Controlling the Brain with Sounds?

You are going to read about something you have probably never heard of. It sounds totally wicked: brainwave synchronization. What the hell is that? Let me explain some things first. When your brain is in a certain state, it generates waves with frequencies that are characteristic to that state. For example, if you have a deep dreamless sleep, your brain generates waves below 4 Hz  (Delta waves). Now, think about doing the reverse: let's stimulate the brain with certain frequencies and see what happens. Will it switch to that state? For example, can you fall asleep just by listening to certain sounds? Well, it might be the case.

The goal of brainwave synchronization is to induce intended brain-state by feeding the brain with frequencies that correspond to the intended state. Let's say I want to sleep, I play certain sound. I want to study and focus, I play another sound. I want to meditate, I play yet another sound. Does this work? Guess what? I tested it on myself! How? I narrowed my experiment to binaural beats. These are audio files that can be played on any computer. All I needed was my laptop and headphones. It is best to listen to binaural beats on headphones to eliminate distractions.

Here is the experiment. Almost every day I go to the lab to do research. Around 1pm I'm back from lunch. The hour from 1 to 2pm is the most lazy hour of the whole day. After eating food most of the blood flows to the stomach. There is less blood (and thus oxygen) in the brain. That is the reason why we are sleepy after eating lunch or dinner. Many times I took a nap as I was too sleepy to read and focus (fortunately we've got a sofa in the lab :-) ).

I decided to give a try to brainwave synchronization by listening to binaural beats. For that, I used a program called Gnaural. I was listening to the beats while reading papers. Every time I tried it, I always stayed focused. It is a weird stuff but seemed to work for me. It is hard to say something definitive as it might have been just placebo effect. In any case, what matters is that I can be productive after lunch. All I care about are the results.

There is a lot of stuff on Wikipedia about that topic. Not only I found it fascinating, but it also delivered good results. Feel free to try and experiment yourself. I would be interested in reading about your experience.

Motivational Sticky Notes

Several weeks ago we had a Valentines party at my place. It was a very cool crowd and I invited some friends to my room. A number of them paid attention to something that I no longer found unusual: motivational sticky notes. Majority of the people said they really liked the idea. Some asked me to send the quotes around. The idea is indeed pretty good and maybe you'll find it useful too.

First of all, motivational sticky notes is an old idea. I read about it on the Internet and wanted to give it a try. Like most good ideas, it is very simple: take a bunch of sticky notes, write motivational/inspirational quotes on them, and put the notes all over your place. Why the hell would you do that? I believe they help you to keep on track. They help me, at least.

The quotes usually express obvious things. And that's the problem :-) Many things in life are so obvious that you don't even remember them. What happens if you forget? You start acting in a way that is far from "the obvious". Let me give you an example. One of the quotes says "If we learn from our mistakes, why are we always so afraid to make a mistake?" The obvious thing here is to experiment, go out of the comfort zone and see what happens. It's a great mindset in practice, because allows you to pick up new things with open mind. I guess you agree with me. Now, what happens if you don't internalize the quote? You are less likely to try out new things. Is there any benefit of that? I doubt it.

People internalize things through repetition. A very easy way to repeat things is to surround yourself by them. You repeat just by glancing through the notes. If one catches your eye, think about it for a few seconds. Paper notes seem to be more effective than virtual notes. People often post motivational/inspirational quotes on Facebook. It is pretty much useless, because you forget the quote as soon as you post it :-)

Where to find good quotes and questions? I recommend being creative and tailoring the quotes to what matters to you. Try to come up with some sentences and quote yourself. It's pretty cool to quote yourself :-) Another source of quotes are books and websites. One particular website that I like is a blog entry: 50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind.