Biofeedback for stress management

Biofeedback for stress will enable you to harness the power of your mind to manage your stress.

Unless you are a hermit on an island paradise, stress is very much a part of your daily life. Excessive stress is one of the major epidemics of this century, and biofeedback can be an effective tool for you to use to manage stress.

What is Biofeedback?

Biofeedback is about providing you with real-time feedback of your biological processes. This helps you to become more aware of the subtle bodily changes.

So biofeedback for stress management is about becoming aware the changes in your biological processes when stress occurs. One of the advantages of this is that it firstly makes you aware of any bodily changes and you can harness your mind to modify your stress symptoms.

In essence, biofeedback creates a mind/body connection for stress relief.

Biofeedback for stress management helps you to monitor and control the symptoms of stress.

Some of the symptoms of stress are:

• increased blood pressure and hypertension,
• tight shoulders and neck pain,
• sweaty palms and a dry mouth,
• tension headaches or migraine.

For a more detailed list of symptoms please click here.

Biofeedback can provide you with feedback of these physical changes when stress occurs.

There are two reasons why this can be important for your stress management.

The first is that not all forms of stress are noticeable. Over time we adapt to everyday stressors, treating them as an inevitable part of living. However, this stress still creates wear and tear on your body with the subtle changes in your body going unheeded or unnoticed.

Biofeedback, using the advances of technology, psychology and physiology; can help you to observe these subtle bodily changes to stress. You are able to pay closer attention to these subtle changes which you can then modify or control.

The second is that biofeedback can harness the power of your mind to control stress.

Biofeedback can develop your mind to manage your stress

By becoming more aware of the changes in your body, you are able to pay attention to the effects of stress on your body. The regular use of biofeedback will help you to harness the power of your mind to manage your physical stress symptoms.

There are different types of biofeedback machines that can be used to monitor the different physical symptoms of stress on your body.

You can train yourself with Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) biofeedback. This is used to measure your skin conductance which is related to sweat. This is the same method that is used in “lie detector” tests. As you become stressed or emotionally excited, you activate your sympathetic nervous system. As this occurs you sweat more and this increases the skin’s electrical conductance, which is picked up by the GSR. The information from the GSR can be used to monitor and control stress, anxiety and stuttering.

Alternatively, if you find that stress results in tension in the shoulders, neck and back; a worthwhile option may be to train yourself with an electromyogram (EMG) biofeedback. An EMG can help you to measure the tension in these muscles. By using the EMG on a regular basis you will be able to recognize muscle tension early and learn to relax the muscles in the neck, shoulders and back.

Stress can also result in a drop in your temperature, and this can be monitored and controlled by temperature biofeedback. The sensors are attached to your hands or feet. If you receive a low reading, this can alert you to start relaxation techniques.

Conclusion

Whichever biofeedback option you choose, you will become more aware of your bodily symptoms associated with stress. Overtime, the regular use of biofeedback develops an ability to be able to control your stress symptoms and reduce stress.

Combined with relaxation techniques, biofeedback is a highly effective tool for stress management.