Brain wave research suggests that calm, clarity, and compassion are trainable.

Different brain waves — beta, alpha, and gamma — connect to different states of mind.

Different meditation styles evoke different brain waves.

Every state of mind has a rhythm. The brain is an electrical organ, and its neurons fire in collective waves that rise and fall at different speeds. Neuroscientists sort these into bands, and each band roughly corresponds to a different texture. Learning to notice these rhythms, and to shift among them, is one of the quieter offerings of contemplative practice. It moves meditation away from vague hope and toward something more like a craft.

Consider the spectrum. Beta waves, running from about 12 to 30 Hz, are the rhythm of ordinary waking life. Planning, analyzing, holding a conversation, getting the children to school. Beta is indispensable. But it has a shadow. When beta runs unchecked, it becomes the frequency of worry and threat-scanning, the inner narrator who will not stop. Much of modern life, with its notifications and deadlines, keeps us locked in agitated beta. That may be part of why so many people feel depleted without quite knowing why.

Alpha waves, from 8 to 12 Hz, are the first doorway out. Alpha arises when the mind relaxes but stays awake. It is the soft, spacious feeling just after you close your eyes, on a quiet walk, in calm and unfocused rest. Researchers sometimes describe it as relaxed readiness: alert but not contracted. Deeper still are theta waves, from 4 to 8 Hz,........

© Psychology Today