the rhythm within

on maintaining a personal rhythm

Once, while still teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, I was standing with a group of students and noticed that one of them (from Iran) kept tapping his foot. Since there wasn't any music, I asked him why he was tapping and he replied: to maintain my interior rhythm.

Often, during the day, I can feel quite pleasant within. Then, because of a noise or a smell or a frown or a certain phrase, my mood sours. And I feel as if my own personal flow has been interrupted. Nothing really overwhelming has occured, but I can tell that my own interior rhythm has been obliterated.

Syncopation.

Our brain produces waves of currents that flow throughout its neural pathways. The type of brainwave is defined by the frequency at which it is pulsing, and the particular rate of pulsation determines our respective state of mind. There are four common types of brainwave patterns, but due to the complexity of our brains there are often several patterns interacting at one time. It is the predominance of one particular brainwave frequency that determines our state of mind. Your brain is always creating brainwaves, and the specific brainwave frequencies produced will influence your mindstate. By using brainwave entrainment technologies, it is now possible to consciously choose the type of mindstate that you would like to access. Brainwaves, like all waves, are measured in two ways. The first is frequency, or speed of the electrical pulses. Frequency is measured in cycles per second (cps or Hz), ranging from .5 cps to 38 cps. The second measurement is amplitude, or how strong the brainwave is. Brainwaves are categorized by frequency into four types: beta, alpha, theta, and delta.