Biofeedback Games Are Fun and Interesting
Medical professionals have used biofeedback training for decades to treat the symptoms of stress and anxiety. It is so powerful because it uses electronic instrumentation to monitor the body's physiology directly in real time. Since it is actually measures the body's activity it provides unique and direct "feedback" that shows what the body is doing at any given moment. Because the electronics reveal the body's responses in real time and because these responses are normally unconscious, the feedback provided is a unique method which changes the body's functions, i.e. biofeedback makes unconscious physical activity conscious and once it is conscious it can brought under conscious control. This taps into everyone's natural learning ability. Biofeedback has recently become available for home use due to the advances in electronics and an exciting new development is the availability of biofeedback coupled with computer games for home use.
Computerized games are growing in popularity with people of all ages. They are often credited with increasing hand eye coordination and visual discrimination but are also criticized because they often promote violent activity as part of the action of the game. There are also computerized games that require problem solving in unique environments or promote sports activity.
Computerized biofeedback games are unique in the computerized game world because they actually incorporate the physiological monitoring of biofeedback equipment into the computerized game and they teach the participant to look inward rather than outward. So, within the game, the player is asked to manipulate their physiology in a positive way to achieve game related goals. In one game, players meet a guru and the guru asks them to relax in order to build a fire.
The better they relax the better the fire. Or they may be asked to levitate a rock before they can go on, and in order to do this they have to relax. Opportunities to relax are presented throughout the game thus empowering players to learn relaxation skills in real time in response to demands. While relaxing in this environment is not always easy to do it does come closer to the real world than the laboratory. So, playing one of these games is not only challenging and interesting it is also fun. What once was an esoteric medical technique is quickly becoming available to more and more people due to decreasing cost and the innovation of software developers who have creatively brought these powerful techniques into the world of computerized games. These games are interesting for children of all ages and are capable of capturing children's interest while teaching relaxation skills in a compelling environment. And, it is no surprise that adults like these games as well. In today's world where so much of everyone's attention is pointed outward, it is refreshing to see technology used to help people focus their attention inward to learn better self-control.
To read ore about this topic your can review Stress Management with Biofeedback Games, Biofeedback Games: Powerful Learning Tools and Why Biofeedback Games?
Thomas Cobb is a psychotherapist and biofeedback therapist who focuses on stress management techniques at home and in the work place.
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