Biofeedback can help you to use your mind to manage certain medical conditions. Find out which ones, whether it's right for you and how it's done.
Have you ever wished you could simply will your symptoms to disappear? With biofeedback you may be able to do just that by harnessing the power of your mind to help improve your health.
Biofeedback defined
Biofeedback is a type of complementary and alternative medicine called mind-body therapy. It's designed to enable you — in mind-over-matter fashion — to use your thoughts and will to control your body. Biofeedback is based on the idea, confirmed by scientific studies, that people have the innate potential to influence with their minds many of the automatic, involuntary functions of their bodies.
To help you develop this ability, a biofeedback specialist uses signals from special monitoring equipment to teach you to control certain body functions and their responses, such as:
Brain activity
Blood pressure
Muscle tension
Heart rate
Skin temperature
Sweat gland activity
You can use biofeedback to help treat many physical and mental health problems when you've learned to recognize and control these functions and responses.
Why it's done
Biofeedback can be particularly useful in treating stress-related conditions, and clinical trials are evaluating it in the treatment of many other conditions, including:
Asthma
Headaches
Hot flashes
Raynaud's disease
Irritable bowel syndrome
Nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy
Irregular heartbeats (cardiac arrhythmias)
Chronic low back pain
Chronic constipation
High blood pressure
Incontinence
Epilepsy
Biofeedback may appeal to you for several reasons:
It may reduce, or even eliminate, your need for medication.
It has the potential to help conditions that have not responded to medication.
It helps put you in charge of your own healing by providing measurable feedback, which allows you to monitor your progress and learning.
It may decrease your medical costs.
Risks of biofeedback
Biofeedback is generally considered safe. It should generally not be used, however, if you have depression, psychosis, or another major mental health disorder. Biofeedback can potentially interfere with some medications, such as insulin, so patients with diabetes should exercise extra caution. Talk to your doctor to see whether biofeedback therapy is an appropriate treatment for you.
What you can expect
You can receive biofeedback training in physical therapy clinics, medical centers and hospitals. A growing number of feedback devices and programs are being marketed for home use as well. But working with a therapist, initially, may provide the best long-term results.
Preparation depends on the type of biofeedback therapy used. A typical biofeedback session lasts 30 to 60 minutes. The length and number of sessions will be determined by your condition and how quickly you learn to control your physical responses.
During a biofeedback session, a therapist will apply electrical sensors to different parts of your body. These sensors will monitor your body's physiological response to stress — for instance, your muscle contraction during a tension headache — then feed the information back to you via cues such as a beeping sound or a flashing light. The feedback will allow you to begin to associate your body's response — in this case, headache pain — with certain physical functions, such as your muscles tensing.
Once you begin to recognize that your headache is a result of tense muscles, the next step is to learn how to invoke positive physical changes in your body, such as relaxing those specific muscles, when your body is physically or mentally stressed. Your eventual goal will be to produce these responses on your own, outside the therapist's office and without the help of technology.
Types of biofeedback
Your therapist may use several different techniques to gather information about your body's responses. Determining the one that's right for you will depend on your particular health problems and objectives. Machines and techniques include:
Electromyogram (EMG). An EMG uses electrodes or other types of sensors to measure muscle tension. By the EMG alerting you to muscle tension, you can learn to recognize the feeling early on and try to control the tension right away. EMG is mainly used to promote the relaxation of those muscles involved in backaches, headaches, neck pain and grinding your teeth (bruxism). An EMG may be used to treat some illnesses in which the symptoms tend to worsen under stress, such as asthma and ulcers.
Temperature biofeedback. Sensors attached to your fingers or feet measure your skin temperature. Because your temperature often drops when you're under stress, a low reading can prompt you to begin relaxation techniques. Temperature biofeedback can help treat certain circulatory disorders, such as Raynaud's disease, or reduce the frequency of headaches.
Galvanic skin response training. Sensors measure the activity of your sweat glands and the amount of perspiration on your skin, alerting you to anxiety. This information can be useful in treating emotional disorders such as phobias, anxiety and stuttering.
Electroencephalogram (EEG). An EEG monitors the activity of brain waves linked to different mental states, such as wakefulness, relaxation, calmness, light sleep and deep sleep. EEG may be used to treat insomnia, epilepsy and other neurological disorders.
Finding a biofeedback therapist
Look for a qualified therapist if you decide to try biofeedback. Many biofeedback therapists are licensed in another area of health care — for instance, as a registered nurse or physical therapist — and may work under the guidance of a doctor. Some biofeedback therapists attain certification from the Biofeedback Certification Institute of America (BCIA). You may obtain a list of names of people in your area who have been certified by the BCIA by contacting the organization.
Gather information about each of the potential therapists you identify prior to making an appointment. Ask the therapists to provide references, whether they are licensed in biofeedback or another health care field, and what experience they have treating your specific condition and symptoms. If you can't find a BCIA-certified therapist in your area, ask your doctor or another health professional with knowledge of biofeedback therapy to recommend someone who has experience treating your condition. Check, too, on whether your health insurer will cover the cost of treatment.
Results of biofeedback
Experts aren't entirely sure how the biofeedback therapy works. Many people who've tried it can't explain how they're able to control their bodies, yet experience improvement in their symptoms. Biofeedback may enable you to reduce the amount of medication you take, or even help a condition that hasn't responded well to medication.
Keep a daily diary to monitor your use of the treatment as well as how you feel before, during and after the therapy to assess whether biofeedback is effective in treating your particular symptoms. By learning to control your involuntary body functions, biofeedback may improve your medical condition and teach you valuable techniques for living a healthier life.
http://www.mayoclinic.com
Monday, June 16, 2008
The Secret
Intention has three factors influencing it which are the will, desire and belief. A Being could not act unless it Willed to Act; and it would not Will to Act, unless it Desired to Act; and it would not Desire to Act unless it obtained some Satisfaction thereby. What it is satisfied by will depend on its own nature. It’s own nature is determined by its consciousness.
Therefore the order of causation in mental creation is Consciousness >> Beingness >> Desire >> Will >> Action. The action is firstly mental action that leads to physical action secondly. I think therefore I am, therefore I desire, therefore I will conceive and carry out my plan with action to get what I desire and find satisfaction doing so.
The psyche consists of the faculty of intellect, the faculty of emotion, the faculty of will and desire. It is the faculty of will and desire that is the most powerful and authentic one.
It is the will and desire faculty that makes you do what you do. It is the will and desire faculty that brings you back to the thing that you’ve left multiple times. It is the will and desire faculty that causes you to refine yourself and everything you are doing until you achieve what you’ve always wanted. To make a decision based on what you really want. Make it from the will and desire faculty.
Belief gives strength to your intentions. Belief is power. The more you believe in something, the more power you give it to have effect.
Desire In The Absence Of Belief Is Neediness. Desire in the presence of belief is having a Strong Intent. The belief has to be the unwavering certainty that you’ll achieve your intended outcome. You could have all of the skills and desire in the world but without the unwavering certainty that you’ll get what you want, you’re doomed.
But one does not absolutely need to have an unwavering certainty. That is not always entirely possible. There might be doubts or contrary beliefs that exist.
It is all a matter of focus. By choosing only to focus on that which is empowering and positive, one eliminates the effect of that which is disempowering and negative as though they don’t exist. Hence you will seem to have an unwavering certainty.
Although will, desire and belief are factors affecting intention, you must understand that intention isn’t any of these. Intention is simply focus. This is the all important key.
The Law of Attraction is whatever you focus on most of the time, you get. You attract to you everything and anything you hold in your mind, whether wanted or unwanted.
Intention is applied attention.
“Attention” is a word derived from the Latin root, meaning “to reach out; to stretch out,” and so the act of Attention is really a mental “reaching out; extension” of mental energy. Intention is where you are mentally reaching out to.
The Will is mind force or mental assertion. When you will something, you mentally assert it. You have the mindset that commands and demands that it must be so, and that it will. Your will gives power to your intention. Will is the outward manifestation of Spirit. People are normally focused on their problems. Problems are simply unmet desires.
The Will is the ruling faculty of the mind. Only the conscious mind has the ability to assert the will. He who has no will has no mind. His mind is not his own but is being used by another. Unless we control thought, it will control us.
Secret of the Will - The Will is directed by Desire. The trouble with us is that we do not want to do the thing enough to make us exert our Will Power. We don’t want to hard enough. Strong Will follows strong Desire. The person that never wants anything gets little. To demand resolutely is the first step toward getting what you want. All operations of the mind are based on desires. Your beliefs about your desires form the characteristics of your will. It is most important to have the right beliefs about your desires.
Concentration is sustained focus. Will is the faculty of concentration. Concentration requires interest. The relation between concentration and interest is the relation between Will and Desire.
It is certain that you can do what you want to do. The desire to do it is proof that you have within you the power which can do it. Desire is power seeking to manifest. Deep down inside you know you can do it, that’s why you want to do it. Every desire is possibility seeking expression through life.
The desire to play music is the power which can play music seeking expression and development. The desire to speak before millions is the power which can inspire the world seeking expression and development. The key is development.
When there is no power, either developed or undeveloped to do a thing, there is never any desire to do that thing. Power is the ability to do or the capacity to act. When there is strong desire to do a thing, it is certain proof that the power to do it is strong. The more unbreakable a desire is, the more unbreakable the power present is.
Power comes from purpose. It is God that works in us both to will and to do.
Desire is based on Purpose. In your strongest desires, you feel a definite sense of purpose which is undeniable within you. Purpose is what defines us and binds us to our design and destiny. Purpose is the Will of the Divine. The stronger the Motive, the greater the concentration. Motive is Purpose Driven Desire for moving forces towards the attainment of a thing. The Will never acts in a direction, which the mind believes impossible. The disbelief acts as a brake on the Will. Belief removes the barrier for the Will to act. When you have the realization that there are others out there doing what you are thinking of, it gives you the permission to go totally into it without holding back.
Desire Force is Attracting Power. Desire is an emotion and all emotion is energy in motion.The emotion of your desire pulls what you want towards you and pulls you towards what you want. Allow yourself to be authentic with your feeling of what you don’t want but focus more of the time on what you want. It doesn’t matter what you want or don’t want. What you focus on most of the time, you will get. Focusing on something gives it the mental life to exist. The Will and Desire are already operating at full blast. It is belief that releases or unleashes their power. The more you believe, the stronger your will and desire will be. Belief is belief in Purpose. Belief realizes Purpose. Belief unleashes your Desire and Will power according to Purpose.Belief connects your Will and Desire with the Universal Will Power and Infinite Desire. Imagination is the faculty of belief.
A person’s free will always yields to the imagination. You cannot imagine one thing and will in the opposite direction. You cannot will yourself to be steady if you keep imagining that you will fall. Your will is powerless to make you advance, if you imagine that you cannot. It is absolutely impossible for you to do so. You must will to imagine in accordance to your will.
You can aid the Will with the Imagination. As you imagine, your will acts along. The mental picture is the mental force. Where you focus is the direction your will acts. Your Will does not need training but your Mind does. The mind is the instrument and the supply of Will Power is proportionate to the fineness of the instrument through which it manifests.
The Will is Feeling Force. Since All Sense is One Sense, to feel is to imagine and to imagine is to feel. Will and Imagination are One.
All mind power is one mind power. Everything can be resolved into the Will-Imagination.
Although the Will is directed by Desire and Desire is influenced by Belief, it is still the Will that chooses the Belief. So it is ultimately the Will directing itself. The reason why this is so is because God created each of us as a Free Will Entity. We have a self-regulating Will.
The extent you succeed in getting something is determined by what you truly believe is possible and how intensely you desire the result. A Strong Intent is having the Will and Desire to do whatever it takes to get your intended outcome, coupled with the Belief that you can actually get that outcome.
To sum it up, an intention is what you focus on. It is all a matter of choice. You can choose where to direct your attention to, but choice is based on awareness. Once you know, you can choose. Gaining more knowledge about how things work in the mind and reality gives you more power to make conscious decisions in life.
http://www.mindreality.com
Therefore the order of causation in mental creation is Consciousness >> Beingness >> Desire >> Will >> Action. The action is firstly mental action that leads to physical action secondly. I think therefore I am, therefore I desire, therefore I will conceive and carry out my plan with action to get what I desire and find satisfaction doing so.
The psyche consists of the faculty of intellect, the faculty of emotion, the faculty of will and desire. It is the faculty of will and desire that is the most powerful and authentic one.
It is the will and desire faculty that makes you do what you do. It is the will and desire faculty that brings you back to the thing that you’ve left multiple times. It is the will and desire faculty that causes you to refine yourself and everything you are doing until you achieve what you’ve always wanted. To make a decision based on what you really want. Make it from the will and desire faculty.
Belief gives strength to your intentions. Belief is power. The more you believe in something, the more power you give it to have effect.
Desire In The Absence Of Belief Is Neediness. Desire in the presence of belief is having a Strong Intent. The belief has to be the unwavering certainty that you’ll achieve your intended outcome. You could have all of the skills and desire in the world but without the unwavering certainty that you’ll get what you want, you’re doomed.
But one does not absolutely need to have an unwavering certainty. That is not always entirely possible. There might be doubts or contrary beliefs that exist.
It is all a matter of focus. By choosing only to focus on that which is empowering and positive, one eliminates the effect of that which is disempowering and negative as though they don’t exist. Hence you will seem to have an unwavering certainty.
Although will, desire and belief are factors affecting intention, you must understand that intention isn’t any of these. Intention is simply focus. This is the all important key.
The Law of Attraction is whatever you focus on most of the time, you get. You attract to you everything and anything you hold in your mind, whether wanted or unwanted.
Intention is applied attention.
“Attention” is a word derived from the Latin root, meaning “to reach out; to stretch out,” and so the act of Attention is really a mental “reaching out; extension” of mental energy. Intention is where you are mentally reaching out to.
The Will is mind force or mental assertion. When you will something, you mentally assert it. You have the mindset that commands and demands that it must be so, and that it will. Your will gives power to your intention. Will is the outward manifestation of Spirit. People are normally focused on their problems. Problems are simply unmet desires.
The Will is the ruling faculty of the mind. Only the conscious mind has the ability to assert the will. He who has no will has no mind. His mind is not his own but is being used by another. Unless we control thought, it will control us.
Secret of the Will - The Will is directed by Desire. The trouble with us is that we do not want to do the thing enough to make us exert our Will Power. We don’t want to hard enough. Strong Will follows strong Desire. The person that never wants anything gets little. To demand resolutely is the first step toward getting what you want. All operations of the mind are based on desires. Your beliefs about your desires form the characteristics of your will. It is most important to have the right beliefs about your desires.
Concentration is sustained focus. Will is the faculty of concentration. Concentration requires interest. The relation between concentration and interest is the relation between Will and Desire.
It is certain that you can do what you want to do. The desire to do it is proof that you have within you the power which can do it. Desire is power seeking to manifest. Deep down inside you know you can do it, that’s why you want to do it. Every desire is possibility seeking expression through life.
The desire to play music is the power which can play music seeking expression and development. The desire to speak before millions is the power which can inspire the world seeking expression and development. The key is development.
When there is no power, either developed or undeveloped to do a thing, there is never any desire to do that thing. Power is the ability to do or the capacity to act. When there is strong desire to do a thing, it is certain proof that the power to do it is strong. The more unbreakable a desire is, the more unbreakable the power present is.
Power comes from purpose. It is God that works in us both to will and to do.
Desire is based on Purpose. In your strongest desires, you feel a definite sense of purpose which is undeniable within you. Purpose is what defines us and binds us to our design and destiny. Purpose is the Will of the Divine. The stronger the Motive, the greater the concentration. Motive is Purpose Driven Desire for moving forces towards the attainment of a thing. The Will never acts in a direction, which the mind believes impossible. The disbelief acts as a brake on the Will. Belief removes the barrier for the Will to act. When you have the realization that there are others out there doing what you are thinking of, it gives you the permission to go totally into it without holding back.
Desire Force is Attracting Power. Desire is an emotion and all emotion is energy in motion.The emotion of your desire pulls what you want towards you and pulls you towards what you want. Allow yourself to be authentic with your feeling of what you don’t want but focus more of the time on what you want. It doesn’t matter what you want or don’t want. What you focus on most of the time, you will get. Focusing on something gives it the mental life to exist. The Will and Desire are already operating at full blast. It is belief that releases or unleashes their power. The more you believe, the stronger your will and desire will be. Belief is belief in Purpose. Belief realizes Purpose. Belief unleashes your Desire and Will power according to Purpose.Belief connects your Will and Desire with the Universal Will Power and Infinite Desire. Imagination is the faculty of belief.
A person’s free will always yields to the imagination. You cannot imagine one thing and will in the opposite direction. You cannot will yourself to be steady if you keep imagining that you will fall. Your will is powerless to make you advance, if you imagine that you cannot. It is absolutely impossible for you to do so. You must will to imagine in accordance to your will.
You can aid the Will with the Imagination. As you imagine, your will acts along. The mental picture is the mental force. Where you focus is the direction your will acts. Your Will does not need training but your Mind does. The mind is the instrument and the supply of Will Power is proportionate to the fineness of the instrument through which it manifests.
The Will is Feeling Force. Since All Sense is One Sense, to feel is to imagine and to imagine is to feel. Will and Imagination are One.
All mind power is one mind power. Everything can be resolved into the Will-Imagination.
Although the Will is directed by Desire and Desire is influenced by Belief, it is still the Will that chooses the Belief. So it is ultimately the Will directing itself. The reason why this is so is because God created each of us as a Free Will Entity. We have a self-regulating Will.
The extent you succeed in getting something is determined by what you truly believe is possible and how intensely you desire the result. A Strong Intent is having the Will and Desire to do whatever it takes to get your intended outcome, coupled with the Belief that you can actually get that outcome.
To sum it up, an intention is what you focus on. It is all a matter of choice. You can choose where to direct your attention to, but choice is based on awareness. Once you know, you can choose. Gaining more knowledge about how things work in the mind and reality gives you more power to make conscious decisions in life.
http://www.mindreality.com
Mind Technology: Tecnology VS Nature
Over time technology has helped man to move his physical body and things faster and faster and to more and more places he couldn’t go before. Now technology is able to help man move his mind faster and to more places in the same way. This technology is Mind Technology. Mind technology is developed from other technologies upon which it is based upon and which makes this possible. Technology such as electricity, electronic audio and computer. What was once done at normal speed in the traditional way can now be accelerated to hyper speeds with technology.
It is like being able to travel in a supersonic jet when you once had to walk. Some people think it is best to do things the natural way than to rely on technology. But would you want to walk from one end of the Earth to another when you could fly there in a supersonic jet? You would not even think of doing that! It is possible to walk from one end of the Earth to the other though, since all land is connected to each other from the North pole. The Earth is actually one flat piece of land wrapped around a sphere and not separate pieces across the globe. But without technology, we cannot travel to the deepest parts of the ocean or even to the moon.
The moment technology is developed, we got to use it. We either progress or regress. We never stand still. Advancement of technology is the result of advancement in knowledge. Changing the way we do things by adapting technology is the natural way of evolving our lives.
http://www.mindreality.com/mind-technology-technology-vs-nature
It is like being able to travel in a supersonic jet when you once had to walk. Some people think it is best to do things the natural way than to rely on technology. But would you want to walk from one end of the Earth to another when you could fly there in a supersonic jet? You would not even think of doing that! It is possible to walk from one end of the Earth to the other though, since all land is connected to each other from the North pole. The Earth is actually one flat piece of land wrapped around a sphere and not separate pieces across the globe. But without technology, we cannot travel to the deepest parts of the ocean or even to the moon.
The moment technology is developed, we got to use it. We either progress or regress. We never stand still. Advancement of technology is the result of advancement in knowledge. Changing the way we do things by adapting technology is the natural way of evolving our lives.
http://www.mindreality.com/mind-technology-technology-vs-nature
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