FANCY A BRAINGASM?
*That’s the latest bonkers gym trend using whispers to trigger euphoria in the mind
What would you do if someone offered you a braingasm? No, me neither. But I’m midway through and it’s all rather surreal.
I’m in a dark cave, water is trickling down the walls; feels so close I could touch it. Now I’m on a sweltering beach, there’s a fire crackling and I’m walking into the ocean to cool down. I feel lucid, buzzy and everything is pin-sharp.
a voice whispers to me to lie down on the sand and slowly open my eyes. When I come to, I’m in a dimly lit room wearing my gym kit and a big pair of headphones and lying on a yoga mat. I couldn’t tell you how long I’ve been ‘gone’, but my head feels slightly fizzy.
What I have just experienced is a new type of gym class that’s an Ironman for the mind. Braingasm promises to make up for lost sleep, boost feelings of love and connection and even rewire the brain to help you think smarter.
Forget being yelled at to ‘feel the burn’, here the instructor speaks only in a whisper through headphones, making you feel as though he’s right inside your brain.
Braingasm is being rolled out at Gymbox studios in London as an alternative to meditation. It combines two of the most popular relaxation techniques of the moment — yoga nidra (or yogic sleep, said to be four times more powerful than deep sleep) and ASMR (autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) or ‘brain tingle’.
Can a Braingasm class calm even the most racing and sceptical of minds?
Paul Selvey, the lithe and seemingly ageless yoga teacher and yoga nidra expert who designed it, certainly thinks so. So far, the class has always been full.
he tells me I’ll feel relaxed yet alert. I will lose a few frown lines. I may even need less sleep. (Paul says he can get by on less shuteye when he practises yoga nidra.) and the brain exercise will fire up new neural connections. ‘this is meditation made easy. all you have to do is follow the guided whisper,’ he says.
Whispering is one of the most popular ASMR triggers for producing ‘brain tingles’.
the euphoric feeling that starts in the brain and spreads throughout the body is now being validated by science. Studies done last year by Sheffield and Manchester Metropolitan Universities found that watching ASMR videos reduced your heart rate, and not only made people feel less stressed but also less sad.
Dr tara Swart, neuroscientist and author of the Source, explains how it works: ‘ASMR correlates with increased release of the bonding hormone oxytocin and activation of the brain’s limbic system, increasing feelings of love, trust, joy and excitement.’
Oxytocin is the bonding hormone released after orgasm — the name Braingasm is starting to make sense. as for yoga nidra, it creates the same delta waves as in deep sleep, where we process things psychologically and lay down certain types of memories.
at Gymbox, it’s hard to see how that’s going to happen — it’s more like a nightclub in an underground car park than a zen garden. But perhaps this is where people need it the most.
as 11 of us gather in the low-lit studio, we put on Bluetooth headphones. Paul whisper-instructs us through two warm-up exercises to activate the brain. (If you’re not used to ASMR, it can seem a bit creepy, but I remind myself it’s an auditory illusion.)
First up, five minutes of Brahmari or humming bee breath, where we hum out a kind of continuous ‘om’ sound, which sends vibrations to every crevice of my brain. It feels pleasantly zingy.
then comes a ‘brain kriya’ (in yoga, kriya is a repetitive action which creates energy). Paul asks us to chant a specific mantra as we bring attention to three different parts of the brain: ‘hrimmmmm’ for the frontal lobe and then ‘shrimmmm’ for the left hemisphere and ‘klimmmmm’ for the right. I’m now so relaxed I’m losing my inhibitions and shrimmming with abandon.
then, the main event, the yoga nidra, which Paul describes as a journey into the subconscious. ‘It’s somewhere between a deep sleep — although the mind is fully awake — and a meditation.’
It starts with a guided body scan, where I have to picture every part of my body in order to let it go. I’m so heavy I can barely move, but my mind is light and I’m following Paul’s voice into the dark cave as I continue my journey. I can hear the added aSMR-trigger sounds of trickling water, pebbles crunching underfoot, the crackle of fire and the crash of the ocean.
I’m told to swim down like a mermaid towards a small child, who has some wisdom to share. this is my subconscious. I listen eagerly, but, disappointingly, my inner child is resolutely mute when I ask it for this favour.
apparently, I’m too focused on remembering everything, which is keeping me from reaching peak braingasm. I don’t experience those legendary tingles either.
and there’s the small matter of the thumping beats and clank of weights from the gym floor below which is hard to ignore — for 51year-old me, anyway. It seems to be no problem for the rest of the group. they leave smiling, with bright eyes and a chilled demeanour, clearly satisfied. I’m left with a slight headache, but nevertheless deeply relaxed and, for once, I’ve lost all sense of time.
Currently, the combination of Yoga nidra and aSMR in a gym class is so new, Gymbox in London is the first to offer it. But there are video and audio guides to both online. Could they be the new power-down dream team for the digital age? Dr Swart thinks so.
‘this combination induces a state of extreme relaxation and, sometimes, emotional release and psychological insight,’ she says. ‘throughout evolution, we have been connected to our bodies, and also to nature, but now we need to be much more pro-active about bringing these practices into our busy lives.’
For people who struggle to switch off at night, or with the modern epidemic of loneliness, yoga nidra and aSMR could even trump meditation, she says.
Whisper it — you might not need that meditation app after all.