{"id":307,"date":"2024-06-25T10:27:35","date_gmt":"2024-06-25T14:27:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/guitar-faces.com\/blog\/?page_id=307"},"modified":"2024-08-22T17:34:12","modified_gmt":"2024-08-22T21:34:12","slug":"meditation-after-neurofeedback","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/guitar-faces.com\/blog\/whats-up-with-the-faces\/meditation-after-neurofeedback\/","title":{"rendered":"Meditation after neurofeedback"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong. <\/p>\nJoseph Chilton Pearce<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

With wires on my head like an EEG<\/abbr>, and a heart rate monitor on my thumb, I learned to fly a Fokker triplane plane around a desert island, win a sailboat race, and bowl strikes. “The video game is based on underlying academic principles that attempt to improve the concentration level and classroom performance of children with ADHD<\/abbr>” (Mir, Asmatullah Khan, Ansari; 2021)<\/span>. Bigger than a desert island or regatta, I finally learned how to meditate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What did 40+ hours of neurofeedback teach me?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Neurofeedback is a self-regulation technique, defined as learning to control brain events by giving conscious feedback in response to an event (Fundamentals of Cognitive Neuroscience<\/a>, 2013). In the 21st century, for an event to be noticed it should be on a computer screen, and if it’s an audience you’re after, give your app or activity game elements. They weren’t quite “games” that I played, but the activities proved to me, one who’d long since given up looking for lost lists or a place for his pomodoro, that self-regulation was not out of my reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now admittedly\u2026 How, or even whether I could have mustered such a level of self awareness as a child is something to write about another day, but what this meant for me now is that for two hours each week, at a time some people I know are planning retirement, I was studying the effect of slowing my heart rate by controlling my breathing with my diaphragm, as if it was the latest reality TV series\u2014and gaining muscle memory of how I might re-create these feelings that had these measurable effects on specific areas of my brain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u2026most of neurofeedback practitioners implicitly or explicitly use a bulldozer principle of neurofeedback. \u2026 So, if there is an excess of some EEG parameter in a particular patient and in particular location in the cortex, the aim of the neurofeedback is to train this parameter DOWN, if there is a lack of some other EEG characteristic, the corresponding neurofeedback parameter is trained UP. The method works like a bulldozer filling in the cavities and excavating the bumps.<\/p>\nJuri D. Kropotov, Methods of Neurotherapy<\/em> (2009)<\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I recall mentioning several times, in no uncertain terms: my brain seems much louder than how others describe their inner voice. My mistakes when playing well-known, oft-rehearsed tunes often felt more like intrusive thoughts \u2014 unintentional spontaneous improvisations. A so-called “good night” was often the nights I let it happen, and didn’t work myself up with doubts and rumination. When thoughts arise in mindful meditation we gently set them aside, “without judgment.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For neurofeedback in the early 2020s I still had to go to a dedicated office where a trained professional attached expensive equipment. Mindfulness is everywhere. I carry the Medito app on my phone. Neurofeedback reminded me I’ve tried to meditate since the Beatles released the White Album, and felt all along I wasn’t quite getting it. What’s new for me is the connection between these realizations, and a diaphragm breathing exercise I got years ago from a vocal teacher. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the posts under this page’s heading I’ll describe how I’ve been adapting the Medito Foundation<\/a>‘s free app to meditate successfully (after 50+ years of fooling myself, or telling myself I couldn’t do it) and especially the role of the diaphragm in lowering anxiety and heart rate. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong. Joseph Chilton Pearce With wires on my head like an EEG, and a heart rate monitor on my thumb, I learned to fly a Fokker triplane plane around a desert island, win a sailboat race, and bowl strikes. “The video game is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":2,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"full-width-page-template.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-307","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/guitar-faces.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/guitar-faces.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/guitar-faces.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guitar-faces.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guitar-faces.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/guitar-faces.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":414,"href":"https:\/\/guitar-faces.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/307\/revisions\/414"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guitar-faces.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/guitar-faces.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}