Why it works

Our eyes are two pieces of actual brain located outside the brain, and they belong to the Central Nervous System (CNS), along with the rest of the brain and the spinal cord.

When these two pieces of brain – our eyes – focus intensely, they enhance mental focus, training our brain not to be easily distracted, in the long run.

Optical focus leads mental focus.
Deep tracing requires intense optical focus, on an area as narrow as a 0.4mm line.

We, humans, use the sense of touch to gather information about the environment surrounding us and as a way to bond with each other.

A tactile activity enhances intellectual growth and emotional stability.

It is proven that tactile training improves sustained attention and focus, both very essential to the multi-faceted and complex area of thinking called higher order cognition.

When we deep trace, we are following a line debossed on a piece of paper, making it no less a tactile than a visual experience.
Relaxing our hands, letting go of any tension and surrendering to the flow of the line, letting it guide us to create the debossed design, is training our sense of touch to relinquish total control.

It helps us develop patience and empathy, responding mindfully to the tactile stimulus of the trace.

No other sense is so closely intertwined with emotion and memory than the sense of smell.

The part of the brain that controls smell is located right next to the amygdala (emotion) and  the hippocampus (memory).

When we smell something we carry with us all of our past experiences up until that moment, and our sense of smell helps the brain bring up a virtual wall and seal the moment in our minds and hearts.

Associating the deep tracing experience with a certain smell, helps the brain recall the emotional and mental state we were in when we were living the experience.

The deep tracing scent draws inspiration from the centuries-old use of essential oils.

Music activates both the left and right hemisphere of the brain, at the same time, and this activation is very beneficial to training the brain and improving memory.
When our mind is in a relaxed state, alpha brain waves are produced

increasing alpha activity helps reduce stress and anxiety, and it also helps enhance creativity.

Deep tracing is practiced while listening to alpha brainwave music, as this music helps the rest of our senses stay in-tune with one another, it gives a relaxed but steady pace, setting a peaceful and mindful tone to the whole experience.

We asked Anastasia Karayiannopoulou, neuropsychologist, lecturer of Neuropsychology, Biopsychology & Cognitive Psychology at Metropolitan College, University East London, to study deep tracing and give us her expert opinion.

Here’s what she shared with us:

“Deep tracing provides a multisensory perceptual experience by activating four sensory input modalities (visual, auditory, olfactory and tactile), recreating a synaesthetic experience. Visual and somatosensory parts of the brain, as well as frontal, temporal, olfactory and limbic areas are implicated during this process…”

To read the full article and learn all about the benefits of deep tracing, click here.

We also asked Anastassis Spiliadis, psychologist and psychotherapist, visiting Lecturer at King’s College, in London, to try deep tracing and share with us his expert opinion.
Here’s what he said to us:

“Deep tracing can serve as an important tool in helping both adolescents and adults connect with the “here and now” through utilising different senses; vision, touch, hearing and smell. A creative process of mindfulness, deep tracing can be approached as a third-wave individualised intervention, which can help people simultaneously connect with their thoughts, feelings and experiences in a unique way, beyond the talking therapies’ limitations.”