Stress In, Calm Out

Barb Campagnola examines how riding the brain'salpha waves helps you handle life on the job

We all know the myriad of ways stress can affect our bodies, but Les Fehmi, pioneering researcher and practitioner at The Princeton Biofeedback Center, offers new insights on how stress affects our brains and our brain wave patterns. Fehmi is a specialist in neurofeedback—or biofeedback, as it was commonly referred to in the early '70s.

Based on his findings, Fehmi has developed a theory about work-related stress. Modern-day workers, sitting in front of computers, meeting deadlines, and performing repetitive tasks to achieve certain goals, are all using their attention much of the day in what he calls a "narrow, objective focus." Doctors with HMO mandates, teachers with proficiencies, salespeople who must meet quotas, assembly-line types of routines, cashiers, and fast food workers—all fix their attention in this way.

Today, few escape the stress. The lucky exception may be the crafts person, for instance, who—by the nature of his or her work—may become absorbed in the beauty of the bead and the process in a more "diffuse and expansive" focus rather than the more narrow, objective one.

Fehmi claims that because of the way our attention is focused so much of the time, our brains and autonomic nervous systems remain in a state of "hyper-arousal," which raises our "set-point" for stress. The higher the set point, the lower our tolerance for stress. People in a state of hyper-arousal are more reactive to stressful events and prone to succumbing more easily to chronic stressful situations or environments—such as working under a boss with whom they do not agree, or with co-workers who are toxic.

In the body, stress may manifest in symptoms such as high blood pressure. In the brain, stress manifests in wave patterns characterized by excessive amplitudes of high beta and beta frequencies. In a hyper-aroused state, the brain alternates between these beta frequencies and a very slow, "spaced-out" theta state for relaxation. The middle frequencies, alpha and low beta, which are associated with a more relaxed state and diffuse attentional style, are under-utilized.

While this all may sound complex, these states are easy to discern, especially when sitting in front of a neurofeedback machine while in "training." Training is basically an effortless task, save for sitting and watching a screen and listening to sounds. Feedback levels are set by the practitioner, and the brain does the rest. Hooked up to sensors, the brain "responds" to rewards such as a Pac Man figure gobbling circles or the increasing volume of a tone. Afterward, much in the same way we master a new motor task, the brain will automatically "remember" these new states and, more importantly, the path it took to get there.

In recent decades, scientists have come to understand how stress heavily contributes to the development of psychological syndromes such as anxiety and depression. Chronic stress contributes to their milder manifestations, or "shadow syndromes." Without relief these shadow syndromes can either continue to quietly weaken the quality of life or develop into full-blown maladies. Neurofeedback training can help recalibrate stress systems and minimize accompanying shadow syndromes. Just as aerobic exercise increases the capacity of the heart, neurofeedback enhances the functioning and flexibility of the brain, thus enabling it to move from one state to another with greater ease.

Fehmi has developed a special protocol for relieving modern-day stress which he calls Alpha Synchrony Training. This training focuses on enhancing the middle alpha frequencies, increasing communication between the hemispheres, and resetting the internal stress point. A one-time student of Fehmi's, Roger Wilkens, founder and director of the Dogwood Center for Self Development in Southeast Ohio, currently offers a Wellness Week with Alpha Synchrony Training at its core. Clients who participate will receive two hours of this training a day. (Normally clients receive about an hour of this training a week.)

As a complement to Alpha Synchrony Training, Wilkens recommends Structural Therapy. Structural Therapy addresses the tension and emotional memories "held" in the muscle tissue, especially in the fascia that attaches muscle to bone.

If you can't manage a whole week to de-stress from work, once-a-week sessions also prove beneficial. Fehmi's research indicates that the effects of neurofeedback training are cumulative and long-lasting. Though it can not make an untenable situation acceptable, it can help keep your stress set point low enough to assist you in avoiding stress-related illness.

Living in a hyper-aroused brain state is like working in your office, but when it comes to quitting time, you can't get the door unlocked to go home, where you can really relax. Alpha Synchrony Training can provide the key: the ability to move from the narrow, focused beta state to the more calm alpha state with greater ease. And with the accompanying increase in energy and sense of well-being that training provides, you just might find that while work might be the same-old, you are not.

Barb Campagnola is a freelance writer living in Athens. She can be reached at bcampagn@columbus.rr.com. For more information on the Wellness Week and Alpha Synchrony Training, call The Dogwood Center at (740) 767 3212, or go to their Web site, www.dogwood-center.com.