Stress Relief

I have, recently, been looking at some stress relief tools, life being what it is in these difficult times.

I recommend the meditation podcasts at the site http://www.themeditationpodcast.com. I found episodes 1, 2, and 3 particularly helpful. These are guided meditations lasting about 20 minutes. I found these extremely relaxing especially in the evenings or when going to bed. It helps to sit in a comfortable chair, or lie down on a bed, and put on a pair of headphones. I have always had difficulty meditating, and this podcast is helpful.

A second website I have enjoyed is http://www.freehypnosistreatment.com/. The audio/video recordings, here, are also guided meditations of sorts. Don't let popular negative opinion on hypnosis throw you off. There is nothing damaging about hypnosis: a hypnotist cannot seize control of your mind to make you do things you don't want. It's very relaxing to listen to a hypnosis script. The guy who speaks on the audio here has a lilting Irish accent, and a soothing voice. I found his video on anxiety, and his audio on positive thinking, very good.

Finally, let me mention two interesting, related technologies. One is the use of biofeedback hardware to give you an introduction to meditation through video gaming. The hardware/software Wild Divine video game is in this space -- their hardware has two sensors: one for measuring the heart rate and the other for measuring skin conductance (galvanic resistance). It is quite pricey ($200+) so I haven't tried it. The other is the so-called binaural beats: a person's EEG has waves in different spectral regions, and the so-called alpha waves -- which meditators exhibit -- are in the 10 Hz range. By sending two different harmonics separated by 10Hz to the two ears, a 10Hz beat is supposedly synthesized in the brain. You will find binaural beats in many meditation music CDs (as well as the meditation podcast mentioned above). For free binaural beats without any music on top look at http://i-dose.us. It is recommended that you use high-quality stereo headphones (with no crossfeeds). I should say the binaural beats stuff didn't do much for me, but your mileage may vary.

The stuff in the last paragraph may sound weird to some, so be it. I am not expert enough to know if these are gimmicks or not, but from what I have heard, these are useful innovations for kids, beginners, and those who have difficulty getting into the meditation groove.