Meditate and measure your Brainwaves: Review of Neurosky MindWave

My first blogpost here at Innerventures is about a review of a Brainwave measuring gadget which I use for my meditation practise: MindWave Mobile: Brainwave Starter Kit.
I bought it online for around 99€, using it since over a year now and want to share a summary of the use cases I experimented with. This headset connects via Bluetooth to your Android or iOS Smartphone or tablet, it also supports Windows PC and MacOS. Pretty easy to use: you just put it on top of your head, switch it on, pair it with Bluetooth and connect one part with your earlobe. Fits to adults and kids and is not uncomfortable.

Measure your brainwaves
Even if you are not very interested to use this device to measure, control and analyze your meditation sessions, it is very easy to use to get more insights into your brainwaves and activities in your mind. I really enjoy to use apps like “Brainwave Visualizer” (Link to iOS,Android, Windows, MacOS) to see how my brainwaves are changing when working, thinking, calculating, reading, listening to different styles of music, power napping and much more). Data can be exported to e.g. Dropbox in case you don’t want to watch the App while practising.

Gamification
Kids are usually not interested in technical or neurological data from brainwaves but yes, they always like games. There are many apps on the market where you usually have to lift up a piece or animal like a bird within a cage in this example screenshot. This certain game does not trigger the bird if you are meditating, here you need to focus and concentrate which are very different brainwaves. Other apps which are commercial are bit more complex and have better graphics. Mindhunter for example has got three kinds of weapons: the slingshot, crossbow, and shotgun. To use the slingshot, the attention value should be above 90 to lock the target. Using the crossbow, the attention value should be above 80. Using the shotgun, the attention value should be above 65.

Coaching, Productivity & Wellness

Especially ZenZone offers many apps which help you  to be more focused, healthier,  less stressed, relaxed, productive or learn better by giving you an audio guide while meditating. I haven’t purchased these apps, just listened a few times to their free version but cannot talk about the value here in detail. Let me know in your comments in this blog if you have made experiences

Meditation
Yes, that is my favourite use case! I use it a lot while meditating and the App offers these features which are really helpful

• Zen Bell rings when time is over
• Start a meditation and set a countdown (e.g. 20 minutes)
• Measure your brainwaves in the meantime (in a different view you can also see which kind of brainwaves are actives, so you see more than Dezibel like in the left screenshot of my brain)
• A growing green plant in the apps displays progress
• A diary journey keeps track of your meditations
• Recommendations how to use it
• Last but not least the best: A voice tells you when you are attached to your thoughts and says “Come back to your present moment and see how you breath in and out”.That is amazing and my number one reason to use this headset! It really helps me to come back into the deep meditation state while meditating.