Having a good morning routine with healthy habits involving eating clean and exercising is a good way to feel great. This is especially true for those seeking to become high achievers who root their success in routine. Entrepreneurs experience extreme levels of stress on the startup rollercoaster as they cycle through iterations and attempt fundraising. In addition to these life and business stresses, some people experience injuries and other physical trauma that result in a lingering symptom which adds another kind of stress to the equation. Chronic health conditions affect 1.5 billion people worldwide and no matter how much self-care they perform, there will always be lingering effects.
As an entrepreneur myself, I deal with chronic discomfort after falling off a 30-foot cliff and breaking over a dozen bones over a decade ago. I’m also an avid traveler and I’ve experienced difficulty trying to maintain a decent level of relief while going conference to conference. Though various prescription drugs are the most widely used to provide some relief, I’ve found some non-opioid ways that tech can help bring additional quality, relief, and comfort so you can reach peak performance.
Quell 2.0 by NeuroMetrix
NeuroMetrix is a 23-year-old company that has created an over-the-counter, FDA-cleared chronic pain relief wearable device. Quell is the result of decades of commercial neurotechnology research and patents applied to a consumer device. The technology is based on Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation or TENS to train the brain to increase the production of its natural pain blocking compounds, endorphins. Quell is worn on the calf, where there is a “superhighway” of sensory nerves that are stimulated by the therapeutic device regardless if you have pain in the back, shoulders, neck, or hips.
TENS devices have been around for a while and basic ones are pretty cost effective. The Quell costs $299 because it is a connected device with a companion app to control the device and access your dashboard. It also usable 24/7 even during sleep which is what the FDA clearance is for and no other device has. After learning about this company at CES, I was given a Quell 2.0 by them to try and my experience using it for over 60 days has been pleasant. I’ve seen an improvement in my overall energy level throughout the day and have been sleeping better.
BrainTap Pro
Meditation, self-reflection, affirmations, and visualization are all excellent mental exercises that many people exploring mindfulness come across. Combine guided visualizations with the power of binaural beats, and that is the magic of BrainTap. While meditating takes years to master, guided visualization can provide similar effects bringing you from awake and reactionary to an intuitive, relaxed and creative state.
This app can help you reach mental and emotional balance by enabling you to relax, reboot, and revitalize. Whether you want relief from something physical, emotional, or mental, or just need some help focusing, relaxing, or falling asleep, there is no one brainwave state that will get you there, but rather a “symphony of waves” working together. The words of Dr. Patrick Porter, founder of BrainTap, in tangent with binaural audio, really work to help you disconnect, focus, and relax anytime and anywhere. This subscription-based mindfulness app has various groups of specialized content for $9.99 per category with titles like SleepRX, Stress-Free Me, and Optimal Health. Luckily, there is a freemium version of the BrainTap Pro app for everyone to try.
During my 30-day media trial, I used BrainTap before bedtime, when I woke up, and randomly throughout the day. It was great — it really does alter your current state to shift into a more positive state. Before zoning into a focused work sprint, I’d collect myself over a BrainTap session like “Journey to the Creative Zone.” I particularly gravitated towards the SleepRX pack because the sleep visualizations and binaural beats were putting me to sleep even in the middle of the day, bringing me to “deep, deep delta sleep”. There were many times where my Quell pain relief therapy overlapped with my brain tapping and that is when I truly experienced what Dr. Porter refers to as “deep and profound relaxation.”
Non-opioid solutions for chronic health conditions, mental or physical or on the rise because we are all aware of tragedies existing around substance dependence and abuse. My experiences in the tech world are what exposed me to companies like Quell and BrainTap who are doing amazing things to bring drug-free, quality of life improving products to so many people.