Meditation Software

Do you find meditation difficult?

Are you having trouble quieting the mind?

Do you get frustrated at the mental chit-chat and the merry-go-round of thoughts?

If so, then software may be for you.

Although the research is not widely documented there have been a few studies that have examined the effects of meditation software.

This dearth or research is surprising given:

• the difficulty that some people have in starting their meditation practice
• the benefits of meditation
• the technological advances that enable the use of technology as a means to aid meditation.

Binaural software is one way that meditation software may be used.

What is binaural software?

Binaural software is when you listen to two different sounds with headphones, one sound going into the right ear and the other sound going into the left ear.

Typically the binaural beats are brain stem responses that occur due to the interaction of the two different sounds in the left and right ear.

For example, if you hear a tone of 340 Hertz in your left ear and a 330 Hertz in your right ear simultaneously, the difference between the two tones is experienced.

In other words it is the 10 Hertz which the brain is entrained towards.

Since this is in the alpha range, which is associated with relaxation, then the brain waves move towards this frequency and provide a relaxation effect.

If the difference was theta waves (say between 4-7 Hertz) then the brainwaves would entrain towards dreams, REM sleep, and deep relaxation/meditation.

While this binaural beat is not heard, in the literal sense, it is perceived and may be used to theoretically entrain the neural rhythms.

There have been a few studies in this area that have examined binaural beats with stress and anxiety. For example,

• a pilot study in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine showed that those exposed to binaural beat technology had lower anxiety and higher reported quality of life (Wahbeh, Calabrese, & Zwickey, 2007)
• a pilot study showed that binaural beats reduced mild anxiety (Le Scouarnec et al., 2001)
• a randomized control trial in the journal Anaethesia showed that binaural technology reduced pre-operative hospital anxiety (Padmanabhan, Hildreth, & Laws; 2005)

Test these samples of Binaural software for alpha and theta states of meditation.

Search here for other meditation techniques

Related stress management articles

Transcendental Meditation: The Benefits of TM

Mindfulness Meditation: Mindful Meditation Exercises

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