ABSTRACT
Virtual reality (VR) and associated technologies have rapidly grew, creating new opportunities for improving mental health. In order to provide an immersive and concentrated meditation experience, this paper offers the idea of VR-assisted meditation, which integrates the advantages of VR technology with mindfulness techniques. The suggested technique, which is known as LOOP Meditation, is mainly aimed toward novice meditators and places a strong emphasis on the value of movement and breath awareness when meditating. Existing VR experiences and meditation applications sometimes ignore the value of including physical movement, which can improve mindful body sensations and maintain interest. By creating a software that incorporates body movement and breath sensing into virtual reality surroundings, LOOP Meditation addresses this gap. The LOOP Meditation design and implementation are examined in this paper along with its possible advantages and consequences for people looking to develop their meditation practice. A pilot research comparing the efficacy of this strategy to conventional meditation techniques is offered. The study’s findings add to the expanding body of knowledge on VR-assisted meditation and demonstrate how it may have a positive effect on mental health.
- Judith Amores, Robert Richer, Nan Zhao, Pattie Maes, and Bjoern M Eskofier. 2018. Promoting relaxation using virtual reality, olfactory interfaces and wearable EEG. In Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Wearable and Implantable Body Sensor Networks. IEEE, 98–101.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Thea Andersen, Gintare Anisimovaite, Anders Christiansen, Mohamed Hussein, Carol Lund, Thomas Nielsen, Eoin Rafferty, Niels C Nilsson, Rolf Nordahl, and Stefania Serafin. 2017. A preliminary study of users’ experiences of meditation in virtual reality. In Proceedings of IEEE Virtual Reaility. IEEE, 343–344.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Tracy Brandmeyer and Arnaud Delorme. 2018. Reduced mind wandering in experienced meditators and associated EEG correlates. Experimental Brain Research 236 (2018), 2519–2528.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Cortland J Dahl, Antoine Lutz, and Richard J Davidson. 2015. Reconstructing and deconstructing the self: cognitive mechanisms in meditation practice. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 19, 9 (2015), 515–523.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Andrew T Dilanchian, Ronald Andringa, and Walter R Boot. 2021. A pilot study exploring age differences in presence, workload, and cybersickness in the experience of immersive virtual reality environments. Frontiers in Virtual Reality 2 (2021), 736793.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Nina Döllinger, Carolin Wienrich, and Marc Erich Latoschik. 2021. Challenges and opportunities of immersive technologies for mindfulness meditation: a systematic review. Frontiers in Virtual Reality 2 (2021), 644683.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Simo Järvelä, Benjamin Cowley, Mikko Salminen, Giulio Jacucci, Juho Hamari, and Niklas Ravaja. 2021. Augmented virtual reality meditation: Shared dyadic biofeedback increases social presence via respiratory synchrony. ACM Transactions on Social Computing 4, 2 (2021), 1–19.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Shaun W Jerdan, Mark Grindle, Hugo C Van Woerden, and Maged N Kamel Boulos. 2018. Head-mounted virtual reality and mental health: critical review of current research. JMIR Serious Games 6, 3 (2018), e9226.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Ilkka Kosunen, Mikko Salminen, Simo Järvelä, Antti Ruonala, Niklas Ravaja, and Giulio Jacucci. 2016. RelaWorld: neuroadaptive and immersive virtual reality meditation system. In Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces. 208–217.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Linda Larkey, Roger Jahnke, Jennifer Etnier, and Julie Gonzalez. 2009. Meditative movement as a category of exercise: implications for research. Journal of Physical Activity and Health 6, 2 (2009), 230–238.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Tatia M. C. Lee, Mei-Kei Leung, Wai-Kai Hou, Joey C. Y. Tang, Jing Yin, Kwok-Fai So, Chack-Fan Lee, and Chetwyn C. H. Chan. 2012. Distinct Neural Activity Associated with Focused-Attention Meditation and Loving-Kindness Meditation. PLOS ONE 7, 8 (08 2012), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0040054Google ScholarCross Ref
- Daniel B Levinson, Jonathan Smallwood, and Richard J Davidson. 2012. The persistence of thought: Evidence for a role of working memory in the maintenance of task-unrelated thinking. Psychological Science 23, 4 (2012), 375–380.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Dominique P Lippelt, Bernhard Hommel, and Lorenza S Colzato. 2014. Focused attention, open monitoring and loving kindness meditation: effects on attention, conflict monitoring, and creativity - A review. Frontiers in Psychology 5 (2014), 1083. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01083Google ScholarCross Ref
- Antoine Lutz, Julie Brefczynski-Lewis, Tom Johnstone, and Richard J Davidson. 2008. Regulation of the neural circuitry of emotion by compassion meditation: effects of meditative expertise. PloS One 3, 3 (2008), e1897.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Antoine Lutz, Heleen A Slagter, John D Dunne, and Richard J Davidson. 2008. Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 12, 4 (2008), 163–169.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Ramesh Manocha. 2000. Why meditation?Australian Family Physician 29, 12 (2000), 1135–1138.Google Scholar
- Melissa Miller, Divya Mistry, Rakesh Jetly, and Paul Frewen. 2021. Meditating in virtual reality 2: Phenomenology of vividness, egocentricity and absorption-immersion. Mindfulness 12 (2021), 1195–1207.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Rakesh Patibanda, Florian’Floyd’ Mueller, Matevz Leskovsek, and Jonathan Duckworth. 2017. Life tree: understanding the design of breathing exercise games. In Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play. 19–31.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Peter Payne and Mardi A Crane-Godreau. 2013. Meditative movement for depression and anxiety. Frontiers in Psychiatry 4 (2013), 71. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00071Google ScholarCross Ref
- Mirjana Prpa, Kıvanç Tatar, Jules Françoise, Bernhard Riecke, Thecla Schiphorst, and Philippe Pasquier. 2018. Attending to breath: exploring how the cues in a virtual environment guide the attention to breath and shape the quality of experience to support mindfulness. In Proceedings of the 2018 Designing Interactive Systems Conference. 71–84.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Ekaterina R Stepanova, John Desnoyers-Stewart, Philippe Pasquier, and Bernhard E Riecke. 2020. JeL: Breathing together to connect with others and nature. In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference. 641–654.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Mattie Tops, Maarten AS Boksem, Markus Quirin, Hans IJzerman, and Sander L Koole. 2014. Internally directed cognition and mindfulness: An integrative perspective derived from predictive and reactive control systems theory. Frontiers in Psychology 5 (2014), 429.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Fred Travis and Jonathan Shear. 2010. Focused attention, open monitoring and automatic self-transcending: categories to organize meditations from Vedic, Buddhist and Chinese traditions. Consciousness and Cognition 19, 4 (2010), 1110–1118.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Min-Hui Tsai and Wei-Lun Chou. 2016. Attentional orienting and executive control are affected by different types of meditation practice. Consciousness and Cognition 46 (2016), 110–126.Google ScholarCross Ref
- David R Vago and David A Silbersweig. 2012. Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 6 (2012), 296.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Xian Wang, Xiaoyu Mo, Mingming Fan, Lik-Hang Lee, Bertram E Shi, and Pan Hui. 2022. Reducing Stress and Anxiety in the Metaverse: A Systematic Review of Meditation, Mindfulness and Virtual Reality. arXiv preprint arXiv:2209.14645 (2022).Google Scholar
Index Terms
- LOOP Meditation: Enhancing Novice's VR Meditation Experience with Physical Movement
Recommendations
ZenVR: Design Evaluation of a Virtual Reality Learning System for Meditation
CHI '22: Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsMeditation has become a popular option to manage stress. Though studies examine technologies to assist in meditation, few explore how technology supports development of such skills for independent practice. From a two-phase mixed-methods study, we ...
Evaluating Mindfulness Meditation Apps
CHI EA '18: Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systemsindfulness meditation has significant benefits for health and well-being but requires training. A wealth of mindfulness meditation apps have been developed in the last years. However, there has been liMassachusetts Institute of Technologyed academic ...
Beyond Meditation: Everyday Mindfulness and Technology Use
CHI EA '22: Extended Abstracts of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsMindfulness, a practice of maintaining awareness by bringing attention to the present without judgment, has many mental and physical well-being benefits when practiced consistently. Many technologies have been invented to support mindfulness practice: ...
Comments