Biofeedback is a training technique which trains people to improve their health and performance by using cues or signals from their own bodies. A scientifically based system, it is validated by studies and clinical practice.

The word “biofeedback” was coined in 1969 to describe laboratory procedures of the 1940s that trained research subjects to use signals from their own bodies to alter brain activity, blood pressure, muscle tension, heart rate and other bodily functions that are not normally controlled voluntarily. This is done with the motive of improving people’s health and performance.

By becoming aware of your body, it can become more useful. There are two ways of achieving it-one by staying quiet and calming the mind so that you are more aware of it; and second, to raise the “signal level” to a recognizable and obvious one.

In the early part of the 20th century, J.H. Schultz developed the Autogenic Training. Here, verbal instructions are given to an individual to reach a more relaxed and controlled, physiological state.

Meanwhile, in the 1930s in the United States, Edmund Jacobson developed the technique of Progressive Relaxation training. Through this, people learnt to reduce muscular tension and be relaxed methods through a series of muscle activities. In the 1960s and 1970s, the West grew interested in yoga and the ability of yogis to alter their physiology of their own accord.

Soon, hatha yoga and other yogic traditions were rooted in the United States as techniques for physical relaxation and gaining conscious control over our physiology. Meditation also known as Transcendental Meditation and Zen Buddhism added value to the Relaxation Response by George Benson in 1975, the concept of Behavioral Stillness by Mulholland, the Quieting Reflex by Chuck Stroebel in1982, and the attention training technique of Open Focus ® by Les Fehmi in 1980.

At present, there are many other methods to promote mental and physical relaxation and manage pain and stress. Some of them are Silva Mind Control, Norman Shealy’s Biogenics, and Interactive Guided Imagery (SM), developed by Bresler and Rossman, and hypnosis. Many of these techniques have been combined with biofeedback instrumentation to enhance learning physiological self-regulation or mind-body control.

Besides, research shows that biofeedback is useful in treating many painful conditions and diseases such as Fibromyalgia Syndrome. It has also proved that while we have a lot of control over our involuntary body functions than we thought possible, nature can limit the extent of such control.

Currently, we see people taking greater care of themselves and exercising a greater self-regulatory role in matters of their health by exercising, avoiding caffeine, alcohol and nicotine, eating healthy food and being responsible for their well-being. Biofeedback therapies increase these efforts at a higher level of self-regulation, wellness and growth.