20 Nov Guided Meditation in VR
Being someone that meditates often, I was excited to try the Cubical Ninjas: Guided Meditation. I thought it would be fun to bring my two worlds together, my home meditation meets the Futurus office! The Guided Meditation was released in June of 2016, and they continue to update and add new scenes keeping it current and engaging. The program is available for the Oculus Rift, Oculus Go, HTC Vive, Samsung Gear VR and Windows Mixed Reality HMDs. For this meditation, I’m using the HTC Vive.
Normally, when I meditate, I sit in a quiet space, eyes closed, hands in my lap with palms facing up and focus on my breath and use that as my guide. I’m not used to having a headset on, controller in my hand, and have so many beautiful scenery options and music to choose from!
I really enjoyed this meditation experience. It’s not difficult to navigate and you have many options. You can select a quick meditation that sets you right up in an environment and the meditation begins. You can also be more thorough and select from the many beautiful and exotic atmospheres they offer.. You can choose whether to have music or not, the duration of time, and can even select your meditation intention such as gratitude, concentration, heartedness, etc. making it fully customizable. For this meditation, I chose the Atlantis atmosphere with gratitude as my focus. The guided meditation lasts for 10 minutes, but the experience itself continues if you’d like more time. The voices are very soothing, and it’s amazing to be immersed in these beautiful environments.
Guided Meditation would be great for those who need a more controlled space to slow down, it’s not as easy to be distracted while wearing a headset. Many people find it incredibly difficult to sit in one place, let alone sit still for several minutes at a time. If you’re not used to meditating, trying it in VR would be a fun and innovative way to experience it. This would be a beneficial tool to have in schools, rehab facilities, offices, etc. to introduce the emerging VR technology as well as meditation. Anyone with access to any of the supported headsets should definitely give it a try. Imagine being in an establishment that allowed you to take a nice 10-minute meditation break!
It reminded me of our Physical Therapy Virtual Reality Training. Like our Physical Therapy training, this experience helps with anxiety, post-op-care, and gives you the opportunity to escape the real world for a few minutes. Something quick, yet effective with lasting benefits to the user.
