In 2014 I conducted a study of 31 of my clients who had 12 or more NeurOptimal sessions and presented the results at the annual Zengar Conference. Each client was interviewed after each session and at the end of their course of training, I asked them to complete a questionnaire to assess changes in six emotional areas. These areas, drawn from Richard Davidson’s book, “The Emotional Life of Your Brain: How Its Unique Patterns Affect the Way You Think, Feel, and Live–and How You Can Change Them”, are defined as follows:

Outlook is how long you’re able to sustain positive emotions.

Resilience is how slowly or quickly you recover from adversity.

Social Intuition is how adept you are picking up social signals from others around you.

Self-Awareness is how well you perceive bodily feelings that reflect emotions.

Sensitivity to Context is how good you are at regulating your emotional responses to take into account the context you find yourself in.

Attention is how sharp and clear your focus is.

The study results showed that 74% (23 of 31) had a positive response to NeurOptimal. The 23 clients who reported progress rated their improvement at 75% or greater in the areas of outlook, resilience, self-awareness, and social intuition. They also reported 50% improvement in attention and social context. As part of the study I included three additional questions dealing with anxiety, assertiveness and people-pleasing. The same 23 clients reported a 75% reduction in their anxiety, a 50% increase in their assertiveness, and a 50% reduction in their people-pleasing thoughts and behaviors.

The benefits of this training seem very similar to the outcomes of long-term mediation, with the major advantage of NeurOptimal treatment over meditation being its relative speed. Rather than taking countless hours over many years to achieve these benefits (as is commonly required with meditation), NeurOptimal has the potential to get people to a calmer and clearer mental state with 10-15 hours of training.

Clients offered comments on their improvements.

• I have a greater sense of peace and well-being.
• My negative thoughts seem less powerful and further away.
• I find myself looking forward to the day instead of dreading it.
• I feel more content and in the moment.
• I’m more positive about the future.
• I feel happy and more confident about things.
• I don’t have that constant mild depression anymore.
• Sometimes I feel happy for no reason, which is a completely new feeling for me.
• I feel freer and lighter.
• I have more energy in the daytime.

• My stress level has gone way down.
• All my life, I’ve had a monkey mind that made me worry about everything, but now I feel confident that I can handle everything and things can be processed.
• I can go with the flow much easier.
• When conflict comes up I can stay centered and calm.
• When I’m in stressful moments, I can bounce back much faster.
• At home with my kids, I’m able to control my emotions better and deal with what’s happening more effectively.
• Before, would let little things bother me a lot. Now, I just find a solution to them and not worry about it.
• I’m not at the mercy of my mood state anymore.
• I don’t feel overwhelmed by my thoughts anymore.
• I can stop myself from ruminating about things when I’m trying to sleep.
• It’s easier to think clearly and to question my negative thoughts and assumptions.
• My negative thoughts are still there but they are riding shotgun with me.
• I feel more centered.

• I am no longer dazed and dissociated in social interactions.

• It seems I have access to more of my own intelligence. I feel smarter.
• I am less focused on myself and my imperfections.
• I feel I’m developing another level of consciousness, one that watches my emotions without becoming embroiled in them.
• It’s easier to remind myself that just because I have a thought doesn’t mean it’s true.
• I’m thinking more before I act.
• There seems to be more space in between me and my thoughts.
• I feel more present.
• I can think about things objectively.
• I feel like I have access to different parts of my brain that I haven’t for very long time.
• I’m not trapped in my mind.
• I now understand on an emotional level (instead of just an intellectual level) that there’s no point in becoming miserable over things I can’t change.

• Before I was always under stress and didn’t recognize it – and now I do.
• I can think logically about things now.
• Something got released that allowed me to see the world around me more clearly and be aware of what’s going on.
• I can use words I haven’t used for a long time.
• I feel like I have clarity that I haven’t had for years really.
• I feel more conscious.

• I’m much more social and more relaxed around people.
• I’m getting rave reviews from my boss.

• I can be highly focused when I need to be.
• At work, I’m able to remember things easily and multi-task better.
• I can read a book for the first time because I can focus.
• I can follow through and complete projects now.

• I have much less fear in general.
• I stopped living in fight-or-flight all the time.
• I’ve always been a shy person and that began to change.
• I’m less obsessed with food have a more relaxed attitude toward eating in general.

• I’m speaking up more.
• I am more able to say what I think instead of shoving my feelings down.
• I can talk to my mother now without getting irritated at her.
• If I do get mad about something, it boils up to my consciousness much faster and I spontaneously express the anger and am done with it.
• I’m able to make decisions in a much better way.

• I take things less personally now.
• I have stopped worrying if people are judging me or don’t like me.

• My insomnia has gone away and I’m sleeping much better.
• I wake up feeling refreshed every morning.
• I’ve been able to reduce my sleep medications.