequency is around the 10 Hz. This frequency  is the safest brainwave to entrain. However, you should be the judge as to whether or not increasing them is best for you. If you are already experiencing many of the listed "benefits," you probably don't need much of an alpha enhancer.

Are you already a relaxed person that feels emotionally stable? If so, chances are good that your brain naturally produces large amounts of alpha brainwave activity and you may be perfect in the alpha range. If you are experiencing some of the listed negative effects described above, you may consider to speed up your brainwaves into the beta range. If you are over anxious, tend to worry a lot, and aren’t emotionally balanced, chances are good that you’d benefit from the alpha increase.

It's that time of year again, especially in the northern hemisphere where the reduced hours of sunlight have had a noticeable effect on people's health. Officially, seasonal affective disorder or SAD, is caused by lack of photo stimulation of the eye leading to symptoms of slow brainwave activity, depression, anxiety, extreme fatigue, hypersomnia, carbohydrate cravings and weight gain, though taking other factors into consideration, in winter vitamin D is also low which can further add to depression, especially in women.  Taking a good supplement definitely helps manage symptoms; however, the typical strategy is to have a "light box" basically a lamp that emit about 10 000 lux of full spectrum lighting.

These types of lights run about $200 aren't portable if you need to travel or take them between the office and home. They are probably only used a couple months of the year due to high energy costs to run them. Also, they only address the photo stimulation issue. Using AVE, a completely portable system, people can use them at their convenience to not only address photo stimulation, but teach the slower brain waves to speed up. The DAVID Delights and Pals have multiple settings for people to use all year round. Research regarding SAD can be found on the site at SAD Study .

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Recently, Mind Alive had the opportunity to give high school students a bit of real life experience to learn how to promote a business. Experiential Education in Calgary has a junior entrepreneurship program. This program is designed to introduce junior/senior high students to the world of business. Students are led through the process of what it takes to start, market and succeed in business today with hands-on real life skills in partnership with local business.

For a donation that goes toward the school, students will list on Mind Alive on a couple different Edmonton directories, which will hopefully lead people back here to explore what Audio Visual Entrainment is all about. Because Mind Alive has been in business for such along time hopefully it will encourage students to start their own ventures. 

In the past Dave has presented to local university students about the process of bringing a medical device to market. The group was mainly compromised of engineering students who didn't quite realize how much work goes into selling a product after it is made

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