Emotional stress raises my heart rate about 15 beats per minute. Biofeedback and HRV training has a harder time dropping it than under normal circumstances. Something to think about when you're under emotional stress. Docs talk about lowering your blood pressure with medications; they wag their finger about reducing your risk of heart attack. In…
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.
Gamma Brain Biofeedback: Does It Help One Cope?
The stress keeps on piling on. Isn't there a song about that? Maybe if I moved to that mountain next to Hwy 2 in the Yukon, I wouldn't have any more stress and I could just chill without having to cope and cope and cope. Anyway, according to heart and EEG readings, I'm coping well.…
Gamma Brain Biofeedback: Hearts and Minds
There are days when I get all rebellious and say f'it I wanna work on this and work for as long as I like. I'm tired being a good girl, taking care of my health, managing my energy the way I'm supposed to. Then I end up in front of the biofeedback computer watching my…
A New Direction Post Concussion
It’s not real yet, not in my mind anyway. Maybe when I crack open the tome, or more likely read the first email, I'll realise I have actually taken a step in a new direction. To backtrack: way back when, I obtained a B.Sc. in psychology. I made it tough for myself by doing a…
Gamma Brain Biofeedback: Weirdness and Lessons
Well. That was a weird session. There I was, waiting as my trainer was starting up the sailboat screen, watching the sailboats begin their race, when I suddenly realised the EMG boat was whizzing ahead of the others. And at the same time, I was realizing I was feeling distinctly unwell. I was hot. I…
Gamma Brain Biofeedback: A Good List
Arrive in a bad mood.Leave in a good mood. Arrive feeling frustrated and overwhelmed, wondering how I will do this, this exhausting, demanding brain training.Leave knowing success is again and always possible. Arrive with a fast heart rate.Leave with a less fast heart rate and a lighter chest and easier breathing. Arrive tired.Leave uplifted. Arrive…
Gamma Brain Biofeedback: Progress in Increments
I've been changing for the past week. It's a strange feeling to be in flux, to feel your brain rewiring itself and that rewiring or regeneration suddenly taking effect. And even stranger when not only one aspect of you changes, like speech, but many or complex ones, like stamina and thinking in real time or…
Gamma Brain Biofeedback: The Chicken or the Egg?
What’s the diff between a treatment like cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT) and what I’m doing now? Between a psychological therapy and gamma brain biofeedback or neurofeedback? I was trying to explain this yesterday to a therapist, how gamma brain biofeedback has improved my mood because I feel more competent. That’s what CGT does, she explained. But…
Gamma Brain Biofeedback: I’m in Good Canadian Soccer Company
My stress levels were high today. Memories. Writing worries. The usual. When do memories get good again? When do they stop revolving around loss and grief like a non-stop flushing toilet? But I digress. I still wanted … no, maybe because of the stress, I craved the challenge of brain biofeedback today. Making the thresholds…