Holy — — my starting heart rate during neurofeedback was 95. Not ending rate, not achieved after writing in SMIRB, not after reading, but right at the very start in the 30-second assessment screen. It stayed in the 90s during HRV then crawled up into the 100s during the biofeedback screens then dropped back to…
Category: Brain Power
Musings on what makes for a powerful brain. This category also includes the sub-category Brain Health, which covers all things related to brain injury.
Laughter is Good Medicine but not Mid-Training
You know when you get a fit of the giggles and can’t stop laughing and how awkward that is? Well, imagine that when trying to move a virtual bowling ball down its virtual lane . . . Or worse flying a biplane with brainwaves that don’t want to co-operate so that the electric guitar in…
After Four Years, My CCAC Therapist is Leaving
My therapist is leaving. I have no idea what I’m feeling because when my emotions tried to rise and connect with my conscious mind — with the me I’m aware of — click, off they switched. Just gone. I thought I would take about 12 hours to process what she was telling me, what I…
Brain Injury Friendly Way to Socialize: My Article in March 2014 OBIA Review
Because of my Twitter activities and launching #ABIchat last year, the Communications and Program Assistant at OBIA, the Ontario Brain Injury Association, contacted me about writing an article on social media for their magazine OBIA Review. It’s rather nice to be invited out of the blue to write something, and so I did. Back in…
Reconnecting with Old Knowledge While Under tDCS
As part of my psychology degree I studied neurophysiology and physiology, not knowing I was studying for the needs of my future self. But that was a long time ago. How much could I remember now? Even if I hadn’t been injured and had my photographic memory intact, how much could I have been able…
Talking Neurofeedback and Epilepsy During tDCS
The TTC decided to revert to its old 10-minutes-between-trains routine. And the new “improved” numbers-for-names signage at Yonge/Bloor station discombobulated me as it always does. And so I was rather late. (Going from appointment to appointment in this city is always so much fun.) Still, I didn’t feel too anxious when I rushed into the…
Wernicke’s Area Connects You in Conversation: I’m Listening
Listening is a skill, an art, can be learned or unlearned due to abuse; but it’s also something your brain is wired to do — unless you have a brain injury. In the last few days, I began to wonder if my listening skills were improving. I decided to test them out during brain biofeedback…
PTSD Hits During HRV in Brain Biofeedback Session
I had a flashback during the HRV screen in brain biofeedback. There I am glorying in an LF number that was higher than my sympathetic system’s number (meaning heart doing better) when boom: I know where I am, but I am reliving the early days of brain biofeedback when I was being trained in the…
Olympics Inspiration for Brain Biofeedback
I’m obsessive about saving files. Every person my age who used computers in the early days knows the horror of watching a computer eat your paper up (putting a new spin on the old, “but Sir, the dog ate my essay”). Today, that sort of thing happens so rarely that people get complacent. With all…