Tech for Meditation? #TrainYourBrainDay

Today is National Train Your Brain Day! This can mean a lot of things -- playing memory games, doing jigsaw puzzles, crosswords and sudoku. But in terms of mental health and even overall health, the best training (yes, I mention it a lot!)  might be meditation.

This article points out that “Like weight-lifting for your brain, meditation is brain exercise that builds capacity for attention, resistance to distraction or worrying thoughts, and emotional tranquility,” but also that “Just as it takes effort and time to build quadriceps and abdominal muscles, developing mental muscles requires the same.” 

If meditation is exercise for your brain, it follows that, like other forms of exercise, it can be a difficult habit to make and maintain! It’s great if one has the time and resources to enlist a personal trainer or join a gym. But for many, especially in the recent months of the pandemic, many of us have had to bring our workouts home. For meditation, I’ve talked about various apps (like Headspace, Calm, and Insight Timer), but more recently I was talking to friend and Dr. Amy staffer, Barrington, and she mentioned that she uses  a Muse Brain Sensing Headband.  My curiosity was piqued!

Some basic research told me that the Muse headband has EEG sensors that measure your brain activity and give you feedback in real time. It’s not a device that alters your brainwaves, rather the idea is that it allows you to use biofeedback to become more aware of and gradually gain more control of your mental state.

To get a more personal perspective, I asked Barrington about her experience using the Muse.

Dr. Amy: Do you find the Muse Brain Sensing Headband helpful?

B: I do. With some caveats. I feel like I might get more benefit because I’ve had some in-person group meditation training over the years, so I recognize what it feels like to slip in “stillness” and to fall out of it. So I imagine it’s like doing a yoga or “learn to play guitar” video— the experience is different if you’ve already had some personalized instruction. I always try to encourage people to get some live instruction if it’s available to them. But life is not always ideal in that way, and there is also the saying, “start where you are.”  I think any meditation practice will reap rewards! 

Dr. Amy: What is the experience of using the Muse like? How is it helpful?  

B: I turn on the headband and connect it to my phone, then I put on the headband, making sure that the sensor pads directly touch skin on my forehead and behind my ears. The program tells me that it’s doing a one-minute calibration and then it begins the meditation for however long I set it for — usually ten minutes.

The meditation itself is a soundscape, like rain falling softly or waves lapping the sand. When I’m in a state of “calm” these sounds are also quiet and calm, and I might even hear little birds chirping, which is the program’s signal that I’m  maintaining a calm state. If my mind starts to wander and become more “active,” the rains become harder and louder, or the waves sound like they are crashing on rocks. 

One of the things my past meditation instructors would talk about is how, when we meditate, we’re of course going to have thoughts, but the trick is to just watch those thoughts pass by “like clouds in the sky” as opposed to “getting hooked” and following the thought. 

So when I’m meditating with Muse and I become aware the waves are crashing, I’ll generally realize that I was “seeing” a picture in my head, or had a conversation or a scene playing in my head.  Once I disengage from whatever it is, the crashing waves subside, and I know I’m back on track.

Dr. Amy: Anything else you think readers might want to know?

B: Maybe I should say that I have had the original Muse since about 2018. I don’t have the  more recent version which is the Muse 2, or the Muse S which looks like it’s more of a sleep tracker — so I imagine there are more bells and whistles that I haven’t tried. Also I only use it in the way I just described — with the free programming and haven’t tried any of the paid subscriptions. 

Thanks, Barrington, for that glimpse into that technology! And happy Train Your Brain Day!