{"id":1561,"date":"2024-07-01T10:52:16","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T10:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/?p=1561"},"modified":"2024-07-02T11:03:51","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T11:03:51","slug":"mirrored-healing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/01\/mirrored-healing\/","title":{"rendered":"Mirrored Healing"},"content":{"rendered":"

RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

It is not as bizarre as it appears to be on the surface. The human body and the ubiquitous chip have something in common \u2014 a palpable flair for self-regulation. Your electronic gizmo is a feat of technological excellence just as much, and more, the human body is with all its myriad feedback mechanisms, such as breathing, heartbeat, visual co-ordination and regulation of body temperature, among other infinite physiological processes.<\/p>\n

The origins of biofeedback as a therapeutic tool emerged, thanks to the amazing relationship that exists between our mind and the body. To highlight a famous allegory, Narcissus, a character from Greek mythology, was, perhaps, the first real \u2018proponent\u2019 of biofeedback. His incurable allure for his own image may have epitomised the whole premise of \u2018reflection\u2019 \u2014 the mainstay in the fundamental workings of biofeedback.<\/p>\n

Biofeedback mirrors the fact that individuals can monitor, and learn, to control involuntary activities of certain organs and bodily functions, while learning to repeat, or recall, behaviour, or bodily states, that they find affable and agreeable. For instance, people with migraine can learn to \u2018prompt\u2019 the condition and, in so doing, reduce muscle tension and, subsequently, their pain. In simple terms, biofeedback encourages you to exert certain control over your body\u2019s internal functions \u2014 by making you conscious of what\u2019s happening inside, as it responds to various subjective, or behavioural, underpinnings. When you succeed in bringing about a change, biofeedback would present you with more than tangible information on them.<\/p>\n

It was assumed for long that most human biological functions were not accessible to manoeuvring without the use of drugs, or surgery. The development and progress of biofeedback techniques ushered in a new area of psychological interest and turned the whole dogma from the inside out. This happened primarily because subjects using biofeedback could effectively control body functions \u2014 and, thus, their behaviour, which was not formerly believed to be \u2018manoeuvrable\u2019 by conscious management. This plausibility was akin to the formation of new cells and growth, including our electrochemical brain-wave catalogue that monitors our physiological activity and wellness.<\/p>\n

Biofeedback first made waves in the medical community in the mid-1960s, when researchers in the US began to explore the likely effects of applying monitoring instruments into the mind-body feedback system \u2014 to determine whether, or not, one could learn to exert greater wilful control over it. The technique also enhanced its acceptance and credibility when Neal Miller trained laboratory rats to control certain glandular responses in his physiological and psychological laboratory at Rockefeller University. It did not, thereafter, take long for other findings to establish the proposition that one could manage and influence one\u2019s somatic and behavioural patterns through biofeedback.<\/p>\n

Research suggests that human beings can manipulate their EEGs, or electroencephalograph \u2014 an instrument used for recording electrical impulses produced by the brain \u2014 by changing their excitation levels. You can, for example, while viewing alpha waves \u2014 a slow \u2018ripple\u2019 that indicates normal relaxed brain activity \u2014 on an oscilloscope, modify them into high frequency patterns. The result is imminent. You become more alert and attentive. You can, likewise, prompt your heart to relax and, in the process, help release, or purge, your tensions. The inference is obvious \u2014 that one can, with biofeedback, help relax \u2018oneself,\u2019 including one\u2019s heart muscles, while bringing down blood pressure levels over a period of time.<\/p>\n

Clinical studies suggest that biofeedback is more than useful in people who have recently had heart attacks. This is how it works. It teaches them to ease anxiety and the fear of the future \u2014 a major barrier to physical and emotional recovery.<\/p>\n

It is also universally accepted that certain specific body functions that are controlled by the central nervous system can be measured hypothetically. In medical terms, such parameters are related to the contraction of voluntary muscles, skin temperature of the arms and legs, brain-wave activity, electrical conductivity of the skin, heart rate, blood pressure, and the rhythmic contractions of the intestine. This is what biofeedback precisely achieves through the use of small portable units and high-tech gadgets, while making it possible for a dialogue between the patient\u2019s conscious mind and their physiology to synchronise and effect harmonious change with relative ease.<\/p>\n

When biofeedback was comparatively a new technique, the recording equipment was often \u2018hooked\u2019 lightly to the area of one\u2019s interest and connected to the biofeedback instrument by wires. This allowed the quiet electrical, or any other, activity to be evaluated \u2014 allowing for shifting numerical scores to emerge \u2014 all of them with the view of effectively measuring a sensation. A person, for example, would \u2018visualise\u2019 images that moved them for a particular purpose. Or, one could \u2018connect\u2019 to the sun warming them \u2014 while elevating the temperature of one\u2019s hands made clammy by anxiety.<\/p>\n

How does a typical biofeedback session work? This is, of course, subject to vary from one individual to the other \u2014 from 25-45 minutes, or more. The duration of treatment, likewise, is subject to differ. Most biofeedback practitioners suggest that treatment is best terminated, or suspended, when the patient has realistically worked, learned and promoted a habit strong enough to be incorporated into their self-image \u2014 one that has given the maximum benefit, or relief. They also aver that it would be more than helpful for the individual to understand when a \u2018booster\u2019 session is needed to derive better treatment outcomes, or results.<\/p>\n

Biofeedback has, doubtless, proven its clinical efficacy in specific disorders, such as phobias, drug and alcohol abuse, headaches \u2014 especially migraines \u2014 sleep issues, torticollis, or wry neck, high blood pressure, pain syndromes, allergies and asthma, certain psychiatric conditions, such as anxiety and depression, irritable bowel syndrome [IBS], etc., where the treatment is a much preferred choice, not to speak of neuromuscular rehabilitation, particularly for early recovery following paralytic attack. What\u2019s more, biofeedback has been successfully employed in space physiology. It helps astronauts to adapt themselves better to zero-gravity \u2018blues.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2014 First published in The Himalayan Times<\/em>, Nepal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR It is not as bizarre as it appears to be on the surface. The human body and the ubiquitous chip have something in common \u2014 a palpable flair for self-regulation. Your electronic gizmo is a feat of technological excellence just as much, and more, the human body is with all its myriad feedback […]\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-1561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-wellness","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1561"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1563,"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561\/revisions\/1563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}