How to Change Your Mind From the Outside In

"For most of us, though, trying to think ourselves into being anything except more frustrated is very difficult, especially when we start trying to change how we react to things. That is, when we try to alter our thoughts on the inside so that our outside behaviors change. But what if we go the other direction? What about going outside in?"

"Neurobiological hallmarks of a calm mind include alpha (8-12 Hz) and theta (4-8 Hz) brain rhythms. These contrast with high arousal beta (12-30 Hz) and gamma (>30 Hz) waves. The point here, though, isn't about diving into details around EEG measures of brain activity. It's instead to notice that the brain rhythms associated with calm are very much lower than those associated with arousal."

"Brain rhythms can be entrained by what we think and, especially relevant here, by what we do. That is, certain behaviors can induce changes in brain states that may start with specific cues but which have global effects. This is like creating an 'attractor state' where a dominant rhythm is like a magnet pulling and entraining the activity of other brain regions into a different activation state, rhythm, and level."

Attempting to think ourselves into calmness is often ineffective because the brain's thinking processes struggle to directly alter their own rhythms. Calm mental states are characterized by lower-frequency brain waves: alpha (8-12 Hz) and theta (4-8 Hz) rhythms, contrasting with high-arousal beta (12-30 Hz) and gamma (>30 Hz) waves. Brain rhythms can be entrained through behavior and physical practices rather than thought alone. Specific actions create attractor states where dominant rhythms pull other brain regions into different activation patterns. Since humans naturally excel at increasing arousal but struggle to decrease it, external approaches using movement and breathing prove more effective for achieving and sustaining calm states.

Read at Psychology Today