Relaxing Rhythms Reviewed in Daily Telegraph
By Alice Hart-Davis
(This review was for an earlier version of Relaxing Rhythms)
“I’m hooked up to my computer via three “bio-feedback monitors” clipped to the middle fingers of my left hand. These are reading my heart rate, brainwave pattern and “skin response” with alarming accuracy and the results are unfurling as graphs in front of my eyes.
The more calmly I breathe, the smoother the undulations of the heart chart become, and the skin-response line slopes gratifyingly downwards towards nirvana. But then I turn away to make a quick note about what I can see and both graphs shoot skywards. Damn.
I move on to a “bio-feedback event” where, if I can keep my mind in neutral, a balloon will float serenely across the screen. Any exciting thoughts and the balloon gains height and bursts.
“Cool,” says my eldest daughter, pushing me aside and clipping her fingers into the monitors. “Let me try.”
“Zac Efron!” I shout and her balloon bursts, too.
How can the machine detect all this? I know that mind and body are intimately connected, but this demonstrates the principle in a terrifyingly graphic way.
I’ve tried many relaxation CDs, but this kind of bio-feedback programme moves the genre into a whole new dimension. Healing Rhythms, as it is called, is a very serious piece of kit and comes with endorsements from American “wellness gurus”.
The idea behind the programme is to help busy people build relaxation into their working day. It is, if you like, an “active” way to relax, designed to suit people whose minds and lives race along so fast that they find it almost impossible to suddenly stop and switch off.
I have to admit that I’m now completely hooked.”