The Secret to Effortless Meditation

I want to give you the best Muse 2 Headband Review 2021 that there is.  In order to do that though I need to tell you about myself. So here is My Story

So I’ve been struggling with OCD for a long time.  Obsessive compulsion is not just frantically keeping things clean (otherwise why is my house so damn dirty?)  It’s a broad spectrum of mental problems that usually revolves around cyclical thinking patterns.  Imagine a record in your head that won’t shut off, and it’s filled with obsessive unhelpful thoughts that make normal functioning a nightmare.

This Muse 2 Headband Review 2021 will Look at the Muse 2 Brain Sensing Headband Here

Does Muse EEG Headband Really Work?

In my experience, the short answer is YES. .

After almost 2 months (of consistent daily meditation) I’ve noticed a lot more mental clarity. Also I can get deeper into state and release a lot of the mental anguish that comes with my OCD.

It does what it was designed to do and that is to monitor a particular set of brainwaves.   In fact, over the past several decade’s many research studies about EEG headband technology has been carried out to see the potential in this sort of technology.  EEG signals (like those seen in the Muse headband) have a relation to the brains signals which create: memory, attention and movement of certain regions of the body.

First and foremost I think this device is more like an “attention trainer.”  It basically just tracks your attention and let’s you know where your mind is going. You still have to do most of the leg work (or in this case mind work) to get the thing to thing to take you to where you want to go.  The benefits you get from the meditation come from using it for practice.

In a sense the Muse EEG is a way for experienced Meditators to quantify their practice and for novices to know where to go.

 

Training Mindfulness

Normally I’d been able to keep OCD relatively manageable.  Yet for some strange reason, over the last 2 years, my OCD went into maximum overdrive.  Finally, I said ‘screw it’ and sought therapy. Since I refused to take the medication my doctor recommended I start doing mindfulness.
  Mindfulness is meant to step away from those thinking patterns so we can dull down their negative effects and focus more on the present. In order to improve my mindfulness practice, he suggested meditation and pointed to a litany of scientific research to back up the benefits of meditation & mindfulness training.  In order to speed up my progress, he recommended the Muse Headband as a way to “track”
 The #1 determinant factor of happiness is not wealth or health but emotional stability.
The Power of Mindfulness goes back Millenia.  Mindfulness is what Buddhist monks practice and
Science has finally caught up with Meditation. There is a litany of coursework in psychology and neurology to show the benefits of meditation.

Guided Meditation Modules & Courses

One thing I like lot is their library of you’re a novice, like I was, you can access course material.  As you wear the device ambient music flows out from the phone.  You can do their “guided” practice and as you advance you can start to take over your meditation routine yourself.  Click here to check out the difference between guided meditation and unguided meditation.  

Meditation #1: Body Meditation

The machine can track your body position and movement.  Through this portion of the “beginner” part of the modules you literally train your body to take on the optimal body position.  Apparently body position is important in meditation.  This is something that the Zen Buddhist monks have known for centuries and they call it Zazen posture or seated meditation.  

Meditation #2: Breathe Meditation

Teaches you how to breath with your diaphragm.  But it’s kind of annoying.  We all have our own natural breathing patterns that we are used to.  You barely notice that you are doing it because it’s so subconsciously ingrained . It’s a good start up.

Meditation#3: Heart Meditation

You take control of your heart. Slow it down at will. The original EEG was used in this way.  Monkeys were hooked up to a monitor and were given treats (so long as they could reduce their heart rate down to a steady beat.)  It didn’t take long for the monkeys to literally calm themselves through their sheer will power to receive a treat.

Meditation #4: Mind Meditation

Whenever you’re calm, the rain calms down and it turns into a different sound. As soon as your mind wanders it lets you know that the brainwaves have changed and once you adjust your thinking pattern the sound slowly returns to a more soothing sound.

How Does the Muse Headband Work?

The technology is called Electroencephalography or EEG for short.  It’s basically using a method for monitoring electrical activity in the scalp.  From there it goes deeper to show the macroscopic activity that is happening on the surface layer of the brain.
EEG technology is revolutionary because it’s non-invasive.  The electrodes attached to the monitoring device (the Muse headband in this case) are placed on the scalp.
It also has PPG and pulse oximetry breath and heart sensors along with a gyroscope and accelerometor to sense your body movements.

Brain Waves with Your Muse Device

Spectral content is the ability to analyze what is called neural oscillations (aka brain waves).  EEG technology was originally used to diagnose a number of brain disorders like insomnia and epilepsy however now that task has been upgrading to MRI machines.

Biofeedback & Neurofeedback

At the heart of our mind is what we think, how we feel and what we do.  This process is basically just a dynamic communication between neurons that lies within our brains.  Brainwaves are the synchronization of the electrical impulses for clusters of these neurons all communicating and firing with one another.

The Muse 2 device helps to detect these brainwaves and generates sounds to let the wearer know in which brainwave state one is in.  Brainwaves are then translated into musical sound effects.  Low-frequency waves are deep like the thumping of a drum while the higher frequency brainwaves are like that of a high-pitched flute.

These waves change as according to what we’re doing and how we’re feeling.  When brainwaves slow we can feel tired, sluggish or drowsy. On the other hand, when the brainwaves are fast, we feel light and in the zone.  By using Muse 2 you can optimize and train your brain to make conduct itself into these different rhythms all on your own.

Delta Waves 

Delta Waves, the slowest but loudest brainwaves

Delta waves are the lowest frequency brainwave.  These are the brainwaves for the deepest state of meditation.  When you are in this state, your sense of external awareness if

Theta Waves

Theta brainwaves, occur in sleep and are also dominant in deep meditation.

These are the waves you want for sleep.  They also come about in deep meditation.  Theta helps you to build your ability to learn and improves your memory.  In theta we also dream.

Alpha Waves

Alpha brainwaves occur during quietly flowing thoughts, but not quite meditation.

Alpha is one of the main states that is used in the Silva Mind Control Method . If you want to be present and fully focused than Alpha Waves are the right waves for you.

Beta Waves

Beta brainwaves are present in our normal waking state of consciousness.

Beta waves are the waves that make up our waking state.  Normal activity is most associated with this more conscious state.  It helps you to be alert and aware of your surroundings.

Gamma Waves

Gamma brainwaves are the fastest of brain waves and relate to simultaneous processing of information from different brain areas

 

Gamma brainwaves are the fastest of all the frequencies.  It is the highest pitched in the sense that it is more like the flapping wings of a hummingbird.  While people run this state the brain relays information from all around the brain.  To access gamma on the fly it takes a little bit of training which is why the Muse 2 seems to work best in helping me to get to this state. It’s the brain state that relates to ego death and spiritual enlightenment.

The research that was conducted centered around a broad range of research topics and goals which included: 
  • Technology supported mindfulness
  • Affects of Tech-based mindfulness on different populations
  • Learning effects with Neurofeedback
  • Meditation related changes in Brain Performance
  • Identifying pain with adaptive brainwave learning
  • Identifying mental states
  • Integration with Virtual Reality

Psychic VR: Using your Brain as a Game Remote seems really cool for the future. 

Conclusion

There are definitely perks to Muse technology.  It fast tracks you through meditation and gets you on the right path.

Remember though there are no “quick fixes.”  Just like you train your muscles the Muse 2 will only help you train your “mind” muscle.  Don’t rely entirely on it for your well-being.  Everything takes discipline and to get the most benefit from this technology you need to put in the time.

Also remember that what works for one person does not necessarily work for everybody.  You might buy it and discover that it just doesn’t match your lifestyle.  Maybe you prefer doing things without assistance, or you like going through trial and error…or you just don’t like the way it looks.  Who knows.   Everybody is different if you buy it and hate it, realize you’re just weeding out the things that don’t work for you.

Check out the Muse 2 Brain Sensing Headband Here

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