Clarify & Deepen your meditation

Beginning meditators often complain that they do not know if they are “doing it right” or give up before realizing significant benefits. Advanced meditators often reach a plateau and struggle to reach “the next level” of their practice. A possible new solution to these challenges involves combining brain biofeedback with meditation to increase awareness of subtle states of consciousness and speed the learning process.

Simply put, biofeedback is any kind of mechanism that allows you to receive information (feedback) about your physiology (bio). This can include heart rate, skin temperature, or other physiological measures of nervous system arousal. With brainwave biofeedback, or electroencephalogram (EEG) biofeedback, we are able to monitor brain activity and use this information to gently guide the user into specific states of meditation. This process is generally called EEG NeuroMeditation.

By tracking brainwave activity in specific regions of the brain, we can tell if someone is focused or relaxed, if attention is directed internally or externally. We can tell if the mind is wandering, or if they have entered a space of internal quiet. By monitoring this activity and connecting it directly to the intent of the meditation, we can help meditators learn to quickly enter a desired state of consciousness and maintain this state for increasing periods of time.

Let me provide a simple example of how this works with a focus style of meditation. In this type of meditation, a person learns to focus their attention on a single target, such as the breath, a candle flame, or a mantra. When the mind inevitably wanders, they recognize that the mind wandered, and gently return their attention to the target. By monitoring brainwave activity in specific regions of the brain, we can get a pretty good idea if the person is actually engaged in the meditation or is instead, caught in mind wandering. The neurofeedback system links meditation music and visual images to the brainwave states. When the person’s brainwaves show a meditative state, the volume of the music increases and the image on the screen is brightly lit. When the brainwaves suggest mind wandering, the volume of the audio decreases and the image on the screen dims. This provides direct and nearly immediate feedback to the meditator, allowing them to refine their internal awareness.

Because meditation and neurofeedback are both involved in the training of mental states, these practices can be used to enhance each other, potentially increasing motivation, interest, and impact. This approach can also be used as an adjunctive intervention for specific mental health conditions such as ADHD, anxiety, depression, or PTSD.

You can begin your EEG NeuroMeditation journey in the office with one of our NeuroMeditation coaches or you can engage in the process remotely.

In Office Training

When training in the office, we typically begin with an intake assessment and quantitative EEG (qEEG) to help clarify clients’ goals and concerns (session 1). In this way, we can individualize the process to identify which neuromeditation style(s) will help the brain become more flexible, focused, and resilient. Subsequent sessions will combine neurofeedback with meditation instruction to help focus attention in the specific way each meditation style requires. Typically, sessions will occur once weekly for 6 to 12 weeks.

·  Package of 6 sessions: $1,050 ($175/session)

·  Package of 8 sessions: $1,280 ($160/session)

·  Package of 12 sessions: $1,740 ($145/session)

Remote Training

Using Divergence Neuro software and a range of different Bluetooth dry-sensor headsets, clients can participate in EEG guided NeuroMeditation from home. This option allows the client to practice wherever and whenever they choose by simply accessing the protocol on anything that allows you to download an app (i.e., android, iphone, tablet).

Costs:

Brainbit EEG headgear: ($399 to $750, depending on model)

Initial assessment/consultation: $175/hour

Monthly support fee (administration, subscription, maintenance): $200

(Optional) NeuroMeditation coaching sessions: $175/hour

If you are interested in the home training approach, please e-mail us at info@neuromeditationinstitute.com to schedule a free 30-minute consultation.

Read more about the use of neurofeedback to facilitate meditative states in the Psychology Today Blog: