I used the Muse meditation headband every day for a year

A year ago, a friend (hey SkyChew!) lent me a Muse 2, a curious device for measuring and guiding meditations by Muse: the brain sensing headband. Although I had seen it floating around in my news feed for a while then, I never checked it out–it seemed simplistic, a little too good to be true.

I took the device for a one-week test, and I was instantly fascinated by the data and the live feedback. After testing it myself, I used it on family members, even on my grandmother with advanced dementia (more about that another time). I wanted to test it out on everyone, including the family dog if I could. As a meditation practitioner, this data was very exciting to me. After 8 years of practice, I could finally see what on earth goes on in my brain when I meditate.

So I went and bought the headband after the test, unsure of how soon this new enthusiasm would fade away. But here we are a year later, I have been using it every single day–sometimes even multiples times a day, and will not be stopping anytime soon.

Below, I share 5 things that stood out for me–as an existing meditation practitioner, from using the Muse headband consistently for a year:

1. I became very familiar with my focus state

Thanks to the live audio feedback feature that translates brainwaves into a soundscape, I can immediately tell if I’m on or off track.

How it works: When your mind is busy, you hear feedback in the form of stormy weather, when your mind is calm, it’s quiet and you hear birds chirping.

It’s almost like having an extra inner voice that is whispering, ‘hey, you’re wandering off, come back.’ or ‘you’re focused right now, keep it going,’ –except that instead of words, it uses weather sounds.

In the beginning, I heard a lot of stormy feedback and reacted to it by trying to control it somehow. But as I went on, I was able to use the feedback to learn how to tune into a state of awareness and focus at will.

The cool part is being able to compare my experience with the graph of my brainwaves after the meditation session. I had some sessions where I consciously doubled down on my focus, and the graph reflected how that affected my brain activity (see below), it was fascinating stuff.

2. I used it to test and measure different types of meditation techniques

My main practice is Vipassana. However, when I started learning about other types of meditation techniques–Transcendental, mantra, mindfulness, etc., I was able to use the Muse headband to measure how effective these techniques were at bringing my mind to a quiet state.

There were sessions where it was hard to gather my mind and I switched techniques midway, and I was able to see how that affected my brain activity, which was pretty neat.

3. It has built a sense of kindness into my practice

Measuring my practice every day means that there are gonna be days where my meditation sessions will be terrible. I can look at the data after each session now which a sense of neutrality and compassion. Just noting what might have contributed to the outcome of my session, and moving on. Every day is different, and that’s completely OK.

4. It’s a great meditation habit-building tool

Being able to view my data after each session still continues to be fun and this has helped me stay consistent with my practice–a nice side effect that I didn’t anticipate.

Also, the whole act of putting on the headband, going through the calibration process (this takes about a minute), has become a small ritual that tells my body that it’s time to settle down. I also leave the headband where I see it all the time, having a physical reminder helps a lot too.

5. It makes meditation approachable for non-meditators

A lot of new meditators don’t know if they are meditating or not. While you certainly do not need a device to tell you that, it does cut down on the learning time. It makes it easier to get guidance as well when you have the data on how the session went–beyond just a feeling.

In fact, I found it so helpful for newbies that I started a little platform called Have A Breather to help others learn meditation with the help of some neurofeedback magic.

In a nutshell

A question I get a lot is, ‘is it accurate?’ I’d say it’s accurate enough for what it’s supposed to do–which is to tell you how your meditation session went. Personally, the Muse headband has added a lot of value to my practice. Having a consumer EEG device at my disposable definitely wasn’t something I could imagine having just 10 years ago.

I’d say if you meditate and are somewhat geeky, this would be a really fun and useful addition to your practice. If you’re completely new to meditation and are serious about starting a meditation practice, I think it could greatly reduce the learning curve of something that used to be very intangible.

Have you used the Muse headband before? Let me know your experience with it. You can also follow Have A Breather on Instagram where I share tips on meditation and breathwork.