volatile of all brain patterns. When high Beta becomes chronic and
uncontrolled, the brain gets juiced up beyond the healthy range.
Unfortunately, high Beta is terribly overutilized by the majority of the
population. We are obsessive or compulsive, insomniac or chronically
fatigued, anxious or depressed, forcibly pushing in all directions to be all-
powerful or hopelessly holding on to our pain to feel utterly powerless,
competing to get ahead or victimized by our circumstances.
Sustained High Beta Sends the Brain into Disorder
To put this into perspective, think about the normal functioning of the
brain as part of the central nervous system, which controls and coordinates
all other systems of the body: it keeps your heart beating, digests your food,
regulates your immune system, maintains your respiratory rate, balances
your hormones, controls your metabolism, and eliminates wastes, to name a
few. As long as the mind is coherent and orderly, messages that travel from
the brain to the body through the spinal cord will produce synchronized
signals for a balanced, healthy body.
However, many people spend their waking days in a sustained high-
frequency Beta state. To them, everything is an emergency. The brain stays
constantly on a very fast cycle, which taxes the entire system. Living in this
thin margin of brain waves is like driving a car in first gear while
simultaneously stepping on the gas. These people “drive through” their
lives without ever stopping to consider shifting gears into other brain states.
Their continual repetition of survival-based thoughts creates feelings of
anger, fear, sadness, anxiety, depression, competition, aggression,
insecurity, and frustration, among others. People become so caught up in
these intoxicating emotions that they try to analyze their problems from
within these familiar feelings, which only perpetuates more thoughts
overfocused on survival. Also, recall that we can turn on the stress response
by thought alone—the way we are thinking reinforces the very state of the
brain and body, which then causes us to think the same way ... and the loop
goes on. It’s the serpent eating its tail.
Long-term high Beta produces an unhealthy cocktail of stress chemicals,
which can tip the brain out of balance like a symphony orchestra out of
tune. Parts of the brain may stop coordinating effectively with other areas;