Biofeedback is a type of conscience relaxation with to deal with stress really works. People are using it without realizing it via yoga, self-imagery, deep breathing techniques and meditation. Here are some good medical and psychological definitions of it. The Foundation for Peripheral Neuropathy calls it part of “integrative therapies”. “Bio-feedback trains you to improve health by controlling certain bodily processes that normally happen involuntarily such as heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension and skin temperature.” Drake Institute says, “Biofeedback treatments are a non-invasive protocol that improves stress-related symptoms by leveraging the mind-body connection to reach a state of relaxation.”
Cleveland Clinic: “Biofeedback is an alternative medicine approach that teaches people to change the way their body functions.”
Medical News: “Bio-feedback therapy is a non-drug treatment in which patients learn to control bodily processes that are normally involuntary like muscle tension, blood pressure or heart rate.” Mental Health in Family Medicine: “A mind-body technique in which individuals learn how to modify their own physiology, to improve physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.” These definitions summarize biofeedback well.
Studied for over forty years, the concept was unique at the start, but now is commonly accepted. The goal of this type of training program is to teach the individual a way to gain control over involuntary physiological processes by using what they can control, like breath, muscle tension and changing their thought patterns. Both a mental and physical effort, this contributes to decreasing painful symptoms often made worse by stress. I liken the situation to how the body responds to an injury such as a cut. Involuntary bodily processes begin immediately to stop bleeding, send white blood cells to fight against possible infection, and to splint the injured area. Sometimes this system can overreact.
Stress can also cause this type of habitual overreaction to “fight or flight” situations when we feel some type of threat. Survival instinct kicks in and sometimes the body over does it. Biofeedback teaches how to alter one’s responses. Self-monitoring and control can quiet things down physically. Many outside stressors cannot be changed, but our reactions to them can.
The Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College in London analyzed sixty studies, checking for the effectiveness of psychophysiological intervention. Eighty percent of the participants reported some level of clinical decrease in symptoms after biofeedback training. It was reported that issues with anxiety, autism, depression, headaches, migraines, high blood pressure, eating disorders, schizophrenia, injury recovery, chronic pain, coronary artery disease, diabetes, MS, fibromyalgia, TMJ, insomnia, digestive disorders including constipation, IBS, diarrhea, ADHD, epilepsy, cancer recovery, heart disease were all helped. Anything made worse by stress improves by lowering the sympathetic arousal that stress causes.
Biofeedback is used by psychologists, physical therapists, nurses, social workers, chiropractors, psychiatrists, and some integrative clinics for people not responding to typical drug therapies. The process starts by first identifying what the need is, and then changing certain mental activities. Next, is learning how to change physical reactions by training yourself to regulate unconscious bodily processes to better control stress responses.
Specialized equipment is used that conveys biological signals (feedback) to the patient. The simplest is a thermometer taped to the finger to measure skin temperature. There’s a simple machine called RESPeRATE (https://www.resperate.com) that needs no training from an outside source.
Taking a test can be one of the most stressful things in life for a lot of people. It was definitely that for me when I was a student at KSU (about 1988). I noticed the first semester that the Wednesday following a routine chemistry quiz my hands would ache. The second semester, my hands were fine on Wednesdays but ached on Fridays. It seemed to me that the obvious connection was the release of stress through my hands the day after a quiz. Fortunately, there was a grad student working on biofeedback for his PhD. Sessions included some group counselling to address possible “mindset” problems. Mine was thinking I had to get myself ‘worked up’ to be at my sharpest. It was explained that our brains are actually more likely to ‘jam’ or short- circuit when we are overly anxious, nervous, or under pressure. Relaxing the mind and body will result in clearer thinking and thus, better performance. I was also given a home practice that consisted of reading twenty-eight little phrases, three times each, pausing for twenty minutes in-between each reading. I taped a tiny little thermometer to a finger (palm side) and noted the temperature. After the pause, I read again and noted that temperature after. The goal was that my skin temperature would rise at least a little. Here’s why.
If you truly reach a state of relaxation, the tiny capillaries in your extremities will also relax and when they dilate blood will flow better, and hands (and sometimes feet) will warm up. Other things happen too, as shown using both EEG readings in a professional setting and skin temperature for the home practice sessions. As is often the case, there is more to say, but I am out of space.
Here are the twenty-eight phrases I was given to practice relaxing.
Biofeedback is helpful for many!
Cleveland Clinic: “Biofeedback is an alternative medicine approach that teaches people to change the way their body functions.”
Medical News: “Bio-feedback therapy is a non-drug treatment in which patients learn to control bodily processes that are normally involuntary like muscle tension, blood pressure or heart rate.” Mental Health in Family Medicine: “A mind-body technique in which individuals learn how to modify their own physiology, to improve physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.” These definitions summarize biofeedback well.
Studied for over forty years, the concept was unique at the start, but now is commonly accepted. The goal of this type of training program is to teach the individual a way to gain control over involuntary physiological processes by using what they can control, like breath, muscle tension and changing their thought patterns. Both a mental and physical effort, this contributes to decreasing painful symptoms often made worse by stress. I liken the situation to how the body responds to an injury such as a cut. Involuntary bodily processes begin immediately to stop bleeding, send white blood cells to fight against possible infection, and to splint the injured area. Sometimes this system can overreact.
Stress can also cause this type of habitual overreaction to “fight or flight” situations when we feel some type of threat. Survival instinct kicks in and sometimes the body over does it. Biofeedback teaches how to alter one’s responses. Self-monitoring and control can quiet things down physically. Many outside stressors cannot be changed, but our reactions to them can.
The Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College in London analyzed sixty studies, checking for the effectiveness of psychophysiological intervention. Eighty percent of the participants reported some level of clinical decrease in symptoms after biofeedback training. It was reported that issues with anxiety, autism, depression, headaches, migraines, high blood pressure, eating disorders, schizophrenia, injury recovery, chronic pain, coronary artery disease, diabetes, MS, fibromyalgia, TMJ, insomnia, digestive disorders including constipation, IBS, diarrhea, ADHD, epilepsy, cancer recovery, heart disease were all helped. Anything made worse by stress improves by lowering the sympathetic arousal that stress causes.
Biofeedback is used by psychologists, physical therapists, nurses, social workers, chiropractors, psychiatrists, and some integrative clinics for people not responding to typical drug therapies. The process starts by first identifying what the need is, and then changing certain mental activities. Next, is learning how to change physical reactions by training yourself to regulate unconscious bodily processes to better control stress responses.
Specialized equipment is used that conveys biological signals (feedback) to the patient. The simplest is a thermometer taped to the finger to measure skin temperature. There’s a simple machine called RESPeRATE (https://www.resperate.com) that needs no training from an outside source.
Taking a test can be one of the most stressful things in life for a lot of people. It was definitely that for me when I was a student at KSU (about 1988). I noticed the first semester that the Wednesday following a routine chemistry quiz my hands would ache. The second semester, my hands were fine on Wednesdays but ached on Fridays. It seemed to me that the obvious connection was the release of stress through my hands the day after a quiz. Fortunately, there was a grad student working on biofeedback for his PhD. Sessions included some group counselling to address possible “mindset” problems. Mine was thinking I had to get myself ‘worked up’ to be at my sharpest. It was explained that our brains are actually more likely to ‘jam’ or short- circuit when we are overly anxious, nervous, or under pressure. Relaxing the mind and body will result in clearer thinking and thus, better performance. I was also given a home practice that consisted of reading twenty-eight little phrases, three times each, pausing for twenty minutes in-between each reading. I taped a tiny little thermometer to a finger (palm side) and noted the temperature. After the pause, I read again and noted that temperature after. The goal was that my skin temperature would rise at least a little. Here’s why.
If you truly reach a state of relaxation, the tiny capillaries in your extremities will also relax and when they dilate blood will flow better, and hands (and sometimes feet) will warm up. Other things happen too, as shown using both EEG readings in a professional setting and skin temperature for the home practice sessions. As is often the case, there is more to say, but I am out of space.
Here are the twenty-eight phrases I was given to practice relaxing.
- I feel quite quiet.
- I am beginning to feel quite relaxed.
- My feet feel heavy and relaxed.
- My ankles, my knees and my hips feel heavy, relaxed and comfortable.
- My solar plexus and the whole central portion of my body, feel relaxed and quiet.
- My hands, my arms and my shoulders feel heavy, relaxed and comfortable.
- My neck, my jaws and my forehead feel relaxed. They feel comfortable and smooth.
- My whole body feels quiet, heavy, comfortable and relaxed.
- I continue to relax.
- I am quite relaxed.
- My arms and hands are heavy and warm.
- I feel quite quiet.
- My whole body is relaxed and my hands are warm, relaxed and warm.
- My hands are warm.
- Warmth is flowing into my hands, they are warm, warm.
- I can feel the warmth flowing down my arms into my hands.
- My hands are warm; Relaxed and warm.
- I am comfortable and still
- My whole body feels quiet, comfortable and relaxed.
- My mind is quiet.
- I withdraw my thoughts from the surroundings and I feel serene and still.
- My thoughts are turned inward and I am at ease.
- Deep within my mind I can visualize and experience myself as relaxed.
- I am alert, but in an easy quiet, inward-turned way.
- My mind is calm and quiet.
- I feel an inward quietness.
- I choose to be relaxed.
- The relaxation and reverie is now concluded and the whole body is reactivated with a deep breath and the following phrases: I feel life and energy flowing through my legs, hips, solar plexus, chest, arms and hands, neck and head…. The energy makes me feel light and alive.
- Give yourself a big stretch.
Biofeedback is helpful for many!
