Mac 10.5 (Leopard) version now available!
Yes, it's true - the long awaited Macintosh OS X Leopard (10.5) version of the ICAP™ Release Meter software is now available. Please email us directly with your current address so we can send you the updated installation CD-ROM.

Using Audio Feedback During a Session
There is a nice piece of technology built into the ICAP™ Release Meter System that allows you to listen to your level or reactivity and blocking along with or instead of looking at the visual readouts. This feature is called Tones and it provides audio feedback that is very helpful for listening to your internal noise increasing and decreasing as you work.

This is very helpful if you like to put your head down during audio exercises, would like feedback while you perform written exercises or if you are using the ICAP™ Release Meter to measure your reactivity while you are typing or doing normal activities around your computer.

You can turn this feature on from anywhere in the system by pressing the Settings button on the top right bar and then on the left side of the screen select the Tones button.

Make sure your base station is plugged in and then select the Tone On button. Choose a tone type, length, pitch and volume for the audio feedback. There is automatic feedback that allows you to hear each possibility so you can find one that is informational rather than agitating. Now, there is a bit of fun you might not have known about the ICAP™ Release Meter System software.

Much of the practice we do in using the ICAP™ Release Meter System is learning to notice - without switching into automatic, habitual behaviors. One of the things you begin to find as you practice is an expanding ability to notice more often and for longer durations without "switching" and having your attention move away from the current experience.

Practicing conscious listening and quieting
is one very powerful way to expand your noticing abilities

When was the last time you deeply listened to yourself? When you asked yourself a question and then listened for the answer? For that matter, when was the last time that you deeply listened to the world around you - to the people, animals, and things in your life? Sure, you listen, but do you listen with all of your attention focused? Do you take time in your day to simply sit?

Practice
Mini-silences
Have you ever practiced simply not thinking? The key to this exercise is not the length of your internal quiet but the frequency you remember to try it. Try setting aside 1 minute at the beginning of each hour to practice mini-silence breaks. For 60-seconds - STOP THINKING. And then just listen internally to that quiet. When a thought arises simply let it sink back into the quiet and return to watching and listening to that internal quiet.

When you have your ICAP™ Release Meter on while you try this practice - you may notice a sharp increase in your scores when you begin practicing quieting your mind. Over time, you may notice that your scores begin to lower as you begin unmaking the noisy mind.

If you'd like more inspiration for this kind of life practice you can find many examples in the writing and audio of Eckart Tolle, Pema Chodron and even in the 3-hour film documentary "Into the Silence." Just watching the movie is an experience of quieting your mind and paying attention to the slower pace of the story about French monks who practice silence and attentive living.

Writing a stream of thought journal
One way to use the audio feedback and writing together is to have the Tones feature active while you begin writing whatever comes to mind - emptying yourself of all of your worries and fears and struggles. Be petty. Get it all out onto the page - keep going and going until you've run out of things to talk about. Listen to your mind and allow more thoughts to come and continue on until you find your audio feedback indicating that your scores have lowered.

Thoughts happen - it's only when we react and attach to those thoughts as true or real in our lives - reverting to habit and the subconscious negativity that they blossom out into behaviors and reactions in our lives. So, make your stream of thought a little less threatening and mysterious. Have a visit with your unexplored subconscious world and let all of the floating thoughts, habits and behaviors come flowing out. Nothing in this journal is true - it's simply one more way to make conscious (visible) your reactive mind.

Julia Cameron the author of The Artist's Way and many other books on creativity has wide variety of practice techniques for helping you learn to listen and focus your attention. Her "Morning Pages" encourage this type of clearing practice each morning before you start the day with 3 long-hand pages of writing.

Media fasting
Another practice Julia discusses is a technique that helps you stop procrastinating or avoiding tasks in your life is a media fast. This is a real adventure for most of us who rely on our noisy lives to keep us away from feeling anything. It's amazing how fast things start to clear out as we quiet our life down in this way - allowing us to hear the actions and inaction that are ours.

If you'd like to visit that internal space and begin getting to know yourself without all the noise - it might be fun to try doing a media fast this month. Try it for even a single day and listen to your mind reacting as if your very survival is at stake if you don't read the newspaper, watch videos online, watch TV, listen to radio or play video games for even a single day. Let those thoughts flow out onto the page, do your practice of noticing and then letting go or use your ICAP™ Release Meter to help you keep moving.