It's all in the Mind
Dami Egbeyemi trains hard – both his body and his mind.
“Once you balance the brain, the body follows,” said Egbeyemi. “My background is in computer technology and IT; I have also been doing martial arts since I was about 14. Martial art is a way to keep myself fit – both mentally and physically. Incorporating martial arts and technology is where brain training comes in.”
Egbeyemi took a break from Taekwon-Do for a few years and became involved in skateboarding and attended college. At 21, he returned to mixed martial arts, and moved back to Regina from Prince Albert to train with professionals such as Jeff Wiley. At the same time, he began to understand how training the mind is just as important as training the body.
“I was going through depression, anxiety, and stress, and I found that my sports performance wasn’t at its optimum,” said Egbeyemi. “I started doing yoga and meditation, and found I was able to improve performance quite a bit. Then I found out about guided imagery – visualization techniques that help me get better at what I do. A friend introduced me to Brain State Technologies. It was a video basically talking about how the technology can help people with depression and anxiety to improve their problems without the use of medication. That really appealed to me.”
Egbeyemi began researching and talked to the creator of Brainwave Optimization. He learned about the different ways brainwave technology can help people, and also learned how it could help golfers improve their golf score. “I thought, ‘if it can help golfers, what can it do for someone who is involved in martial arts, Nascar, or football?’” said Egbeyemi. “One of the reasons people reach performance blocks is because of the brain. When the brain perceives some kind of traumatic experience or event – even if it’s emotional – and the person can’t overcome it, what happens is they reach a peak and they can’t get through it or move to the next level. This technology actually trains the brain; kind of like an athlete would go into the gym, to become stronger and improve their performance. This is improving the performance of the brain so that it reacts faster, it’s optimized, and it’s functioning at a higher level.”
Brainwave optimization uses EEG (electroencephalography) sensors, which read brainwave patterns in different lobes of the brain. The lobes behave like muscles, each with their own specific functions.
The sensors read the energetic patterns coming off of the brain, and convert them into digital signals, which the computer translates into sound, using different frequencies.
The focus of the technology is to train the frequencies in the areas of the brain to increase or decrease depending on what the person wants to accomplish. The training is done non-invasively, with sensors acting as microphones.
The other part of the training is guided imagery techniques and visualization.
Athletes visualize themselves using perfect technique, moving properly, and finally at the end of the competition, seeing themselves winning.
Egbeyemi began brain training in April of 2007 in Calgary for anxiety and depression issues. The end result also had benefits in his martial arts training. “All I could say was ‘wow.’ It was right before a match. When I competed, I was tired but my body just kept going. All those self-defeating thoughts, I was catching myself, and just doing what I had already seen myself doing,” said Egbeyemi. “After that match, I was totally convinced that this was what I wanted to do. Not only did it change my perspective and how I felt in terms of myself and my own self-confidence, but my performance improvement was mind blowing.”
Egbeyemi then began Mind Body Harmonics in August of 2008. The results he saw in himself and others combined with his own experience in computer technology prompted him to become involved as a business. His clients now include athletes as well as anyone suffering from a variety of ailments such as depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, ADD, addictions, stress, and more.
“Really this business is all about connecting the brain and the body,” said Egbeyemi, “bringing back that synergy if it’s lost a bit of its edge due to a person’s life experience… I want to help people overcome that.”
Some of the athletes Egbeyemi has worked with include Wiley as well as others he trains with. Wiley, who has won a bronze medal at the Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt championship in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has said he will not compete anymore without training his brain first. “I used the brainwave training for mixed martial arts fights, one at a provincial championship and one at a competition in Costa Rica. Altogether I’ve done between 20 and 25 sessions with brainwave, and I wouldn’t fight again without using it,” said Wiley. “It’s phenomenal for stress relief, focus, confidence, and being able to visualize your sport. For me, it’s visualizing the fight, being calm, and managing nerves. I’ve never been so focused as I go into these fights.”
The brain training can reduce anxiety levels, calm the brain down, help focus, increase pain tolerance, and relax muscles. Wiley said Egbeyemi as an athlete is mentally very strong and has more focus than almost any other athlete he’s seen.
“Athletically, he’s phenomenal, and I think he can go far, even to the UFC,” said Wiley.
Egbeyemi credits his training: “When I get in the cage, it’s not like tunnel vision anymore. I can see the moves two steps ahead. I can see arm bars or I can see leg locks or I can see chokes from where I’ve never seen them before. My perspective has increased and I can see more what I’m doing instead of just doing it. So if a guy throws a punch I can see it coming from a mile away. It’s not taking away from the physical training of being an athlete, but it’s giving the athlete that extra little edge that might be missing, or entirely changing an athlete’s performance because there isn’t that block anymore.”