Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Other Benefits of Binaural Hearing

Although I was VERY happy with my reduced stress. I looked at the other sounds in the package I had downloaded. It seemed binaural sound could do more for me than just take away my stress. There were other benefits of binaural hearing:
  • Mental refreshment - I could listen to this for about 5 to 30 minutes and feel better mental clarity. I definitely could use that!
  • Boosted creativity - I work in retail and am always looking for ways to make different merchandise displays so I could use that, too.
  • Laser Focus - Taking night classes to get my masters what taking its toll and my mind would wander in class. I couldn't concentrate. This could be a bonus!
  • Renewed energy - I totally knew I needed that!

So I decided to try the other downloads...

Mental entrainment at work.

I researched a little about mental entrainment on the internet and found out what it was.

The best I can describe it is that you'd use either something called "brain machines", where you're accosted visually with flashing pulses of light, or binaural sound, which plays different frequencies of sound on earphones.

I, of course, had chosen binaural sounds. (I did try the lights and they gave me a headache!)

The binaural sounds play two tones, one in each ear of your headphones.

It seems that human ears can't hear frequencies below 30 Hz so they have to be "perceived" by the brain.

One tone played a frequency of 310 Hz and one tone played a frequency of 300 Hz. Now the difference between these two frequencies is, of course, 10 Hz. That is both below what my ears can hear and is the same frequency that exists normally in my brain when I'm completely relaxed (which isn't often!).

Now the mental entrainment part takes place.

It seems the brain will "entrain" or fall into step with the frequency it hears. In this case it is 10 Hz. Now, remember, my brain is operating at somewhere around 40 Hz plus 'cause I'm always stressed!

The brain will then gravitate to that 10 Hz frequency of relaxation.

Well, dadgum if I didn't feel like I was at the beach, reading, listening to the waves. I honestly felt more relaxed than I'd been since vacation. It was really cool.


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Binaural sound and the quest to calm down!

Coming home from work the other day I happened to be flipping channels on the radio and came across a talk show where they were talking about an easy way to reduce your stress level doing nothing more than putting on a pair of headphones and listening to different tones.

They were using words like brainwave or mental entrainment.

What is brainwave entrainment??!!

They also mentioned things like binaural sound, binaural waves, and binaural beats.

What are binaural beats??!!


Completely confused, but intrigued, I listened to the rest of the program. It seemed that all I had to do was:
  1. Find some binaural sounds somewhere.
  2. Take them home and put them on my MP3 player.
  3. Put on my headphones
  4. Push play
  5. Listen anywhere from 5 to 60 minutes (depending on how stressed I was)

I thought, "Hey, I can do that."

I've never been able to calm myself down on my own. I get stressed about anything and everything and I worry a lot. It was causing stomach problems and stuff and I had tried meditation, but I couldn't get my mind to clear. It kept racing.

So, I got the information and went to the website they mentioned and downloaded these binaural sounds.

I was very pleasantly surprised.