What are the different brain waves and their functions?

Here is a brief overview. We have five brain frequencies (Gamma. Beta, Alpha, Theta, Delta).
Each frequency is measured in cycles per second (Hz) and each is a state of consciousness.

Gamma (above 40Hz) – Insight
Bursts of insight and high-level information processing from different brain areas.

Beta (14-40Hz) – Waking Consciousness And Reasoning
Normal waking consciousness and a heightened state of alertness, logic and critical reasoning.
But also associated with stress, anxiety, unease, fight and flight.

Alpha (7.5-14Hz) – Deep Relaxation
Present in deep relaxation, whilst daydreaming, when eyes are closed.
It heightens imagination, visualization, memory, learning and concentration.
Good for positive programming and accessing intuition.
This is the entry-point to the subconscious mind.

Theta (4-7.5Hz) – Light Meditation And Sleeping
Present in deep meditation, light sleep and REM sleep.
Realm of vivid visualizations, inspiration, profound creativity and insight.
Here lie deep-seated programmes in the subconscious.

Delta (0.5-4Hz) – Deep Sleep
The realm of deep, dreamless sleep and transcendental meditation where awareness is fully detached.
A time of deep healing and regeneration.
Unconscious mind.

During a Hypnotherapy session we utilise this understanding of brain waves to optimise the use of our brains for making positive changes.

We encourage conscious, logical reasoning, followed by relaxation to connect the conscious decisions with the subconscious mind so that the entire mind is focused on creating what is wanted. The trance is then deepened to a sort of replication of REM state to help a person creat the changes they want to see.

As we approach “Look up at the Sky Day” on 14 April, we realise that we can use this change in perspective to find the solutions to our problems in life. By looking up at the broad expansiveness of the sky what we are really doing is shifting our awareness from analysing the smaller pieces of the jigsaw puzzle of our life to seeing the bigger picture of the combination of all the puzzle pieces. 

Maral Kojayan, a Solution Focused Hypnotherapist, based in London says that “When we focus on the problems in our lives, we remain trapped in the emotionally negative part of our mind that goes around in circles. But by allowing our focus to widen from the minutia of our issue to the grand scheme of things helps us step out of the grips of the habitual emotional mind and move into the intellectual space that contains the answers and wisdom that we need to be able to move our lives forward.”

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy is a forward looking therapy that focuses on finding the solutions in your life. Maral goes on to add “The solutions to our lives can be found when we are able to detach ourselves from the actual problems that are gripping us. By moving into a detached observer position, we are able to gain some clarity over the situations we find ourselves in and see other possibilities that are available, via external help, resources or inspired ideas that can emerge within the space that opens up when we move out of the emotional mind.”

The brain is divided into two mindsets, the intellectual mind and the emotional mind. The limiting emotions of fear or anxiety are designed to keep us checking out our lives for threats or danger, but as we know we are usually not really in the type of crisis or emergency that our emotional brain tries to convince us of, we are simply not being mindful. “When we move out of the present moment, and what the mindfulness teachers describe as the “higher self”, we get pulled back in to the primitive part of the brain that is constantly on high alert, predicting and forecasting the future with obsessive risk assessment, or tracking back into the past, where previous templates of behaviour and patterns are repeated in order to keep us “safe”. The emotional part of our brain is certainly not exploratory, it wants to stay inside the comfort zone, and is reluctant to allow you to broaden your horizon with innovative thinking.” Maral says.

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy teaches you to move out into this expansiveness and helps you understand that you are not your primitive mind, but you are actually your intellectual mind. That part of your mind that knows calm, knows clarity, knows happiness and knows creativity.

Maral is a member of the Association of Solution Focused Hypnotherapy (AfSFH) and is practicing in the London area. For more information email [email protected] or visit www.clarityflowhypnotherapy.com.

For more information about the AfSFH, please visit www.afsfh.co.uk.