BIOFEEDBACK FOR PROFESSIONAL SUCCESS & OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE IN BUSINESS

A person’s ability to perform his professional activities and duties, regardless of the situation, necessitates a person to shift readily between certain attention states and regulate certain arousal states. At times, a condition of sustained focus and concentration is needed, while at others, a state of mental and physical flexibility is necessary, allowing a person to be calm yet able to react quickly to the appropriate stimuli. Focus and emotional balance is the key to peak performance in all areas. Different modalities of Biofeedback for Professional Success train you to function more efficiently, improving mental functioning and emotional stability. Surgeons use it to improve concentration; corporate executives use it to increase emotional intelligence for improved leadership skills and better time management; musicians use it to relieve the performance stress and “tune up” the muscles, involved in performance; others use it as a mental guide to reach mindful, meditative or other spiritual states. Many people use different biofeedback modalities training to release stress, improve sleep, and be at their best, no matter what circumstances they are facing.

Table of Contents

Professional success and optimal performance.

How are related the professional success and optimal performance?

To understand this, first, we should reveal what professional success is. Today, there are so many professions that it is difficult to list all of them. However, regardless of specialization, people desire to be successful in their chosen field.

How could be defined professional success?

Professional success is a combination of achieving financial stability allowing lifestyle and choice while doing work you are specialized in and enjoy, having the opportunity for growth, developing strong personal and professional relationships, having the flexibility to successfully integrate work and life, maintaining good health, and then finding that you are also happy and fulfilled with your life and career choices as well.

Every specialty has its own set of professional knowledge, skills, and performance. However, for all professions, there are a set of universal skills that are necessary to have to be successful – so-called body physiological parameters managing skills.

What are these skills?

They can be divided into two main groups:
1. Skills that depend on special professional needs (not knowledge).
For example:

for surgeons, pianists, and some kinds of sports – it is necessary to have strong management (contraction/relaxation) of tiny movement muscles of arms and fingers;
for singers, teachers, orators, and lecturers – it is necessary to have strong management of breathing and vocal function muscles (contraction/relaxation);
for dancers and sportsmen, – it is necessary to have strong management of all body muscles (contraction/relaxation);
– etc.;

2. Skills that are universal for all specialties and professions:

brain attitude management – attention, concentration, memory, thinking flexibility, spatial thinking, imagination, creativity
muscles activity management
breathing pattern management
heart rate pattern management
body temperature management
stress management
Here we just came to the answer regarding the relationship between professional success and optimal performance.

What Is Professional Optimal Performance?

Optimal performance refers to a mental and body state in which people feel totally immersed in the performance of the task. Regardless of the tools they use, they are able to deliver the end results while appropriately deploying and maintaining the resources available to them.

Nowadays, it is difficult to manage all our obligations and overcome all obstacles, and at the end of the day, keep calm and stay healthy.
To keep going far to the top of our dreams, we often need the power of the mind, will, a state of physical body and spirit, and some other features.
It became traditional that people use some medicine to overcome their tiredness and fatigue to feel up to continue their activity in the rhythm requested by life.
Also, people very often betake to help of couches to overcome their habits that are obstacles in the way to their dreams: to have energy, overcome shyness, have some leadership skills, or overcome their mood and gain faith in themselves.

So, what personal qualities do people need to keep going toward their dreams and have Optimal Performance in any sphere of life?

Today it is no longer a secret that the key to professional success and optimal performance of personality – is in the hands of every person.

If your performance is close to the optimal then you will have success in any sphere of your activity.

For the successful activity of any person, regardless of narrow specialization, the influential qualities are attention, memory, the ability to concentrate for a long time, the ability to withstand stress, manage self-emotions and thoughts, and many other skills.

For Optimal Performance in any sphere of life, and especially for professional success, people need:

Balanced Emotion and stress management,
Strong volitional ability to concentrate,
Low distractibility,
Good memory and attention,
Fast and flexible thinking and analyses,
Speed reading,
Proficiency and fluency in speech, verbal skills, and the ability to express thoughts clearly,
The ability to relax at will,
Self-control of thoughts,
Self-control of the body and its functions.

That it’s all! 🙂

Does it possible to develop all these skills?

Yes!

All these skills are possible to develop just at once!

The key is self-managing through the control of the physiological parameters of the body.

Some physiological parameters of the body are under our conscious control, such as breathing (patterns, rhythm, and amplitude). Through breathing pattern exercises, it is possible to regulate our mental state and health.

But some of them are out of our conscious control, such as heart rate (heart rate variability), muscle tension, temperature, and skin conductance.

Then, there is a question – how to regulate them?

It became possible due to the development of BIOFEEDBACK modalities’ home-use devices for personal use.

What is biofeedback, and how it works?

From the term “BIOFEEDBACK” – “BIO” and “FEEDBACK”- you can understand that it is a technology that is based on feeding back the bio/physiological parameters, such as heart rhythm, temperature, muscle tension, and skin conductance in the way that any person can understand.

The devices are made in a way that registers the physiological parameter of the body and transforms it into an understandable format, such as images/video/voice. The clearness of images/video/voice is provided by tuning the requested level of registering physiological parameters. This tuning is taking place due to conscious/unconscious level chain works. Multiple training based on the biofeedback model soon brings the results: trained parameters keep that level, which is necessary for optimal performance. And it is reflected in everyday life by changing the quality of life.

Decades the use of Biofeedback was limited by equipment with complicated use and requested the participation of specialists. Due to innovative technology development, it became possible to use Biofeedback systems individually at home comfortably.

Different modalities of Biofeedback allow any person, using their physiological parameters for input/output, to correct many skills: balancing emotion, improving attention/memory/ concentration, overcoming and managing stress, and many others, listed above.

Emotional Balance skill holds first place in the skills list to have Optimal Performance. Emotional health is a substantial part of overall health. Emotionally healthy people are in control of their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. They’re able to cope with life’s challenges and stress. They feel self-confident and have good relationships with their colleagues and family members.

Which biofeedback modalities and how can be used to reach professional success through optimal performance?

There are the following biofeedback modalities that may be used to optimize your activity and go over obstacles on the way to your professional success.

EEG Biofeedback or Neurofeedback
EMG Biofeedback
Breathing Biofeedback
HRV Biofeedback
Temperature Biofeedback
Electrodermal Skin Activity Biofeedback

In the table below, you can find which biofeedback modalities are more effective in what cases.

Biofeedback Modality

Health Condition/State

EEG Biofeedback Neurofeedback

Concentration, Attention, Memory issues
Impulsivity,
Emotional imbalance,
Poor Emotional Self-awareness,
Depression,
Irritability,
Rumination,
Agitation,
Anger,

Anxiety, Panic Attacks,
Worry,
Phobias,
Insomnia
Obsessive Thinking,
Excessive Rationalization,
Dislike Change,
Restless,
Migraine, Tension Headaches

Electromyography EMG Biofeedback

Training of muscles power,
Muscle building and strengthen individual muscles or muscle groups,
Strengthening of weak muscles,
Muscle relaxation and tension relief,
Coordination exercises,
Posture correction,
Reduction/management vegetative symptoms of stress (high blood pressure, tachycardia, arrhythmia, tachypnea, etc.),

Stress reduction/management, – relaxation of typical stress muscles (forehead, jaw, shoulder, neck),
Tension headache,
Panic attack, Anxiety,
Inner tension relief,
Support psycho-education/self-awareness,
Retraining individual muscles or muscle groups (after stroke, trauma, etc.),
Pain relief (back pain, etc.),

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Biofeedback

Racing heartbeat,
Chest tightness,
Chronic generalized stress and its vegetative symptoms,

Difficulties in relaxing,
Rapid shallow breathing,
Emotional disbalance

Respiration (Breathing) Biofeedback

Fast shallow breathing,
Hyperventilation,
Lightheadedness,
Train abdominal breathing,
Balance breath cycle,
Insomnia problems,

Stress and its vegetative symptoms,
Depression,
Attention and concentration problems,
Anxiety disorders,

Electrodermal Skin Response (EDSR) Biofeedback

Sweaty hands,
Anxiety,
Distracted thoughts,
Agitated mood,
Low anger threshold,
Poor Impulse Control,
Emotional instability,

Anxiety, Panic disorders,
Specific phobias,
High blood pressure,
Tinnitus,
Sleep disorders,
Headache (tension, migraine),
Stress management,

Temperature (Thermal) Biofeedback

Cold hands or feet,
Poor peripheral circulation,
Blood pressure fluctuations,
Guide for meditation, increase depth of meditation,
Anxiety, Panic attack,
Depression,
Migraine and tension headache,

Cold hands or feet,
Poor peripheral circulation,
Blood pressure fluctuations,
Guide for meditation, increase depth of meditation,
Anxiety, Panic attack,
Depression,
Migraine and tension headache,

Results of Biofeedback training for professional success

A combination of different modalities in biofeedback training is more effective in the management of stress and reaching optimal performance, thus professional success.

As a result of Biofeedback training, you will have.

Development of stress resistance,
Rapid fatigue disappears and exercises tolerance increases,
Concentration, attention, memory, and mental activity are improved,
Feeling of “fog in the brain” and easy distraction disappeared,
The work of the lungs improves, they are cleaned, their volume increases, and shortness of breath disappears, which will improve blood supply to the brain and make easy its activity,
Myocardial blood supply improves,
The function of the abdominal organs is improved,
Muscle tonus and electrical activity normalized,
Hormonal balance and metabolism are normalized, providing maintaining a standard weight.

Let’s see what combination of biofeedback modalities can be used in certain professional specialists to maintain optimal performance and professional success.

For example, singers, orators, teachers, or other vocal specialists should develop breathing, voice/speech, emotion, and muscle control. How can it be performed with the help of Biofeedback?

First of all, it is necessary to develop an optimal pattern of breathing, which can be done with the appropriate diaphragmatic breathing exercise and with the help of Breathing Biofeedback.

Next, to develop conscious control and unconscious habit of voice/speech can be used Neurofeedback device such as an audio-vocal feedback device. Neurofeedback modality can solve the problem of emotion control and performance anxiety also.

And finally, the EMG Biofeedback modality can be used to develop appropriate neck muscles.

It is necessary to note that the isolated use of one of the mentioned modalities can influence all the requested aspects, i.e. for example, the use of Breathing Biofeedback can solve not only the task of breathing patterns but also calm down the nervous system/balance emotion and solve performance anxiety, promotes general and muscular relaxation, improve concentration/attention, activate body circulation. Isolated use of audio-vocal Neurofeedback can develop voice/speech control and improve memory/concentration/attention, emotional balance, etc.

Please, keep your eyes on our website “Articles” chapter to read more about the application of Biofeedback in different specialties to reach optimal performance and professional success.

Take home message.

How to achieve emotional balance and keep it in life with easy-to-perform training without any device?

There are a lot of simple methods that can be used in everyday life to achieve emotional balance.
First of all, it is the method of diaphragmatic breathing. It is possible easily to develop such kind of breathing pattern – to train it for 5 minutes 3 to 5 times per day and make it a habit for life.

You can watch the video: what Diaphragmatic Breathing is and how to develop skills.

Biofeedback and Neurofeedback Home Use Devices for Academic Success

In the market, there are a lot of devices today that had been made for home use to improve academic performance – to increase attention and concentration, to improve emotional state, to decrease educational stress or stress during academic exams, to increase academic performance, etc. But it should be noted that not all devices are tested. On “Home Use Device” page of our website you can read more about tested and effective devices for biofeedback, and learn in which cases it can be used. Also, you can understand how they use and interpret the results.