Biofeedback and mindfulness in everyday life Practical solutions for improving your health and performance

In this detailed yet accessible guide, biofeedback trainer Khazan (Harvard Medical School) seeks to provide practical advice for people wanting to incorporate biofeedback and mindfulness into their approach to common challenges in everyday life. Biofeedback is addressed here not as a relaxation tool but as an exercise in self-regulation. The text deals with physiological biofeedback rather than neurofeedback. Khazan presents mindfulness as a method that allows us to discern what is and is not under our control. Part 1 of the book addresses biofeedback modalities, including breathing, heart rate, muscle health and how muscles signal misplaced effort, temperature, and skin conductance. The chapters also explain the science behind each type of biofeedback. Part 2 explores mindfulness: being in the present moment with nonjudgmental awareness. Part 3 covers specific challenges (stress, anxiety, depression) and how biofeedback and mindfulness can be applied in response. While this book is tailored for individuals interested in employing biofeedback and mindfulness in their own experience, it will also be useful to practicing therapists. Beyond recommended methods and research findings, the author also offers practical tools and advice in two appendixes, including sample questionnaires, worksheets, and lists of helpful devices. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. --Jan Bailey, Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute

Learning to tune in to body processes and signals, among them breathing, heart rate, and temperature, and combining such biofeedback data with mindfulness exercises can result in health improvements, states Harvard psychiatrist Khazan in her helpful manual. In accessible language, she begins by defining biofeedback as data quantifying the body's signals. She then devotes a detailed chapter to the key biofeedback body signals, how each can be tracked, and how the resulting data can point to modifications to ease conditions ranging from anxiety to Reynaud's disease or to improve athletic or professional performance. Biofeedback practitioners can employ a therapist and use sophisticated equipment (for example, breathing rates can be tracked via a special waist belt) or on their own (via an app or personal tracker). Khazan provides blank worksheets to allow readers to set goals and begin charting their own biofeedback. The book's second part defines and discusses mindfulness, how to get started with practices such as meditation, and how biofeedback and mindfulness can work together in daily situations. A final section applies the earlier lessons to specific problems like sleep loss, anger, and depression. Though some may conclude working with a professional will be easier, this is a clear, practical guide that could bring relief to many on its own. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.