Hmmm.... what to say?

Let me see... well, yesterday I had an appointment with my therapist. He and the psychologist who facilitates my group therapy think that there's some underlying issue that's repressed or "something" that we need to bring out. None of us are sure what that "something" is, we could be wrong, but there seems to be "something".

I've spent a great deal of time going through my past and I've fessed up to everything, but we think there is still more there. So we tried a little relaxation/quasi-meditation/visualization thing. It was my first time doing a guided visual relaxation with this particular therapist, so it was more like a chance for us to see what kinds of statements he can make to help me relax, kind of a practice run, we're hoping that by relaxing and getting into that alpha/theta wave brain state stuff that I don't know much about, maybe I will be able to look at things from another perspective while I'm in the meditation, and then well, we'll just see what happens. Something to try anyway while the psychiatrist keeps pulling meds out of the seemingly endless variety of meds.

Here's a page I found randomly on Google. I'm not sure how valid the statements are, this is all fairly new to me, I've heard of brain waves and the states they are associated with, but we never got into this kind of thing in my psychology classes, so visit this site with some skepticism.

Biocybernaut: Alpha Brain Waves, Feedback, Biofeedback Science, Hans Berger, Beta, Theta, Delta, EEG

Alpha production is an innate skill of our brains, but one consequence of the modern stressful lifestyle is that we forget how to produce Theta and Alpha brain waves. Then we easily fall victim to anxiety and stress-related diseases. Anxiety and stress measurably reduce the strength of our immune systems. People who have more Alpha brain waves have less anxiety. Thus having more Alpha waves could mean less anxiety and, correspondingly, stronger immune systems, and this is good for everyone.

Here's another page that talks about the stages of sleep, the associated brain waves, and also about lucid dreaming, which I have a LOT of experience with... man, if I've never told you about my dreams, I've got some stories to tell. I've told some of my friends about my lucid dreams in great detail (I have all five senses active in my dreams, they are in color, I can control things in my dreams, and sometimes I am more "aware" while in my dream than I am while I'm awake). This is also quite relevant since I've been talking about my problems with insomnia.

www.DreamViews.com: The Stages of Sleep

Although sleep may seem like a steady state, it actually consists of several stages that cycle thoughout the night. The types of brain waves (based on amplitudes and frequencies) determine the stages of sleep (brain waves and the stages of sleep will not be thoroughly examined here, as they are beyond the scope of this site.) Lucid dreams occur in the 5th stage of sleep, known as the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage. As the name states, the most profound characteristic of REM sleep is the bursts of rapid eye movement while dreaming.