What can we do to enhance the possibility of creating change through the use of neurofeedback?

This is an especially interesting question when we are using the non-directive, nonlinear, types of neurofeedback -- where we aren't driving the change and aren't even sure where to look for change to be happening at any specific moment.

I get asked this question frequently - albeit indirectly -- by my clients when they start this kind of neurofeedback sessions -- "but what do I do?" My usual answer is that they can just listen to the music/ appreciate each image as it happens and/or they can bring their attention fully to what they're experiencing and feeling -- whatever that is. There really isn't anything one can do "wrong", except maybe trying too hard to "make something happen"...

But certainly some people seem to experience (or at least be more aware of) WOW changes sooner than others.

So I thought it might be interesting to consider what we can do prior to undertaking our own personal "brain change projects" or even at the start of each neurofeedback session. How can we enhance the possibility of change? How can we open a space for change to occur in?

One thing that got me thinking more about this is a 2-day course by this name put on by a friend of mine. Hilary Barrett teaches the use of the I Ching as a self-development tool, and she and Eliana Gilad created a course specifically for how to Open Space for Change using Hilary's expertise in uncovering deeper meanings and Eliana's transformational music.

While the I Ching connection may seem a bit woo-woo to some of you, when I was listening to Hilary's podcast talk on what the I Ching had to say on this very topic, I couldn't help but start thinking how similar the needs and perspectives were.

So I'm going to do something I haven't done publicly before. ;-)

I'm going to admit to my fascination with the I Ching as a collection of mathematical permutations that somehow manages to reflect our emotional states and needs. And I'm going to use Hilary's conversation as a means of drawing out themes that I believe apply to personal change projects work of any kind.

So, how can we create a space to allow change? One key element of any Change is the importance of being open to it -- to the message or shifts we get from ourselves, to allowing the message of our shifts and changes as they occur, to not necessarily getting tied to some particular change as the exact one and only one we need to be [insert any goal you may have].

Hilary describes three stages of change. I'm fascinated that these mirror exactly how I think about the neurofeedback journey, so I've used her titles alongside my own:

1) Opening the "channel" of information/Starting the Path


This includes allowing it in, allowing the "possibility of change" as well as how you set your intentions -- establishing a commitment to the process and a comfort with "not knowing" exactly what and how change will unfold.

I think this stage reflects the process of participating in nonlinear neurofeedback very nicely -- where the "information" is indeed information coming to your brain from itself through the tool of the neurofeedback system.

2) Make the personal connections to your life/Exploring


This is happening both between sessions, as you notice what's "new, different, or missing" in your daily activities and ways of being, as well as when we review these potential shifts together at the start of sessions. There is an enhanced self-awareness about existing patterns and shifts in those patterns that can increase or decrease the power of the shifts.

3) Integrate the shifts into the fabric of your life/Integrating Evolutionary Change


I suggest this is what is happening as you start to explore or understand how the shifts ripple through all areas of your life -- your choices, your feelings, your ways of being with yourself and others.


Hilary and Eliana's workshop focuses on the first of these stages, which is part of what I think makes it so applicable to us.

As part of her preparation, Hilary did an I Ching reading (of course ) asking about how to open a space for change. She obtained two hexagrams, one leading to the other: Dispersing leading to Increase/Blessing (59 -> 42). We aren't going to worry about these specifics -- for that, you'll want to listen to her own podcast, but I do want to pull out the themes I think apply to our work as well. So here we go...

"Removing Barriers to Blessing"


Opening a space for change requires dissolving barriers that might get in the way and  allowing things to enter a state of flux/indeterminacy -- a state of "undirected movement". Things are moving, but we aren't directing the movements, is how I think about it. The image in the I Ching is of water flooding - like the Nile overflowing...barriers removed, but the movement is not restricted to any one direction.

The process for starting to dissolve the barriers and increase the possibility of free movement includes putting ideas out there -- starting a "flow" by releasing them for growth. This is similar to what my clients and I do when they create a "wish list", exploring what might shift and change and expanding the possibilities beyond some key "symptom" and a certain kind of outcome.

During the beginning of each session, we try to re-enter this space of possibilities by noting anything "new, different, or missing", not worrying about whether "it's the neurofeedback" or not, just keeping the flow of "change noticing" moving.

The idea is that allowing this flow can itself help to develop momentum -- possibilities continue to emerge and grow and be explored and watched for -- beyond a task-oriented "goal" that creates boundaries around what "should" happen and when.

So, to open a space for change to occur, we are actively allowing preconceptions and assumptions  to become enlarged and "fuzzier" and different. We are letting go of the boundaries we may have built around what we think "should" happen to allow a bigger, more open, vision.

This isn't easy -- we tend to set limits on what we want or even expect to happen and to think that neurofeedback training is only about the one issue we want it to be (e.g., it's just about wanting better cognition, not about my spiritual being; or just about my spiritual growth and not about my work).

Yet if we can actively release these preconceptions, if we are allowing whatever happens to happen -- we may discover new interconnections between the areas of our lives. We leave ourselves open to noticing new, different, or missing feelings, wants and intuitive "urges" -- and that's what personal change is really about, I believe.

Hilary and Eliana's workshop is over now, but they are preparing the materials for a self-guided course -- so if these ideas are of interest to you, please feel to contact them about when it will be available. Feel free to say I sent you....