CHAPTER 8

Banish Worry for Good With the Whole Brain State

People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.

—George Bernard Shaw

In chapters 1 to 3 you learned how to rewire your brain in a fairly short period of time and interrupt your habitual negative worry patterns. In chapters 4 and 5 you used neuro-association to link certain mental states to behavior patterns, and chapters 6 and 7 introduced you to neuro-repatterning, which helps you practice turning on and off your emotional circuits for mental flexibility. Now, how do you sustain your progress and inoculate against future worry episodes? How can you develop what we call a mastery mind, meaning that rather than merely relieve symptoms of worry, you literally worry very little and instead live more often in the optimal mental states that promote daily performance, creativity, presence, and happiness? Through brain synchrony. What is that? Let’s explore it in the natural world.

Synchrony in the Natural World

Anything that moves has a rhythm, and when two or more rhythmic objects or entities come together, their rhythms will eventually match. Sooner or later, the pendulums on two grandfather clocks in the same room will start to swing in the same direction at the same time. Ticking metronomes sitting on a table together will begin to move at the same time. Crickets chirp together as if singing in a choir. Schools of fish swim in coordination, swarms of bacteria move as a single organism, and birds fly in formation. When two pacemaker heart cells are placed in close proximity, they begin beating together. Soldiers marching together over a bridge may cause such coordinated vibration that the bridge collapses. Couples unconsciously mirror each other as they respond to each other. Mothers and children coordinate their gestures and sounds.

History of the Whole Brain State

In the 1960s Joe Kamiya, researcher for the University of California at San Francisco in the Langley-Porter Psychiatric Institute, discovered that Alpha brain waves not only create wonderful feelings of well-being but even transcendent experiences. Kamiya used biofeedback systems to train students how to produce more Alpha frequency. Richard Bach, author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, was an early student; his training culminated in the popular hero’s journey story about a seagull whose driving desire was to become all that he could be. Later, Les Fehmi, researcher and director of the Princeton Biofeedback Centre, found that when the brain’s activity is synchronized in one or more areas it allows for a broad exchange of information, enabling it to achieve better perception and greater clarity of mind, with less anxiety and effort. Even minor physical pain tends to diminish in intensity and frequency.¹

Fehmi found that as we grow up, we are conditioned to overrely on the Beta state. Beta runs 12 to 35 Hertz, and is used to accomplish cognitive tasks. It also frequently reflects tension. The American cultural belief is that the more effort you put out to force something to happen, the more likely you will succeed. But if we can learn to rely on the Alpha frequency instead, success comes more easily.

Because Kamiya’s biofeedback approach took at least 20 minutes or more, Fehmi set out to find a quicker way to train students in Alpha, a challenge because it is not a frequency that responds to our command. He discovered that the answer is this: To increase Alpha, don’t try; instead, let go. We in the West are not accustomed to letting go, to empty space, or to silence. We talk a lot, we acquire too much, and we often live in clutter. This environment partly helps keep us in a state of Beta because it creates worry and strain. Eastern traditions, however, are constructed to promote Alpha. The Japanese concept of ma, which means emptiness or blankness, is reflected in simple spaces and lines in houses and gardens. Clutter in a space leads to higher Beta and tension; simple lines and spaces promote a calmer mind. Buddhist traditions direct meditators to focus on the space in a mandala, and the result of this focus on “nothing” calms the central nervous system. Paying attention to the space between things resets the neural networks by flooding the whole brain with synchronous Alpha, which calms the brain and shuts out worry. The result is more flexible processing and feelings of lightness, well-being, and creativity. Anna Wise, co-director of the Evolving Institute, studied with C. Maxwell Cade, a biofeedback researcher in Britain who observed advanced meditators, and found they produced a unique brain-wave pattern he termed the “awakened mind,” another term for the whole brain state. Not only were these meditators completely free of worry during their practice, their calm generalized to their actions, behaviors, and reactions in their everyday lives. Wise defined the awakened mind state as “being in the state you want to be in, when you want to be there, knowing what to do with that state, and being able to accomplish it.²

Wise decided to teach students how to replicate the mind of a monk with Cade’s biofeedback device, the mind mirror. She and Cade concentrated on increasing the students’ Alpha frequency and then balancing the other brain waves. They discovered that almost anyone could develop an awakened mind, or whole brain state, free of worry.

During Cade’s era, the technology was only capable of measuring brain waves up to about 30 Hertz, which mapped the awakened mind state. Later the EEG measuring equipment became so sophisticated that a higher Beta frequency was discovered called Gamma, and researchers found that it, too, was produced in bursts by the whole brain state. Recently, studies done on Tibetan Buddhist monks and Celestine nuns demonstrated their ability to produce a whole functioning brain state—synchronous Alpha with bursts of Gamma—during meditation on compassion. The advanced meditators showed a significant increase in brain activity in the left prefrontal cortex, with much less activity in the amygdala, the brain’s radar for potential threat. This pattern is associated with self-regulation, happiness, and compassion. The results suggest that when practiced regularly, meditation, especially what we call compassion meditation, or meditating on empty space, promotes Alpha synchrony and can speed the brain toward developing the whole brain state.

Alpha Synchrony in the Whole Brain State

When there is synchrony, blood flow equalizes in both hemispheres. The result is emotional balance, which improves our ability to solve complex problems, achieve better understanding and clearer perceptions, and take appropriate actions.⁴ Worry, however, tends to block the synchronization of the brain’s hemispheres. Worry drags the brain through mental sludge so that the “gears” don’t allow the normal hemispheric shift from left to right and back again to occur with ease. This can impede your brain’s ability to process information, which stalls your problem-solving capabilities. As your brain tries to come up with solutions by worrying, it’s actually stuck in place, like a truck spinning its wheels fruitlessly in the mud. In addition, an imbalanced brain that doesn’t communicate well can be dangerous to your health. One of the newer ideas in neuroscience being explored in the United Kingdom and Russia is that the body’s physiological systems are synchronized by brain-wave frequency.⁵ The brain makes adjustments to maintain its most stable state, and the body functions respond to the flow of information from all systems by altering the frequency output in the brain. For example, if the brain gets the information that the heart isn’t pumping as it should, it will compensate by raising Beta and sending signals to stimulate the blood pressure to rise. Good brain-wave synchrony indicates a high level of good communication between the brain and the entire body.

Besides turning off worry, another benefit of achieving brain wave synchrony is that it tends to slow the aging process by stimulating blood flow. James Hardt, a psychologist and researcher, suggests that hemispheric synchronization delays the aging process.⁶ When the hemispheres are balanced, you feel no stress, which improves sleep. British researchers Graham and Elena Ewing have found that the more dominant Delta and Theta frequencies at night are involved in physiological regeneration and the maintenance of health. James Hardt of the Biocybernaut Institute in B.C. discovered that the Alpha frequency is important in slowing aging, and as this frequency begins to disappear, it announces impending death.⁷ When the optimal brain state is achieved, peak performance in work, athletics, and performing arts is reached.

Finally, and most important to people plagued with anxiety, synchrony training for the whole brain state normalizes the nervous system so you can easily zoom in on important matters and zoom out at will instead of living in chronic hypervigilance or emergency mode. Your flexible attention allows you to avoid a stuck state of mind. Getting yourself into an optimal brain state is like waking up to the best of yourself. Worry stays away, you live in a state of flow, and everyday life is easier. Achieving the whole brain state leads to a deeper understanding, stability of perceptions, and mastery of your self. It builds your ability to recover from and inoculates you against life stressors. It’s a state where you can easily access information and achieve great insight. You understand your needs, vulnerabilities, yearning, and desires, but they do not control you. In the whole brain state there is no room for worry or rumination or any other negative emotion. It is a state of mind that is more flexible in thinking and clearer than other ordinary states. In fact, the secret to living a worry-free life is practicing the whole brain state.

How do you get synchrony, specifically Alpha synchrony? You focus on what’s not there instead of what is.

Get Instant Alpha

As we saw earlier, Les Fehmi discovered that when students focused on the space in a room, or the space between their fingers, or the space around their body, or the space in a picture frame, rather than the picture, the object-less attention caused a balanced blood flow in the students’ brain and produced phase synchronous Alpha.⁸ Focusing on empty space increases Alpha waves because when you focus on nothing, your brain cannot develop a story. When there is no story, there is no judgment, no worry, no anxiety, and no depression. Just soothing happiness.

There are three “empty-space” meditation exercises you can use to increase your synchronous Alpha. To avoid getting bored, use one exercise after another over three days and start again. Or you can select the one you like the best to repeat.

Exercise 1

1. Close your eyes and focus on the space within an empty cup for one minute.

2. Picture the word white, and then the word black floating in front of you on a mental screen. Focus on the space between these two words.

3. Focus on the space between your eyebrows for one minute.

4. Focus on the imaginary space in your head between your ears.

Now try to maintain a worry thought. Can you do it? Probably not. Just rest your attention in the space. It’s actually almost impossible to have any thought at all when you’re focusing on space.

Try this series of four steps for 3 to 5 minutes each day. Even spending just a short time focusing daily on empty space leads to a whole brain state. The entire time you’re in this whole brain state, it will be impossible for you to worry. In time, the exercise should condition you to shut off the worry at will just by staring at space. Over the first week, notice how much better you feel. Keep using the exercises after that. You are reconditioning your brain to calm the nervous system enough so you can begin to enter higher states of awareness that may include better control over your breathing, body tension, and a complete lack of worry.

Exercise 2

Should you find yourself narrowly focusing on a problem, pull your attention back, visualize the problem, and imagine it floating in front of you. Notice the space around the problem. Now, expand your focus and watch the image get much smaller and the great space around it grow bigger. Focus only on the space now and imagine you are the space with all of the stars and planets. You will notice how you are so much more than any problem floating in space. You are the space that is everywhere.

Exercise 3

The best time to do this training is first thing in the morning and once in the afternoon before eating. It begins with you sitting comfortably in a chair and reading the following script.

Place your feet flat on the floor and get comfortable. Breathe easily and, with each exhalation, allow your comfort to deepen. Begin to notice the comfortable feeling developing in your head and body. Focus on the space between your eyes and the imaginary space inside your head between your ears. Move down the neck and imagine the space in your throat and now into your chest and around the heart. Feel the energy of your heart beating into the space out in front of you. Imagine the space between your fingers on your right hand and now on your left hand. Move your attention to your back and the imaginary space within around your spine all the way down to the buttocks.

Now, move your attention to the developing comfort in the stomach and imagine the space in and around your stomach. As your relaxation continues, move into the space in your pelvis and inside your legs all the way down to your feet. Imagine the space between your toes on the right foot. Now imagine the space between your toes on the left foot.

Now move your attention away from your body to the space around your body. Focus your attention on the space in the room between the walls. Move your attention to the space above your house. Imagine that you focus on the space between the earth and moon. And now between the moon and Mars. Take your attention to the space in our entire galaxy. Stay with this focus for a few moments.

Now, begin slowly to return all the way back from the galaxy to the space between the moon and Mars. Return to the space between the earth and the moon and back to the space above and around your house. Return your attention to the space within the room you are sitting and the space around your body.

Begin now to reconnect with your body and notice your back on the chair and your feet on the floor. When you are ready, come all the way back into the present time and place. Take your time to re-orient.⁹

Feel free to develop your own meditation script that gets you to focus on space. You’ll see the best results if you practice twice per day for several weeks. Your stress levels should disappear quite quickly. With continued practice, you’ll start to deepen your intuition, improve your relationships, stimulate physical healing, and perform at your peak every day.¹⁰

Shake It Off

When we experience intense stress, fear, or anger, our muscles tend to contract; our nervous system moves into high gear with the release of norepinephrine, cortisol, and adrenaline; and our body becomes rigid and taught. If you have pent-up tension in your body, you might experience mild muscle movements, shaking, tingling, sweating, emotions, or sudden anxious thoughts while you do these exercises. This is normal. When we begin to calm down, we often tremble or shake because we’re releasing tension or suppressed feelings. Just allow them to come and know that the body is resetting itself and releasing tension you may have carried for a long while. If it happens frequently or bothers you, stop the session and come back to it later. Most people have only mild responses to open focus or none at all.

Allowing the body to shake naturally is important because severe stress shuts down the Broca’s area in the brain, which is the part that determines your ability to speak. If you’re trying to express your feelings about a stressful event but you can’t, it will just make you feel worse. Wait until you calm down and the shaking is over before trying to share your feelings first to yourself and then to a friend. If you don’t allow your body to finish shaking, deep fears could remain in your unconscious mind, and they may be expressed in unsettled feelings. Clearing tension and stress leaves you more flexible and less reactive, which helps you develop more resilience and claim your birthright of feeling worthwhile and deserving to live life in happiness and joy.

As you learn how to control your mind, you will have more power and resilience in everyday life.

Resilience

Practicing the whole brain state has many benefits, one of which is resilience. Resilience is the ability to bounce back from an upsetting event, which includes resetting the nervous system without being left with enormous worry. Practicing the whole brain state gives the brain more flexibility in shifting mental states, which makes us more resilient to everyday stressors.

Although this next suggestion sounds outlandish, once you’ve stopped shaking from a stressful event, play a game of Tetris or some video game that completely absorbs your attention. The games inoculate against the tendency to compulsively review the stress of what happened. By engaging your visual system in a game that takes a lot of attention to play, it interferes with the brain’s tendency to review negative events.¹¹

Whole Brain State and Your Potential

If you’re a worrier, unless you train your mind, a stressful event is bound to cause a reactive looping of worry thoughts that keep you locked into suffering. Practicing the whole brain state re-conditions how you react to emotional stress. When you can keep your arousal low in the face of upsetting events or stressors, your brain will store the memory in a nice, neutral box at the back of your mental closet. Without that intense charge attached to it, it can’t come roaring back to trigger worry the next time you face a negative experience. The fewer negatively charged memories you experience, the less you’ll overreact and the calmer you will be as you walk through life. In a state of lowered arousal, stored charged memories are processed and placed into the past without the charge associated with them. More of your attention is then available for other endeavors. When the whole brain functions in concert, you develop more psychological stability and emotional maturity.

How It Works in the Real World

Focusing on space works quickly, but it must be practiced to see long-lasting results. Learning to quickly shift your attention allows you to move in and out of a resting state and heal stresscaused problems. When you open or narrow your focus of attention, you manage potentially overwhelming stimuli each day. The more neuro-synchrony you have, the happier you are and the more you raise your awareness of novel responses to situations. Brain synchrony also allows you to use innovative thinking to solve challenges. When you are in the whole brain state in synchronous Alpha and don’t know what to do, you feel confident that you can devise a solution for the most difficult problems. Because the whole brain leads to optimal functioning, you move beyond conditioned responses, and can see the big picture with greater clarity, organization, and intuition. Then you actually practice a new self.

Whole brain synchrony—and the perspective and problem-solving it helps us achieve—may have saved one of our client’s lives. Jean was overwhelmed with worry when she came to see us. She was married to an emotionally abusive man. Among other things, he’d play mental games where he’d berate her, and then deny the behavior when she confronted him about it. On occasion, she’d come home and notice items she had put in specific places, like pictures hung in particular rooms, had been moved to different locations in the house. All of these surreptitious but not completely provable experiences led Jean to live in constant worry and fear. Because her husband had worked for a private investigator, he knew how to tap phone lines and perform undercover operations to gather information. Jean was sure he tapped her phone line. After years of this kind of gas lighting, she began to believe that something was wrong with her mind. Finally she worked up the strength to leave him.

She couldn’t sleep well, and was fatigued from constant fretful worry. After practicing the first few tools in this book for four weeks, Jean was able to calm her mind enough so she began to sleep better, and she found the strength to start saving herself. She moved into in a gated community where her husband couldn’t get to her. There she met a new man who ran a security company. He taught Jean protective measures to keep from her husband from intruding on her privacy. As she worked with us and discovered her mind was strong and her perceptions were clear, she started trusting herself more, gained a sense of empowerment, and devised a plan so she could live a happier life. Ultimately she divorced her husband and claimed a new life for herself, which included a wonderful relationship with the man who helped her. While we began with the early exercises in calming her anxiety, she moved from being frozen with terror and worry to taking action and saving herself by practicing the whole brain state. Some time after this mental training, Jean’s ex-husband called her to ask for information about their daughter. In the past, she would have frozen in terror. This time she told him that he would need to call their daughter, and she held her boundary when he became verbally abusive and hung up on him. Physiology impacts your psychology, so as you increase Alpha synchrony, other positive changes show up. You become open to your feelings, connect to your strength and your truth, and you are unafraid to know yourself. You see possibilities and a positive future. You feel balanced and at peace with yourself and your environment, and you bounce back from challenges and design good solutions.

Regulate the State and Content of Your Thoughts

Your goal should always be to train your attention in order to regulate both your mental state and your particular thoughts. As we have discussed, your internal state is reflected in the brainwave pattern, and thoughts are constructed from emotions, perspectives, and attitudes. Shifting the Beta content (often worry) by calming the mind and moving into Alpha and Theta states where images, daydreams, or feelings and more awareness occur regularly opens the gateway to unconscious wisdom and creativity. As you move more into Alpha over time, you can add Beta back by thinking about your experience or images, but your Beta mind is much more settled.

Alpha synchrony is associated with clear thinking. Technology and infrastructure have given us the hardware to experience harmonious relationships and live for longer periods in bliss and peace. What we need to learn now is the right software of thinking and our mental states. When partners share Alpha synchrony, they are less self-critical and more tolerant of their partner’s weaknesses. In our clinic, when we hooked up couples to the same biofeedback system, and they both created synchronous Alpha, they reported feeling as close to each other as they did when they first got together. By sharing any of the exercises with your partner, both of you can enter similar states and over time, experience stronger bonds and less edginess with each other.

Sharing in calm Alpha states among executive teams, parents, and children, or others trying to work out conflict tends to facilitate cooperation. When two people experience Alpha together, all notion of threat from each other dissolves and clear thinking replaces worry and fear.

Practicing the whole brain state and the discipline to achieve this state brings you to a place of maturity and real mental fitness. The whole brain state enables you to resolve past hurts and yearnings, shore up any feelings of inadequacy, keep worry at bay, and achieve great levels of awareness. But once you can move into states of self-transcendence and maintain deep states of mind for increasing periods of time, you’ll be able to eliminate chaotic thought, avoid emotional drama, and access wisdom, clarity, resilience, and bliss. The result is a self-regulated and happier life.

After practice, focusing on space, allow yourself to get lost in a pleasurable activity. Allowing yourself to become absorbed in an activity, whether music, work, or exercise, extends the amount of time you spend in the whole brain state. Often a shift occurs that opens you into a greater feeling of being alive, and life seems richer. You become aware of how everyone and everything is connected and in an expanded state of awareness; you realize that there is only this moment. You take control of your life by realizing you construct each day’s perceptions, and you begin to perceive the world as one of many possibilities.

All around the world, researchers are investigating how higher states of consciousness and altered states of mind can get us closer to optimal states of performance. These are the states of long-term meditators, monks, and mystics who have what seem like superpowers. These optimal states create the super minds of athletes, performing artists, and entrepreneurs. They move into transformative states of consciousness and often have numinous experiences that in the present science-dogma are outside the paradigm of what seems possible. These higher states of mind take these advanced mind/body practitioners beyond linear time and into a state of unity where the self-boundaries disappear. Through a certain kind of focus and elevated state, the mind matures and wakes up to a greater reality. We begin to have a hint of these possible states for the ordinary person through the state of flow, which we discuss in Chapter 9.

Power Thought: Focusing on empty space creates whole brain awareness–solutions.