Biofeedback is used to teach people how their mind and body are connected and how they work together to reduce pain and worry. Using feedback from a computer, a biofeedback specialist will teach you to control certain involuntary body responses (such as heart rate, muscle tightness and breathing). Biofeedback does not hurt, and most kids learn it faster than adults. The biofeedback machine helps you to look inside your body, showing you how fast you are breathing and how fast your heart is beating. By looking at lines or by activating a beeper every time your heart beats faster, you can learn how to stay calm in situations that used to make you scared or angry. By learning to change these lines, you will have more control of your body. Whether you have pain, headaches, trouble falling asleep or nervousness, biofeedback can help make you and your body feel better.
Meditation is a technique used to help you become relaxed, centered and at peace. Meditation has been shown to have benefits, such as controlling pain, manage stress, decreasing heart rate, and improving sleep and overall health. There are many different forms of meditation, but they are all based on the practice of concentrating your mind on one healing focus, whether it is a word, a sound, a prayer, an image or one’s breath.
Imagery, like meditation, has been shown to have powerful effects on one’s physical state, helping you to relax your body and mind. Guided Imagery includes a variety of different techniques. The central theme involves working with imaginary sensations, such as visual and auditory senses. By creating images, such as sitting in a comfortable beach chair, hearing the sound of the ocean and feeling the warm summer breeze, the body responds by increasing the blood flow throughout your body and making you feel calm and relaxed, as if you were actually at the beach! Test your own mind-body connection by imagining in detail cutting a lemon, smelling the strong odor and biting into the lemon. Guided Imagery has helped children to feel less nervous about hospital procedures and has helped with managing their pain and nausea levels. Using the imagination to control how you feel is an essential tool in coping with illness and stress.
Contact Us
Call Anke Reineke at 858-576-1700, ext. 222936 for more information about Biofeedback and Mind-Body Skills.