You may recall my earlier post “Mindfulness, Meditation and Muse” where I discussed my initial experiences using the Muse EEG headband system. Here is the link to that post:
I am now going on my 5th month of utilizing the Muse system and thought an update on my experiences was in order. During this time, I have completed all of the “challenges” included in the app and am now an official “Level 24” Muser!
To give you an idea, here are some of the challenges (numbered according to the challenge number in the app):
- 1) Do 4 sessions in 1 week
- 5) Get 10 bonus birds to land nearby
- 10) Do a session in the morning and evening of the same day
- 13) Do a 20 minute session each day for 3 days
- 19) Do a session at around the same time of day for 4 days in a row
- 23) Do at least 20 minutes a day for 5 days
As you can see, the challenges are designed to help you develop meditation into a habit. I can attest that the approach works! I actually “Mused” for 103 days in a row – my longest streak, and have only missed a handful of days during the last 5 months.
You may recall I was a little skeptical at first about using meditation for sport performance improvement having described mediation as being a little “out there” for my tastes. However, I was curious to try it for myself having read so many papers extolling the virtues of mindfulness techniques including mediation and biofeedback. So – what is my opinion now? I am absolutely convinced that my meditation practice over the last several months has improved my ability to focus and to help recover focus when distractions occur. While I can’t measure it, I have some anecdotal evidence that improvement has occurred in my ability to stay calm under pressure leading to better performance, not only in sport, but also in my work and personal life. For example, I was on a very contentious work phone call last week. My wife happened to hear the call as I had it on speaker. She later commented on how calmly I had handled the call – more so than I might have done in the past. I attribute my ability to stay focused on the end game instead of getting side-tracked by events happening on the call to my meditation practice. In my sporting clays shooting, I feel I am much better at leaving a poor shot in the past rather than carrying it on to the next shot! I also feel I am able to retain focus better during the moments leading up to and through shot execution.
Beyond these benefits I feel I have achieved, I really enjoy the “me time”, even if just for a few minutes a day, I get by using the system. It has not been drudgery to pull the headband out and start the app. I have genuinely enjoyed the experience.
I was fortunate in that I was able to try out the Muse system at no cost. The system had actually been prescribed to my wife as part of some medical treatment she was undergoing. She graciously agreed to let me use the system as well! The real question is whether or not I would purchase the system now if my current one was no longer available. Afterall, it represents a $250 investment for the base system as well as an investment in time. I can say without hesitation that I would spend the money and the time. Sure, you don’t need an EEG headband to meditate. Buddhist monks have survived for centuries without a meditation app!
However, I really do like the biofeedback aspect of getting real time information as well as summary data as to how I am doing.
I hope my comments are helpful to anyone contemplating using meditation. For more information on the Muse system, please check out their website: