I lift weights for a strong body and use BrainTap for a strong mind. BrainTap’s LED visor and headset use auricular therapy (Chinese medicine that stimulates specific points of the ear), light therapy, and various frequencies to relax and train your mind. Its patented technologies and design help you tap into different neural pathways to unleash creativity, control stress, improve communication capacities, enhance focus, speed up healing, and so much more. Above all, brain fitness helps you think, sleep, perform, and relax better. 

Before I continue sharing how much I love BrainTap, it’s important to know why brain health is a necessary part of your healing journey. Your body, mind, and soul are all intrinsically connected. When one part is sick, the rest of the system is sick. For example, stress and trauma spike your cortisol levels. High cortisol levels damage your adrenal glands, immune system, and nervous system. This leads to poor sleep, more stress, fewer natural killer cells (NKs) produced, and a body that is not strong enough to fight off diseases like breast cancer. 

Therefore, brain health, which includes healing your emotional wounds (Essential #4) and managing stress, is a critical part of healing cancer that is often overlooked. 

Brain Myths & Facts

For the better part of your life, you may have believed a few of the myths I am about to share, and they could have deterred you from exercising and resting your mind as much as you do your muscles. However, today is a new day to love your brain. Let it be Day 1 of Vibrant Life Brain School. Read, research, and then take daily actions to support, heal, and strengthen your mind.

• Myth: We only use 10% of our brain.

Fact: “All of our brain is constantly in use and consumes a tremendous amount of energy. Despite making up only two percent of our body weight, it devours 20 percent of our calories.” This doesn’t appear to change significantly with different tasks, from typing on a computer to doing stretching and relaxing. “Even while we sleep, our entire brain remains intensely active.” (Research from the brain lab at MIT.) This is also another case for taking supplements and eating foods that nourish and fuel your brain, such as Hi-Po Fish Oil, avocados, dark greens, blueberries, and nuts and seeds.

• Myth: You can’t improve the capacity and health of your brain.

Fact: Like any organ in your body, the brain works best with proper sleep, brain training (such as BrainTap), physical exercise, low stress, and a well-balanced diet. (MIT study) You can also form new brain cells and neurons during old age if you train your brain. (2021 study)

• Myth: You can run out of memory.

Fact: According to this estimate, your brain can hold around one million gigabytes, which means you are highly unlikely to run out of storage space.

• Myth: Brain damage is always permanent.

Fact: Recovery depends on the severity and location of the injury—and the strategic steps you take to heal. Your brain has an impressive amount of neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to change and adapt in response to experiences and environmental factors.

• Myth: Your brain doesn’t need to “rest.”

Fact: Just like your muscles, rest, relaxation, and recovery are essential for the strength and functionality of your brain.

• Myth: Emotions are separate from your physical health.

Fact: Your brain consistently assesses your day and builds networks for what you need to remember. If you do not choose to heal your emotions and trauma, they find ways to physically show up in your body. Please read this blog post to learn more and discover practical ways to unpack and break free from emotional baggage.

Why Do I Use BrainTap?

Stress is a fact of modern life, but many of us do not destress or “turn off.” Way back in time, after a stressful day of hunting and gathering, people would sit around a fire and laugh, tell stories, play drums, gaze at the stars…and shift into relaxation mode. Nowadays, many of us hate to admit that we stare at our phones and don’t stop moving and stressing until our eyes shut for the night of unproductive sleep. 

In my case, my adrenals were burned out from a lack of sleep, and a pile of chronic stress wore heavy on me as I was burning both ends of the candle. I was burning out, and it was one of the reasons cancer developed in my body—for the second time. Sadly, chronic stress, poor sleep, and being low on catecholamines (dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine) are becoming the norm and destroying our bodies. Therefore, I knew major lifestyle changes must be made ASAP and shared with others, so I started researching and discovered BrainTap.

BrainTap is a complete brain spa and gym.

It helps me escape the chaos of everyday life by turning on my relaxation response through a tranquil oasis of sound and light. It does this by gently guiding my brain out of the destructive fight-or-flight state into deep relaxation, restoring to a parasympathetic balance, and over 2,000 brain workouts via through state of the art wave frequency and neurofeedback. By simply putting on the headset, closing my eyes, breathing deeply, and fully participating in a 15-minute session, I can increase and improve the following wave activity:

• Beta: Awake and active

• Alpha: Relaxed, intuitive, and creative

• Gamma: Peak concentration and cognition

• Delta: Deep sleep and recovery

• Theta: Healing and super-learning

The lights (retinal flashing) on the eye mask also play a major role as they are part of a science called frequency following response. This combination of sound, lights, and brain fitness and recovery programs helps me:

• Think better: BrainTap frees me from brain fog by refining my brain’s capabilities and bolstering cognitive function. It also destresses my mind and creates space for creativity and 
• Sleep better: The synergy of technology, sound, and light gently soothes my mind and body into a profoundly restful sleep. This gives my body a chance to calm my adrenals (one of the causes of my breast cancer), boost my immune system, and energize me for tomorrow. 
• Perform better: The powerful systems help me overcome anxiety and welcome clarity, enhanced focus, and creativity. 
• Relax better: BrainTap helps me unwind and recharge with a mix of guided meditation, visualization, brainwave technology, and a proprietary audio system.

In BrainTap’s studies, about 90% of people who use the device will have a deep relaxation response. The device also has many other benefits, such as neurological function and increases in serotonin and endorphins. To learn more about the brilliant mind behind BrainTap and harnessing the power of your mind, please listen to this podcast episode. We go over brain fitness, strengthening your brain plasticity, naturally creating new neuropathways, and so much more!

To learn more and purchase your BrainTap, please click HERE.

More Ways To Workout and Relax Your Brain

BrainTap is a powerful tool that you can just tap into and let the healing begin. However, it isn’t the only way to workout, relax, and train your brain. Here are a few more practical ways to harness overall brain, body, and soul health.

Make mental fitness a daily priority.

Your brain carries thoughts along neural pathways, and doing something repeatedly creates pathways we’re inadvertently reinforcing: automatic thinking and feeling. However, mental fitness helps you choose new pathways; it can seem like accessing the wisdom of hindsight in the present moment. For example, in an argument with your husband, it can help you pause and respond in the way you would like…rather than having to do damage control later. 

Mental fitness exercises:

• Notice your thoughts and reframe them whenever possible. Ask yourself: Is this helpful? Is this kind? Is this something I would say to a dear friend? Is this a fact or a feeling?
• Be intentional about “savoring.” Savoring is an intervention from Applied Positive Psychology and involves slowing down to “savor” the moment. A hug from your child, feeling the grass with your bare feet, thinking about each flavor in a bite of your meal, or focusing on what your body feels during a yoga pose can all be moments that you savor.
• Get to know your body. For five minutes a day, sit with your eyes closed and scan your body from your toes to your head. Wherever you notice tension, focus and breathe consciously until the tension is released. What does your body want you to know? Listen and learn.

Balance your energy. (Essential #3)

Energy is everything, and everything needs energy—from your brain to each cell in your body. Have you ever walked into a situation and could cut the tension in the room with a knife? Have you ever been around someone who leaves you feeling totally drained? What you are picking up is the energy. To learn more about balancing your energy as a way to boost your brain power, experience deep relaxation, and heal breast cancer, please review these blogs. They are all rooted in the science of Psychoneuroimmunology: the study of interactions between psychological processes and the nerve and immune systems of the human body.

• The Body Code
• Emotional Baggage
• Meditation Tips & Techniques
• EMDR
• Emotional Freedom Technique/Tapping
• EVOX

 

To learn more about mind, body, and soul healing from an integrative approach, please check out my self-paced online program: Survive & Thrive: Conquering Breast Cancer with Conventional Treatments and Natural Medicine.