Yoga hack: brain entrainment

Date

01.08.20 More info+

Use it to prime your body and mind for the practice.

For Equinox Gramercy members in New York City, relaxation is only six to eight minutes away.

At any time of day (barring mid-class), you can enter the yoga studio, sit down, and listen to the down-regulating soundscape radiating from the speakers. You can hear it there, and nowhere else.

The 10-minute track was created by Andrew Abaria, a musician, composer, and yoga teacher who splits his time between NYC and LA.

"We wanted to add experiential touches to the yoga studio so members are immediately transported into a stress-free zone when they walk in," says Kay Kay Clivio, senior manager of yoga experience for Equinox in New York City. The effect is achieved through flameless candles, a signature Palo Santo-lime scent developed in collaboration with Helios Essential Oils, and of course, Abaria's melodic soundscape.

It uses a scientific concept called brain entrainment to relax body and mind. “The brain actually produces electricity, which you can see on an EEG,” Abaria says. The resulting currents are measured in hertz.

Most people spend their days hovering between 15 to 40 hertz, characterized by things like driving in the city or listening to a presentation. “It’s only when your brain’s frequency drops below fifteen hertz that you enter a more contemplative, creative, and restored state,” Abaria explains.

His soundscape clocks in at ten hertz, which helps you enter that state. Furthermore caught up with Abaria to learn more about his creative process, the down-regulating power of music, and how you can take advantage in your at-home practice.

The only place people can hear your soundscape is at Equinox Gramercy. Is there a song lineup people can play for a similar experience?

The playlist below includes a few of the ones we used as inspiration. Our soundtrack will center you at any point in the day when you only have ten minutes or less to recharge. You can get a similar effect from these songs.

How did you get into music as a career?

I’ve played piano since I was six and went to music school at University of Southern California in LA. I always loved athletics and spirituality, and I found yoga in college. So I was a music major but I basically majored in yoga, too. In fact, yoga was like my graduate study; I just got really immersed in it. My entire life, I’ve been focused on creating programming and art that inspire people to become better versions of themselves, so this project for Equinox was a natural fit for me.

Do you think everyone should use the power of music to down-regulate?

Absolutely. Especially in big cities, everyone is so busy. What I love about music, and this offering in particular, is that people listen for as little as six minutes and leave a transformed and better person. That’s one unique element about music. It can change your life without requiring you to dedicate a big chunk of your day to it.

What was your creative process like for the Gramercy project?

A lot of composition is subtractive, not additive. You’re actually taking a lot out. We started with a couple different prototypes, and the compositions and productions were too thick, there was too much going on. We ended up thinning out a lot of the sounds to fit this purpose. It was a really interesting creative conundrum. You spend all your life getting good at filling the page with black ink and adding a lot of notes, but the art really comes from knowing how much space to leave empty.

Does the finished soundscape achieve what you hoped?

It does. I wanted to create a track that makes members feel as if they are on the verge of unlocking their dormant potential.

How did you make sure that your track is relaxing?

It mixes sound frequencies of 120 hertz and 110 hertz, which creates the dominant sound of ten hertz. When you listen to it, your brain will mimic that ten-hertz frequency so you can down-regulate. Research shows that it takes about six to eight minutes for your brain to settle into it that state, making our ten-minute track long enough to get the benefits.

How can people choose the right music for their at-home flows?

Patanjali, who’s basically the father of modern yoga, defines the practice as the stilling of the fluctuations of the mind. If the music is helping you move toward that stillness, then I’m in favor of it. But if it's distracting you, making you think of your first kiss or otherwise pulling you out of the moment, then it’s not helping you in your practice.

This interview has been edited and condensed for publication.

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