In a recent blog, The Art of Change, I talked about the importance of knowing how your brain works with regards to changing your life for the better.  Well I want to share with you a tool that I now use that helps my big beautiful brain create even more positive changes in my life.  It’s the coolest thing ever.  My latest obsession is BiNaural Beats.  BiNaural Beats were discovered back in 1839 by a German physicist, meteorologist and experimenter, H.W Dove.  A big shout out to H.W.! BUT what’s even cooler before BiNaural Beats were in the realm of science their usage had been found within many ancient cultures (I personally am not surprised!) such as; Native American Shamans, Tibetan Monks and Hindu Healers to name a few.  So what are they?  Land the plane Johanna!  They are a frequency or wave created by the brain that greatly contributes to the enhancement of any desired state like increased memory retention (listen up test takers!!!), higher creative states, meditation, deep relaxation, sleep, clear focus and much much more.  In order to understand this we must first understand how brain frequencies work: simply put, your brain operates at different frequencies depending on the state that you are in. These frequencies (Hz) are measured as the number of waves per second. 

BiNaural Beats purposefully create a specific frequency in your brain in order to reach a specific state. For example if you want to specifically increase your memory retention, a 10Hz Alpha Wave frequency (which contributes to super-learning) needs to be created. Your brain hears this frequency and begins to respond to it by allowing you to enter into the realm of super-duper learning.  I use these at the office when I want to really focus and bang out work or at home to simply help me sleep or meditate.  You have to use headphones in order for it to work though.   BiNaural Beats cannot be detected by the brain or heard while being played “outside the brain”. What physicist Heinrich Wilhelm Dove discovered, is that when two slightly different frequencies are introduced to each ear through headphones, the brain automatically meshes these two frequencies together in order to deal with their difference. It is this meshing that phenomenally creates a third frequency, which we call the BiNaural Beat and that is how the brain is able to comprehend what it is being thrown at it. It reconciles the difference between the two auditory frequencies and creates a third, in the center of your head. The third frequency needs to be less than or equal to 30Hz in order to be considered a BiNaural Beat, otherwise the frequencies cannot be meshed together and will be heard separately.  They are a ton of free videos on the interwebs with these.  Just google BiNaural Beats videos and you will see.  You can hear some with background music or just the beats alone.  My personal favorite is Thomas Hall’s You Tube Channel.  He’s got tons of amazing stuff.  He even has subliminal videos which I also use a lot of too.  I can personally tell you that they do work.  I’ve noticed a difference especially when I need to focus or have anxiety.  Enjoy and appreciate what your brain can do for you.  It’s a pretty amazing thing when you think about it.