“Skin is our largest bodily organ and the main interface between organism and environment. It is an important component to processes as diverse as the inmune system, sensory-motor exploration, thermoregulation, vitamin production”*, and it may be the most direct and authentic emotional communication channel we have ever had. In fact, humans have experienced and expressed feelings of fear, disgust, desire, anger, among others throughout skin before we could even talk. Nevertheless, after thousands of years of facing increasingly complex challenges, human brain developed an iqually complex cognitive/language system to communicate elaborated ideas and prevent emotions from “causing trouble” in a “civilized socienty”.

However, high levels of emotional inhibition and cognitive activity demand a lot of energy and generate too much stress in the rush to meet the high standards imposed by modern society. In consequence, stress take its toll in pandemic proportions around the world on people's  health, their performance, and eventually on their social competence or even in their lives,  if no preventive/corrective actions are timely and properly taken

The body’s autonomic nervous system often does a poor job of distinguishing between daily stressors and life-threatening events. If you’re stressed over an argument with a friend, a traffic jam on your commute to work, or a mountain of bills, for example, your body can still react as if you’re facing a life-or-death situation.

When you repeatedly experience the fight or flight stress response in your daily life, it can raise blood pressure, suppress the immune system, increase the risk of heart attack and stroke, speed up the aging process and leave you vulnerable to a host of mental and emotional problems.

Many health problems are caused or exacerbated by stress, including:

• Pain of any kind
• Heart disease
• Digestive problems
• Sleep problems
• Depression
• Weight problems
• Auto immune diseases
• Skin conditions, such as eczema

Signs and symptoms of stress overload

The following table lists some of the common warning signs and symptoms of chronic stress. The more signs and symptoms you notice in yourself, the closer you may be to stress overload.

Cognitive Symptoms

• Memory problems
• Inability to concentrate
• Poor judgment
• Seeing only the negative
• Anxious or racing thoughts
• Constant worrying
  
  
  

Emotional Symptoms

• Moodiness
• Irritability or short temper
• Agitation, inability to relax
• Feeling overwhelmed
• Sense of loneliness and isolation
• Depression or general unhappiness

Physical Symptoms

• Aches and pains
• Diarrhea or constipation
• Nausea, dizziness
• Chest pain, rapid heartbeat
• Loss of sex drive
• Frequent colds
  
  

 

Behavioral Symptoms

• Eating more or less
• Sleeping too much or too little
• Isolating yourself from others
• Procrastinating or neglecting responsibilities
• Using alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs to relax
• Nervous habits (e.g. nail biting, pacing)

 

“Biofeedback is the process of gaining greater awareness of many physiological functions primarily using instruments that provide information on the activity of those same systems, with a goal of being able to manipulate them at will.[1][2] Some of the processes that can be controlled include brainwaves, muscle tone, skin conductance, heart rate and pain perception.[3]

Biofeedback may be used to improve health, performance, and the physiological changes that often occur in conjunction with changes to thoughts, emotions, and behavior. Eventually, these changes may be maintained without the use of extra equipment, for no equipment is necessarily required to practice biofeedback.[2]

In skin conductance, an electrodermograph imposes an imperceptible current across the skin and measures how easily it travels through the skin. When anxiety raises the level of sweat in a sweat duct, conductance increases. Skin conductance is measured in microsiemens (millionths of a siemens). In skin potential, a therapist places an active electrode over an active site (e.g., the palmar surface of the hand) and a reference electrode over a relatively inactive site (e.g., forearm). Skin potential is the voltage that develops between eccrine sweat glands and internal tissues and is measured in millivolts (thousandths of a volt). In skin resistance, also called galvanic skin response (GSR), an electrodermograph imposes a current across the skin and measures the amount of opposition it encounters. Skin resistance is measured in kΩ (thousands of ohms).[25]”  taken from WIKIPEDIA

Biofeedback therapists use electrodermal biofeedback when treating anxiety disorders, hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating), and stress.[21][26] Electrodermal biofeedback is used as an adjunct to psychotherapy to increase client awareness of their emotions.[27][28] In addition, electrodermal measures have long served as one of the central tools in polygraphy (lie detection) because they reflect changes in anxiety or emotional activation.

“Electrodermal activity (EDA) is now the preferred term for changes in electrical conductance of the skin, including phasic changes that have been referred to as galvanic skin responses (GSR), that result from sympathetic neuronal activity. EDA is a sensitive psychophysiological index of changes in autonomic sympathetic arousal that are integrated with emotional and cognitive states. Until recently, there was little direct knowledge of brain mechanisms governing generation and control of EDA in humans.
However, studies of patients with discrete brain lesions and, more recently, functional imaging techniques have clarified the contribution of brain regions implicated in emotion, attention, and cognition to peripheral EDA responses. Moreover, such studies enable an understanding of mechanisms by which states of bodily arousal, indexed by EDA, influence cognition and bias motivational behavior.” Book Review: Electrodermal Responses: What Happens in the Brain.

Hugo D. Critchley
NEUROSCIENTIST 8(2): 132-142, 2002

Observe how it works in real time and learn what is actually behind of the EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE concept to make the most efficient and productive use of your more valuable resources: TIME and ENERGY.   

Psychointeractivity is a self didactic system which will help you to recognize your own stress patterns and you will be able to learn how to “change” yourself.There are many ways to move on this path, Psychointeractivity is one of them, very objective, well tested in seminars, attractive, effective and a modern one.Still it is just a very good tool and a learning system like an intelligent mirror showing you what is going inside – of you; how your thoughts are connected to your body and what power they have.You can learn to use this power inside of you and change your perception of the real world. 

Welcome to Psychointeractivity!
In our turbulent times it is more and more of advantage to be skillful in “stress-energy management”. Why dissipate much of our mind’s energy instead of using it in a constructive way? In this sense focus means the centering, concentration of the mental energy and relaxation is an open state enabling minimum “power consumption” and self-regeneration.Psychointeractivity is a very powerful tool, based on years of experience in seminars and coaching. It combines the objectivity of the measurement and virtual training environment. It consists not only of passive training, in some modules you have to be very active as well – in your mind and body.

In a modern way we use computer based virtual environment for learning, but please do not forget who is learning about whom? In this meaning the learning effect is very, very real and this experience based knowledge you can use in everyday situations.Sometimes learning with Psychointeractivity can be very hard and direct. It simply will be objective. But still it is better to learn what really is, free yourself of self made illusions. Maybe you believe you can relax very well and it may be on the contrary…or you find out you have problems to activate yourself? With the help of Psychointeractivity you will find out about your own responses in specific situations and then you will have the choice to use the old patterns or try new strategies.

You cannot force yourself into relaxation. That is why we do not use the terms like “Mind Control”, we more talk of Mind-Tuning and self-regulation.

Tuning and regulation require that you first know where you are and then find a way to open yourself to the desired “change”. In order to do this you need to focus yourself, otherwise you are doing something other but not opening yourself to the state you want be in. You can compare the situation with Psychointeractivity and biofeedback in general as trying to learn a child to use the steering wheel. The child has to find out itself what movements it has to do so that it can turn its bobby car to the left or to the right. The same with your mind – it has to learn how to reach this or that state, and Psychointeractivity is just your environment. It objectively shows you which direction you take and sometimes provoke you for a learning experience... But you will learn yourself and decide where to drive.