Deep breathing exercises often help, along with other relaxation techniques like meditation. I have been told by friends that they have nights in which no remedy can lure them into a deep, uninterrupted sleep.

Recently, I added the following suggestion posted by one of our blog readers to my garden of insomnia remedies:

 Our reader Coleman wrote...
“I read an article recently about an insomnia test that people with warm feet will fall asleep faster. The report recommended putting on socks 10-15 minutes before bedtime. Something about the heat in the feet triggers relaxation in the brain.”

I love this idea! Everyone should have a warm pair of socks, and how about in all kinds of funky colors.  I decided to try our readers suggestion and for the past two nights, I wore my favorite fuzzy socks to bed. I also practiced my usual Kundalini deep-breathing exercise. I generally find that when I eat well, exercise and also know when to take a break and relax that sleeping soundly arrives naturally.

I will write more soon on Kundalini breathing techniques as I find that I always sleep really and find I do not need long hours of sleep. I am sure it is due to my yoga practice.

So....go out soon and find yourself the coolest pair of warm socks and wear them tonight! Who cares how funny you may look (smile)! It is worth it!

Several years ago, I lived and worked in Rome, Italy. When I first arrived, I was surprised to learn that several of my Italian co-workers took time off each afternoon to rest. “An afternoon nap?” my somewhat arrogant 20-something mind argued, “You’ve got to be kidding.”

While the Italians rested, I darted to the café across the street and filled my veins with not one but two shots of espresso. I dove back into my work buzzed and blurred for the rest of the day.

But, check it out: recent studies, including a study by researchers at NASA, validate what the Italians, most Latin-American countries, China, India, and many others have known and practiced for centuries. The studies report that an afternoon nap (popularly known as a powernap or siesta) energizes you much more effectively than the afternoon caffeine jolt. Naps are good for your overall health and well being. Take a look at the following link to learn more - click here.
 

After completing several days of yoga, meditation and dance at the Yoga Journal Conference a few things come to mind.

The conference was filled with people from all over the country, Mexico and Canada. From different backgrounds, sizes, ages, genders, with & without health problems, battling cancer, mental health issues, trying to learn how to prevent future illness, married, single, divorced, heart broken, happy, sad, you name it, they were there.

Looking around the room filled with hundreds of people doing downward dogs, the smell of incense, the faint sounds of drums and chanting, I thought about how when I have taught yoga classes in the past how I have noticed people sometimes get territorial even within the space they practice yoga. Almost as if their mat separates them from everyone else.

We are not separate, we are all very much connected. When I am out in the world it always strikes me how people tend to be competitive and almost welcome conflict. Wouldn’t it be great if we all took the time to compliment those we know, those we do not know and even those who may annoy us or have caused us hurt.

The conference seemed to evoke this beautiful behavior of being complimentary to one another. I watched strangers helping one another, teaching, crying, laughing, sharing stories, it was beautiful.

Our mats are connected, and so are we.
Gather hundreds of people together with the same intention, it WILL make change happen.

I felt it. I felt love. I felt a shift towards peace for our world. 

I am engulfed in yoga, dance and meditation workshops, yet I wanted to write a quick note and let you all know that I will have some new blog material in the next few days on my experience here at the conference that you won't want to miss.

There are people from all over the world, who came to do yoga and learn how to eliminate stress from their lives.

I have to admit I was suprised to see the little cute furry animal (photo on the right) when I drove in to the conference.  He or she was simply sitting on the side of the field taking a moment and sitting in the basic yoga posture - it appeared that this furry being was meditating.

I guess animals have stress like the rest of us! 

Yoga has been a great help in relieving headaches for centuries. A few of my yoga students have told me they started yoga initially to get some headache relief. The pattern was the same – the headaches would start mid-afternoon and stick with them all the way home from work! They tried over the counter pain medications, which helped at first. But, when they got tired of their desks looking like bathroom medicine cabinets, they knew something had to change. That’s when they looked into finding a more balanced, fit lifestyle.

Not everyone’s athletic, so the idea of doing anything that sounds like yoga might be a bit daunting at first. But most beginners agree that these exercises are really easy. It’s so relaxing at the end of the day. You can get complete relief in just a few minutes, without having to swallow a pill.

Here’s our routine: We start by sitting in a chair with pillows in our laps. We lean over the pillows and let our heads hang down towards our knees. We take a few deep breaths there. We slowly roll up.

Next, we make soft fists and tap our bodies from our heads down to our feet. Then, we gently pull our hair; just like the hair dresser does before they wash and cut it.

We end by lying on the floor or in bed on our backs. We put our legs straight up the wall and just hang out. The whole thing only takes us 10 minutes! Deep breathing and putting your head so it’s below your legs really helps the pressure. If you do it regularly, you’ll find yourself having headaches less and less often, until they become just a memory.

Beginning September 21st through September 23rd,
more then 35 countries, hundreds of yoga studios and thousands of yoga practitioners worldwide will gather as a part of the GLOBAL MALA PROJECT!

Held in conjunction with the United Nations International Day of Peace, the event is part of a worldwide effort in which yoga communities will simultaneously form a “mala,” or prayer, around the earth.

Both locally and around the world, the event is tied to raising awareness and funding for important causes. Yogis around the world will not only unite in the practice of yoga, but will also contribute funds and prayer to common causes.

WILD DIVINE will be honoring these special days and we hope you will also join this worldwide movement to create a global ceasefire and day of peace and nonviolence.

Let us all take a moment to breathe in and breathe out peace for someone we care about, and even those we do not know. You will be surprised at how wonderful this small gesture will be for you and the world.

"We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, We make our world".
-Buddha

"In acceptance, there is peace".  -Ghandi 

Exciting News for all yoga enthusiasts!

Held locally in beautiful Colorado, the 12th Annual Yoga Journal Conference in Estes Park, CO. will run from September 23 – October 1, 2007.

I will be attending this conference and taking numerous yoga, dance and meditation courses with world renowned yoga masters....Seane Corn, John Douillard, Ana Forrest, Shiva Rea, Gary Kraftsow...the amazing list goes on.

If you are going to the conference, send a note and tell us about yourself!

Check back next week for 'my' personal notes, along with some humor, plus photos from the conference posted here on the WILD DIVINE Blog! I promise to make it interesting (smile).

A friend of mine had the same question. Then she went with me to a pranayama workshop. Learning to guide her breath opened up a whole new world to her.

The first one was interval breathes. We breathed in for a count of 4, held for 4 and then exhaled for 4. When we did the exercise, all we thought about and noticed was our breath. It was so relaxing. Then, we inhaled for 4 and exhaled for 8. Again, relaxation.

It was so simple.

She told me that now she uses both techniques when she’s trying to get to sleep at night and to help calm herself down during rush hour traffic. She said that even her kids have noticed a difference. Her 13-year old son said, “Mom, you’re much more chilled when you pick me up after practice.” That’s the best motivation to keep breathing!

Enjoy this amazing exhibit!

Your mind pounds too. The traffic. The crowded gym. The extra weight lingering from winter’s inactivity. Tomorrow’s deadline. The huff and puff of a packed day annihilates any chance of actually enjoying the workout.

Deep breathing exercises can help you shift even the meanest moods. With biofeedback, you learn to recognize physiological reactions to irritations. You then know to use deep breathing exercises to center and calm, and you can extend the energy to benefit others.

The next time you’re working out and your temper gets triggered, begin to breathe in deeply. As you breathe out, imagine compassion flowing out of you, filling the gym, and touching all of the others who share the struggles of day-to-day stresses. Notice how it feels to be an instrument of compassion. You just might become addicted as compassion transforms your life and helps heal others.

We all face change all of the time. Change can be as benign as noticing a new gray hair – or, as life-altering as the doctor telling you that you’re pregnant. Change can sneak up and knock you off your feet. Welcomed change can offer an opportunity to lean in to new beginnings. Other times, you might find that you resist change while trying to hold together what’s bound to fall apart.

During times of change, flexibility is crucial to help balance your mental health. Change often requires old patterns to fall away while budding new ones sprout. You grow from who you were to who you are yet to be. Clinging to past patterns can be physically and mentally demanding while you long to stretch and grow into new directions.

You might also consider adding an intention to your meditation practice. Intentions nourish and keep you on track. Each morning during your meditation, add an intention to face change with grace and flexibility. Then, notice how your day unfolds.  Remember: it is through nature’s intention that the chrysalis opens so that the butterfly can stretch its wings and fly.

Her therapist used biofeedback technology to measure her physiological reactions to pointed questions and stresses. She also learned deep breathing exercises to calm flight or fight reflexes and to ease her mental anguish. Through biofeedback and deep breathing exercises, she connected to early memories and discharged the emotional attachments.

“Letting go of my past fears helped me prepare for delivery,” she said. “I also learned how to breathe through, let go, and go with the pain. I realized I can handle much more than I ever thought I could.”

Biofeedback taught her how to recognize physical responses that occur when triggered by stress and now provides her with wisdom she draws on daily.

“When something makes me angry, I recognize how my body reacts and I use deep breathing to bring down my boiling point.”

We're looking for a few good stories for a major consumer publication that is interested in writing about some of our users and how Healing Rhythms has helped change their lives. Ssshh....We can't reveal which publication it is yet, but we can tell you it is all about people!

Has Healing Rhythms helped you to lose weight? Have better relationships? Reduce your stress dramatcially? Helped you to tap into what is truly important and therefore changed your life, and followed your dream? Share with us!

We will be selecting a few success stories (along with images if you have them) and if chosen, you may soon be sharing your story with many others that you may similarly be able to help.

Simply e-mail us your stories directly to editor@wilddivine.com. And remember to submit images if you have them (if it's a weight loss success, 'before and after' photos would be great).

Story deadline is September 15, 2007.

Good luck!

The Healing Rhythms podcast can be heard at http://www.wilddivine.com/podcast or through iTunes, Odeo and other popular podcatchers.

This is a medium we are very excited about. We will be making our best efforts to have regular monthly conversations with leading wellness experts such as Deepak Chopra and Dean Ornish.

Send Us Your Questions for Our Guests

We want the Healing Rhythms Podcast to be as interactive as possible, so we will do our best to give you advance notice of our monthly guest in order to get input from you. You can email your questions to us at: thewilddivine@gmail.com.

We're very excited about our next guest: Stephen Cope.

Stephen Cope, MSW, psychotherapist and senior Kripalu Yoga teacher, is author of Yoga and the Quest for the True Self and The Wisdom of Yoga: A Seeker’s Guide to Extraordinary Living. Director of the Kripalu Institute of Extraordinary Living, he is also creator of the Gentle Yoga Kit and is featured in the video Kripalu Yoga: Dynamic.

Boulder, Colo., DATE, 2007 – The Wild Divine Project launches the Healing Rhythms Podcast featuring Dr. Kurt Smith, founder of The Wild Divine Project. The podcast is dedicated to explore the interconnection of the mind/body continuum and deliver insights to a happy body and healthy mind.

Join Kurt Smith and special hosts for insights to health, wellness, and the use of biofeedback for reducing stress, increasing vitality and your overall energy. From insightful discussions with topical experts, to candid conversations with health and wellness leaders like Deepak Chopra and Dean Ornish, the Healing Rhythms Podcast delivers a unique take on the integration of wellness practices.

“We live in a overly prescribed world,” says Dr. Kurt Smith, “Our goal is to have frank and myth dispelling conversations about how to actually apply wellness techniques for a happier, healthier life."

The Healing Rhythms podcast can be heard at http://www.wilddivine.com/podcast or through iTunes, Odeo and other popular podcatchers.

The first show features a discussion with Dr. Kurt Smith about what lead Dr. Smith to creating The Wild Divine Project and his hope and aspirations for having a lasting impact on individual’s wellness.

About Wild Divine
The Wild Divine Project based in Boulder, Colorado, http://www.wilddivine.com, produces products that help users navigate and enhance their mind-body connection through a proprietary biofeedback technology platform. The company is intent on influencing a lifestyle revolution to improve the longevity and quality of our lives. The Wild Divine Project’s long-term goal is to continue to offer awe-inspiring and rewarding wellness products, reaching the millions of people looking for an empowering and cost-effective way to reduce stress and improve their mental and physical wellness.

Visit:
Healing Rhythms Podcast: http://www.wilddivine.com/podcast
Podcast RSS Feed: http://www.wilddivine.com/podcast/healing-rhythms-podcast.rss
Wild Divine: http://www.wilddivine.com

###

Think about your life in this moment. If you had a meter to measure your stress level and your joy level, which reading would be higher? Consider the following questions when evaluating your overall mental wellness:

• Are you enjoying life?
• Do you bounce back from adversity?
• Do you balance social time and time spent alone? Work and play? Sleep and wakefulness?
• How satisfying are your relationships and sexuality?

These same masters and mystics would emphasize the importance of practicing consistently. Try it for yourself by simply practicing a deep breathing exercise each day. Allow your daily practice to be a sacred time for you to connect and tend to your overall well-being.

The next time your temper flares up while waiting in the checkout line for the person in front of you to sort through her coupons and retrieve the exact change from her coin purse, take a moment, breathe deeply, and become aware of this person. Notice the expression in her eyes and the tremble in her hands. The deep awareness of another’s suffering and a desire to help relieve it can instantly transform impatience, anger, and other feelings of irritability.  The tendency for many is to block out and ignore any personal qualities and connections.

You can practice by breathing in the energies that anger and annoy you and then exhaling the energy of compassion. Allow your breath to serve as a transformer, increasing your sensitivity to open a steady flow of loving compassion.

Compassion heals. It heals you and, as you extend it to others, it helps heal the world.

Sometimes life is too interesting to sleep. Other times, life is just too busy. Insomnia can set in during times of trauma and emotional upheavals. The churn from mental tension often triggers insomnia.

Regardless of the cause, lack of sleep can grind away at your overall mental and physical health. Insomnia compromises the immune system, making you more susceptible to disease. It also clouds the mind and affects emotional health.

Biofeedback can teach you how to recognize physiological symptoms that trigger insomnia and deep breathing exercises can help you relax.

The next time you roll over and into the arms of insomnia, try to this deep breathing exercise. First, simply notice your breath and its qualities. Is the breath shallow? Uneven? Then, begin to consciously slow and deepen your breath. Gently, stay with it. As the breath becomes deeper and slower, it induces relaxation and quiets the mind – key conditions for a restful night’s sleep.

Deep breathing relieves tension and can be the best friend you call on in the middle of a restless night.

“When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It's to enjoy each step along the way.” (Wayne Dyer)

Before diagnosing an illness, certain healers living in the Andes begin with their own biofeedback process by asking the following questions:

• When was the last time you danced?
• When was the last time you told your story?
• When was the last time you enjoyed a long period of solitude?
  

Experts agree that the ability to enjoy life is essential to good mental health. Dance, song, story, and solitude are sure ingredients to increase feelings of joy. Add gratitude to the mix and you have an effective remedy to energize, uplift, and restore a zest for living.

When you notice your temper flare or your emotions dip, connect with gratitude. And, finally, take time to enjoy solitude and meditate on all that you’re grateful for. The healing energy of gratitude dances joy back into your life.

I had crazy week at work, and this morning I woke up to yet another sunny day and full blue sky (it is literally sunny here almost 360 days of the year). I met a friend and took a hike at 6am and then had the pleasure of biking to work.

Surrounded by huge magical mountains, wildflowers glistening in the sun and the smell of fresh air.

What could be better for my physical and mental health? Nothing.

I hope if you are reading this that you will take the time to discover beauty where you live and get outside and soak it in!

Have a beautiful weekend and thank you for all of your support with Wild Divine's new blog!

Our minds can easily become cluttered with worries, “to do” lists, and other little chattering voices. The goal of meditation is to clear your mind of that clutter, so that you are better able to focus on what’s important.

Through meditation, your mind and body both become relaxed and focused. There are numerous techniques and styles of meditation. The basics, though, are the same:

• Sitting or standing in a comfortable position
• Loose-fitting, non-restrictive clothing
• Deep breathing
• Quiet, peaceful environment (silence or soft music are both fine)
• An object or mantra to focus on
  

Next time you feel stress creeping in, take a moment to close your eyes, focus on your breathing, and clear your mind of all thoughts. You’ll instantly feel better, and you’ll find that your mind is refreshed and invigorated.

If you have a lot of obligations on your plate, you might feel “selfish” for taking some time for yourself. But think of it this way, you’re not in a position to help anyone else if you’re stressed, and even physically unwell, because you didn’t take time to care for yourself.

No matter how busy you are at work, dedicate time each week to have a date with yourself. Go out and do whatever you like best, catch a movie, take a nature walk, or play fetch with your dog. You need this break from the rigors of daily life to keep your mind fresh, alert, and clear.

Even on your busiest days, you can set aside 5 minutes to write a letter to a friend or walk around the block once. Stress is often a product of our “go, go, go” lifestyles. Taking small breaks is essential for health and wellness.

When our muscles are tense, we cannot fully relax. Music promotes physical relaxation, including the loosening of tight muscles. Turn on soft music when you come home from a long day at work and feel the tension melt away.

Music is also a wonderful addition to other relaxing activities. For example, listening to music can increase the effectiveness of yoga and meditation. When you’re exercising, listen to music with a fast tempo to feel energized.

We already know that we are what we eat. Did you ever consider that we are what we listen to? Constantly hearing negative messages can bring us down. Music with a positive and upbeat message can improve your outlook on life. Surround yourself with positive music the same way you surround yourself with positive people.

Listening to music is a simple way to relieve stress. Best of all, you can incorporate music into almost every daily activity you perform. You never have to be without this powerful force of positivity.

I believe in living life to the fullest and choosing happiness over feeling bad. It is all a choice. I lead a very healthy, balanced lifestyle which entails always trying and doing the things I desire. When I do the things I love it really helps keep stress minimal. The past few weeks I have continued to do something new every weekend. Rafting, horseback riding, camping, dancing and most recently visiting an amusement park.

I have not been on amusement rides since I was a child and now I remember why. Flying high in the air several hundred feet above the ground is not a place I really want to be - smile. A ride that is so high, swings back and forth in the strong wind as it continually spins, brought up fear within me that I did not know existed. I found something I truly disliked. Sweat pouring off my head, stomach soar, clutching to the seat belt that I was praying was holding me in, and sitting close to a friend who began to tell me story to get my mind out of the actual experience. And then I remembered, all I had to do was close my eyes, breathe deep from my belly and relax. And, that is what I did. I got through the ride and the experience was over and I felt calm again.

Will I ever return to an amusement park? Probably not.

As always, my breathing and meditation helped me.

Anyone can meditate.

I like this expert:

"Employees respond best to wellness programs that are presented as a form of organizational change, rather than as a top-down imposition of new requirements, according to a study of 243 employees by Ellen Ernst Kossek, a professor of human resource management and organizational behavior at Michigan State University, and two colleagues."

You gotta love it when wellness is making it into the NYT's Your Money Section.

These physical reactions are our body’s way of preparing us for what it perceives as a threat. Something or someone is causing us such fear and apprehension that our body perceives it as an immediate danger.

Feelings of anxiety can be brought on by any number of things. Anxiety-inducing situations vary from person to person. Some people have to cope with chronic anxiety or some type of anxiety disorder. Each and every one of us, though, will experience anxiety at some point in our lives.

What’s important is developing mechanisms for coping with anxiety when it arises. Prolonged anxiety can have negative effects on both your mind and body.

There are, of course, medications available for treating anxiety. However, there are many effective techniques that can take the place of medication. We often forget that we can tap into our own inner reserves of healing powers.

Here are some simple methods for preventing anxiety or overcoming anxiety when it occurs:

• Learn various relaxation techniques
• Meditate
• Eat well and get plenty of exercise
• Develop positive thinking

Anxiety can be overcome. When you develop techniques that work for you, you’ll find in time that you are equipped to deal with any anxiety-provoking situation you face.

Achieving wellness is a life-long process. Throughout our lives, there are always ways for us to improve on the many areas of wellness. It’s a journey we can continue to enjoy for as long as we live.

Wellness is something we must consciously choose. Developing wellness involves commitment and some hard work. Wellness is the fruit of a most noble goal: taking personal responsibility for living a quality life.

Clearly, wellness is no fad. It’s a timeless, universal concept whose doors open to you all the time. You need only walk through and begin your journey.

Stress and anxiety are feelings. Burying them will only cause them to grow. When they surface, they will be much harder to overcome than if you had dealt with them as they arose.

Throughout the day, take a moment to ask yourself how you feel. You might be surprised by the answer. Something you consider to be a mundane task of everyday life might be causing you a great deal of stress – or it might be a great source of happiness.

Feelings are our mind’s way of telling us whether we are moving towards or away from our bliss. Realizing whether something makes you happy, sad, angry, or frustrated will help you understand where that activity does – or does not – fit into your life.

Remember, feelings are never wrong. Always experience your feelings without judgment.

by Kyle Ackerman

Gamers may not realize it, but it's a fine line between games and self-help. The Wild Divine Project tried to prove that when it released The Journey to Wild Divine, an adventure game that used biofeedback to solve puzzles. If you aren't familiar with biofeedback, it holds that by giving a user feedback on biological processes like heart rate and blood pressure, that person can learn to positively influence his or her mental and physical health.

Biofeedback is still on the fringes of conventional medicine, but it is useful for developing your skills in meditation. And proper meditation is well documented to positively impact mental and physical health. To that end, the Project has produced its line of software (including The Journey to Wild Divine and Healing Rhythms) as well as biofeedback hardware. Biofeedback buffs will discover the perfect package in Healing Rhythms, but surprisingly, even skeptics may be surprised to learn how powerful an effect Healing Rhythms has on the mind and body. The problem for those with a casual or passing interest is that Healing Rhythms comes with a price tag just under $300. At a lower price, Healing Rhythms would merit a better rating. If taken as an alternative to a two-to-three-day retreat, then it might be $300 well spent. But you had better be dedicated to meditating for the purchase to be worthwhile.

What's the Sound of Steve Jobs Meditating?

The Wild Divine Project believes that Heart Rate Variability (HRV – changes in the amount of time between heartbeats) and Skin Conductance Levels (SCL – indicating the activity of the sweat glands on your fingertips) are the most useful measurements for biofeedback. To that end, the Project has developed the biofeedback monitor it calls the "iom" (actually, the "i" is designed to look like a happy person with a swoosh beneath the dot, but I can't replicate that in HTML). It's clearly meant to sound like an Apple device that achieves inner peace for you, at $0.99 per chant. Tiny and white, the iom is more sleek than the original USB biofeedback monitor from The Journey to Wild Divine that was one of the coolest controllers ever, but still felt like part of a cyborg warrior's Halloween costume. The iom plugs into a USB port and then clips on to three of the fingers of your hand.

The core of Healing Rhythms is the Guided Training mode that takes you through 15 lessons divided into three parts ("Self Discovery," "Creating Happiness," and "Develop Life Skills"). Each lesson starts with an inspirational message and takes you through two practice exercises guided by people like Deepak Chopra, Andrew Weil and Dean Ornish. The lesson then concludes with a "Biofeedback Event" in which you (by way of the HRV and SCL measurements from the iom) complete mini-games like stacking rocks or sounding a horn with your "heart breath." Once you've had enough of the guided training, you can then create your own custom training regimen using the "Self Exploration" mode.

I Did That... With My Mind? (Or Was it My Breath?)

The mini-games are described as a "Biofeedback event in which you use the iom to do a simple activity that gives you visual feedback to relax you and confirm your success." Anyone who tried The Journey to Wild Divine will recognize many of the games from that effort. Healing Rhythms seems like less of a game than The Journey to Wild Divine, but more honest. Healing Rhythms gives you the context and philosophy behind the biorhythm exercises, encouraging peace and patience before tackling the mini-games/Biofeedback Events. It's not a game, it's training.

In both The Journey to Wild Divine and Healing Rhythms, the "play" consists of exercises that respond to your heartbeat and finger sweat in order to complete tasks. Whether you approach Healing Rhythms meditatively or as an achievement-oriented gamer, you'll learn to better control those characteristics. And isn't the point of this title to put you in better touch with your body and thus, your spirit?

What makes Healing Rhythms vastly superior to The Journey to Wild Divine is that the latter was set up as an adventure game, and (as any power gamer can tell you), there is that urge to hurry through the program, see everything there is to see and move on to the next game. It was easy to approach The Journey to Wild Divine seeking success and accomplishment, learning to manipulate the two inputs (HRV and SCL) to finish the exercises without bothering to try the meditation. Since the meditation is the real goal, not going up an elevator to another puzzle, it was easy to miss the point in The Journey to Wild Divine unless you were already attuned to meditative practices and biofeedback (in which case you could enjoy the game as a playground of exercises).

More Than One Soothing Voice

Healing Rhythms changes the emphasis from achievement to process. Through the lessons provided by famous gurus, users learn to breathe and concentrate on their mental and physical goals rather than only trying to manipulate the gauges or flashing bulbs.

The guidance from folks like Dean Ornish and the other big names in commercial meditation is very helpful, though most users will find that they connect more with some speakers than others. For example, you might be inspired by Deepak Chopra's "golden light" metaphor, or prefer Ornish's more matter-of-fact tone. Personally, I enjoyed the less-frequent speakers, like Nawang Khechog, most of all. His cadence, emphasis and quiet dignity were deeply relaxing.

A Charge for Enlightenment

The fundamental problem with Healing Rhythms is the cost, presumably driven by the cost of the iom interface. $300 would cover a lot of yoga classes, just as it would cover a brand-new Wii and a top-tier game. If you enjoy biofeedback and want to improve your meditation, I can recommend Healing Rhythms without hesitation. If you have a passing or casual interest in exploring biofeedback, $300 is a lot to drop on something that might shortly be gathering dust.

The software does offer a lot of different forms of visual feedback for the measured data. All the different biofeedback events are satisfying exercises, and there's a straightforward graphing screen for those passionate about biofeedback. Still, all of these speakers and QuickTime videos alone are almost as much help to the novice as the total package with the iom. If you have a casual interest, you might be better advised to take a class locally or purchase an audio CD, before diving in to Healing Rhythms. The Wild Divine Project offers a few free sound bites if you want to get the general flavor of the experience.