“People and things do not upset us. It’s what we believe about people and things that upsets us.”
Biofeedback is a treatment technique in which people are trained to improve their health by using signals from their own bodies. Physical therapists use biofeedback to help stroke victims regain movement in paralyzed muscles. Psychologists use it to help tense and anxious clients learn to relax. Specialists in many different fields use biofeedback to help their patients cope with pain.
Chances are you have used biofeedback yourself. You’ve used it if you have ever taken your temperature or stepped on a scale. The thermometer tells you whether you’re running a fever, the scale whether you’ve gained weight. Both devices “feed back” information about your body’s condition. Armed with this information, you can take steps you’ve learned to improve the condition. When you’re running a fever, you go to bed and drink plenty of fluids. When you’ve gained weight, you resolve to eat less and sometimes you do.
Health practitioners use extremely sensitive biofeedback machines that allow them to witness a client’s internal bodily functions. Individuals, once trained to use these machines, can use them to pick up on what’s going on inside their bodies, adjust their responses, and lower their stress levels.
For example, one type of machine picks up electric signals in the muscles. Some type of alert is used, such as a flashing light or beeper, to let the user know that they have tense muscles, and that they are growing more tense by the minute. Using techniques taught by a professional (typically a biofeedback coach), the user then relaxes their muscles and the beeping or flashing light slows in response to the user’s techniques.
Q: How do you think biofeedback can be achieved without using a biofeedback machine? What areas of your life do you think biofeedback would apply to? If you have used any form of biofeedback, how did it help in relieving stress? Do you think biofeedback is a valid technique for relaxation?
