The Stress Factor: Part 1 High Beta Overload

The Stress Factor: Part 1 High Beta Overload

For centuries, we’ve revered the brain, deferring to it for guidance, intellectually and scientifically, and the weight of pressure placed on those assurances is sacrosanct. We have replaced our instinctive and intuitive selves with rigid empirical confirmation of any idea or belief outside the parameters of what is known.

A Silent Assassin

We have become addicted to activities and substances that cause large Dopamine releases, hijacking the brain's reward system, causing surges to repeat behaviour to our detriment.

You could say it's the outside world that determines whether we are right or wrong, our intake fed by social media, television, and daily news. Feeding obsessions and curiosities in equal measure, and all of this helps to set the tone of our lives. We even place our well-being and health in the hands of others and the oversaturated streams that tell us how and what to eat, drink, and be. As a result, it is no wonder that so many people at present suffer from mental health issues and feel overwhelmed.

We've Been Hijacked

Over stimulus and Dopamine addiction have deregulated the natural ebb and flow of beta waves. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter crucial for regulating the sleep-wake cycle.

A key factor influencing this is our brainwaves and the electrical impulses they generate. Here we will begin with Beta waves, which seem to have a duality, one positive and the other detrimental.
 
Beta waves or low beta are generally associated with linear thinking and information processing, and are deemed normal. Low beta offers focused mental activity, such as problem-solving, accounting, calculating, and creativity, as well as deep concentration and linear thinking. 

Beta waves are divided into two different branches, low beta and high beta. However, we’ve been hijacked by high beta, where excitement, heightened states of anxiety, stress, anger, and frustration reign, often described as our fight or flight response. We even embrace rest and sleep from a state of high Beta; these fast electrical impulses that work from 15-40 MHz. 

We Are Terribly Out Of Balance

Although great for focus, prolonged high beta has also been recognised for causing agitation, obsessive thinking, over-analysing, irrational thinking, and impulse-driven decision-making, which emotionally fuels states like anger, shame, fear, aggression, and low moods. B.Gruzelier, in a 2014 paper for Science Direct, suggests ‘Excessive high-beta activity is linked to impaired cognitive function, anxiety, and insomnia’.
 
We live in a culture where high beta has become the norm, with many people constantly in it. Sadly, this means that our natural reasoning, clarity, memory, and intuition get shut down. In fact, research shows that blood flow to the “thinking brain,” the prefrontal cortex, is reduced by 80%. 

Sleep...

So, in light of this, why do so many people approach sleep by scrolling their mobiles, or on their computers, or playing one last adrenaline-fuelled game on their PS5? It’s an addiction of the masses. Where sleep becomes a tolerated necessity rather than the vital rest and repair our bodies, minds, and immune systems require, by reaching the deeper layers of sleep regulation.

From a quantum perspective, it means we are stuck in a linear perception of life, one that’s reactive to the world around, receiving feedback through the sensory overload of our modern lives. So, how do we begin to flip the switch and restore not only our equilibrium but also access the possibility of breaking this addictive, destructive loop we find ourselves in?

First Steps...

Our brain waves range from gamma waves, the fastest, to delta waves, the slowest. Humanity seems to utilise Beta waves, specifically high beta, the most.

Step one requires tuning ourselves out of high beta and moving to low beta, where the electrical impulses are much closer to Alpha (8-12 MHz).  As you move into Alpha, you could liken it to the feeling you get when you are falling asleep and still partially present.

This is a fantastic bridge where we experience higher frequencies and deep creative states whilst retaining the rationality of the thinking beta mind. We also experience significant health benefits when in alpha, such as increased secretion of the mood-enhancing neurotransmitter serotonin.

Polar Partners

Our brain waves run from gamma through to delta. Gamma is connected to peak performance, expanded consciousness and integration. Delta waves play a role in learning and the storage of long-term memory.

Often described as the Yin and Yang or the brain waves, with Gamma being Yang, the fastest of the electrical waves that speeds things up. At the opposite end, we have Delta, which is Yin and the slowest wave; they may seem like opposing forces, but in fact, they reflect opposite poles in a journey of self-regulation to optimal.

Emerging research links gamma brain wave activity (typically 30–100 Hz) to neuroplasticity, learning, memory, and gene expression regulation. Fischer, A. (2014). Epigenetic memory.

Nothing Is Fixed

At the very core of Quantum Alchemy is an understanding that, before one can fully access the infinite healing capacity of quantum, the physical body needs to be realigned. Our aromatic and meditative tools will assist you in both regulating your autonomic nervous system and, at a quantum level, quickening your perception.

In Pt. 2, we will explore the science behind brainwaves and the small shifts we make to expand not only our perspective but also the quality of our lives, in both regulating our autonomic nervous system at the quantum level,

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