How Does NeurOptimal® Neurofeedback Help?
- Do you have trouble relaxing during or after work?
- Do you struggle to focus on specific tasks during the day?
- Do you have trouble switching from one task to another?
- Do you make careless mistakes?
- Do you control your moods, or do your moods control you?
- Does it take you longer than 15 minutes to fall asleep?
The various things we do during a normal day require different levels of consciousness and awareness. Your brain needs tremendous flexibility to shift from one “mode” to another. The heightened state of awareness necessary to complete a work task is obviously not the best state for sleep. That’s why brain flexibility is so important.
NeurOptimal® is essentially a brain workout. It trains your brain to be more flexible and resilient. Without pushing it in any specific direction, the NeurOptimal® neurofeedback system interacts with your central nervous system in a way that improves neural plasticity. A mind that is more flexible adapts and responds quicker and more appropriately to changes in your environment. The more easily your brain adjusts to changes encountered in a normal busy day, the better you feel. A lack of brain fitness, on the other hand, can leave you drained and stressed at the end of the day.
NeurOptimal® can also help build brain resilience, or an increase in the central nervous system’s ability to “bounce back” from a negative event. Negative feelings associated with a personal conflict or bad day at work can hover hours after the actual event has passed. The destructive effects of nervousness and repetitive or self-critical thinking is magnified in more severe events, such as physical or emotional trauma, or the loss of a loved one. Instead of staying stuck in the negativity of these events, the resilient brain snaps back and returns to its normal baseline more quickly. Individuals with more resilient brains report feeling happier and enjoying a more profound sense of peace.
The Particulars
NeurOptimal® monitors the electrical activity of your brain, reminding your brain about what it's actually doing so your brain can function more optimally.
When brain activity shows signs of turbulence, the music within the NeurOptimal® neurofeedback software is momentarily interrupted. This subtle cue alerts your brain that it is operating inefficiently. With repeated training sessions, the brain learns to “reset” itself and function more smoothly. All of this learning is non-invasive and happens outside of your conscious awareness. Over time, NeurOptimal® adjusts itself automatically in response to your brain's activity, individualizing the training microsecond by microsecond to your own brain’s functioning.
Sound simple? That’s because it is simple. The true complexity of the neurofeedback training is embedded in the NeurOptimal® software.
Just think of NeurOptimal® as an Olympic gymnastics coach or yoga instructor. Like a human teacher, the neurofeedback machine points out and corrects your form as you train. As you get better, the level of brain training difficulty increases automatically. With practice, your brain fitness (i.e. brain flexibility and resilience) naturally improves and becomes more natural and efficient. As a result of the training, you can maintain a healthy brain and become more effective in your personal and professional life.
What to Expect
Clients will likely notice SOMETHING shift within six sessions. Early on, clients commonly report shifts in their sleep patterns, feeling well rested, having an improved outlook and engaging more effectively with colleagues or loved ones. Changes you experience may or may not be related to the goals you came in with, but generally speaking, any kind of shift is a positive indication that the NeurOptimal® brain training is working as designed.
Specifically, clients describe feeling clearer, calmer, lighter or brighter for a few hours after the session – a feeling that typically will last through the week, from one neurofeedback training session to the next (weekly sessions being the most common). Eventually, this new centered way of being becomes their “new normal”. Only if they get thrown off by a negative event - a bad day at work, chemicals, a knock on the head - might they drop into the way they felt before. But generally, they will not dip as deeply into emotional discomfort, and will more than likely bounce back from challenging situations much more quickly and easily.