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Showing posts with label Meditation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Meditation. Show all posts

Friday, February 3, 2023

The Healthy Minds Meditation App - Designed by Neuroscience and Tibetan Buddhism

I have tried several meditation apps and online meditation programs. I started out reluctantly because I didn't think the electronic format would be that appropriate, as I was used to practicing meditation by way of instructions from traditional meditation teachers. The apps that I have tried - I have stayed away from many so can't provide a wide ranging assessment - have been excellent additional supports to my main practice. I refer mostly  to the Healthy Minds program app, developed by a group of scientists and Tibetan meditation experts inspired by the neuroscience meets meditation research of Dr. Richard Davidson. Dr. Davidson, or "Richie" as he is known, is famous for conducting fMRI research on Tibetan Buddhist monk, Matthieu Ricard, dubbed the "happiest man in the world" by science,.  Richie is one of the leading research scientists in the Mind and Life Institute, a group of scientists who have been meeting annually with His Holiness the Dalai Lama to discuss science and contemplative practices, "in order to bring about positive change in the world". 

This "happiest man in the world" thing has to do with EEG brain recordings of areas of the brain when an advanced meditation practitioner is contemplating compassion. Happiness is not pleasure seeking. It is giving to others. It is wishing or acting for the benefit of others. ;

I wrote an article before about how I found the MUSE head band meditation technology that tracks EEG readings in the brain, and I have also discussed the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction 9 week online course designed at Palouse Mindfulness, modeled after the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn.  One more app that I have not discussed, but which I heartily recommend, is the Imagine Clarity app, hosted by said Tibetan monk Matthieu Ricard and his organization based in France and Nepal. It too is inspired and based on Tibetan Buddhist meditation practices. 

Meditation apps to me are just vitamins in the diet, and not the main course. I suppose then you'd call them supplements. But I am speaking as a person who was initiated into meditation practices by bona fide spiritual masters or teachers, many decades ago. I don't know how anyone with no teachers or guides would get by just using the app itself. I suspect however, that the Healthy Minds app would be a great support for those new to the practices. I will go out on a limb here and also say I suspect it might be excellent for those dealing with mental health issues who need more mental fortification. The Healthy Minds app is free (or by donation), as is the Palouse mindfulness mediation course. Imagine Clarity has free lessons, but to go deeper, for example to get the brilliant sessions with Tibetan Buddhist meditation master and scholar Allan B. Wallace, you have to pay for the premium version. I paid several years for the premium version and felt better for the altruism behind the Karuna Shechen program that Matthieu Ricard oversees and supports with those donations.

In a way all three of these programs just washed over me, bathing me with their enlightened words, logic, spaces, and images. I mostly put to the side my own meditation practice, which is based on Tibetan Buddhist practices, in order to concentrate just on the app offerings. I am still doing the Healthy Minds app every morning and it has been almost 5 months of daily practices since I started! There is a lot of programming that goes into it. Initially I was doing a half hour every day per lesson. Each session gives you a choice of not only how much time  you want spend on the meditation, varying from 5 to 10, to 20 to 30 minutes, but for many of the sessions, you also get to choose which instructor voice you want to listen to - there are five - which also gives you more of a sense of choice for inclusion or identification with different genders or ethnicity. At least, you don't have to listen to Cortland Dahl all the time, the chief "contemplative instructor", though he is the main instructor and the default voice on my many modules, when only one voice is needed.  Lately I am only doing the shorter versions of the meditations as I have reverted back to my main practice. But when I say these programs just wash over me, looking back, not just to yesterday, but to the nine years ago when I did the Palouse course - what did I really remember or integrate into daily use? Though, I do remember I took the nine week course during the time when my father had passed away and it helped me a lot with the way I was daily grieving that loss.

I wonder why the Healthy Minds app is so loaded with meditation sessions? It could be that to complete it is to really do a house cleaning on your mind, emotions, and over all state of well being. All these lessons and meditations are based on research on the psychology of the mind. I would like to stress this - every session almost has a reference to a research study about the mind, from the research of Richie, or from a host of other scientific studies, references to which are often given in text at the end of the session. In that regard, this is kind of the university level meditation app, non-secular and based on real evidence of how our minds actually work. Since the foundation of all these is thousands of years of meditation practice, it looks like science is finally catching up to Buddhism. Many Tibetan Buddhist practices are meant to be purification practices, and it takes a long time to purify our karma before we become enlightened. I remember I was on an 11 day Vipassana meditation retreat, 12 hours a day sitting, vow of silence, and S. N. Goenka, the videotape recorded meditation instructor said something like "now we are going to preform a surgical operation on your mind", in other words, the methodology of the Vipassana meditation was a proven scientific method of gaining insight into the mind. 

I won't go into specific lessons in the Healthy Minds app but will say it is divided into five main sections:

  1. Foundations: Learn the foundational skills of training your mind - 10 Lessons / 14 Meditations
  2. Awareness: Learn to be more present in your daily life - 22 Lessons / 27 Meditations
  3. Connection: Practice the skills of appreciation 18 Lesson  / 27 Meditations
  4. Insight: Examine how your thoughts, emotions, and beliefs shape the way you see the world 18  Lessons  / 27 Meditations
  5. Purpose: Connect with your deeper motivations and core values 18 Lessons / and 27 Meditations

The app tracks your progress, or you path through the course. There are also areas to "Explore" off the path including a recently added Dalai Lama's Guide to Happiness, which looks like it is chock full of happiness meditation vitamins, or,  as advertised "Join His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Dr. Richie Davidson, Dan Harris, and Roshi Joan Halifax to unlock a happier life".  You only learn by doing and not all the life lessons you will learn in this program will be relevant, but you will learn to relax your mind, become self-aware, learn to breath, and when it all comes down to it - just to let yourself be. But they call these "practices" for a reason. It is mind training, and that takes practice. There is a neuroplastic science of entraining brain cells in order to change behaviour. It can happen.

Meditation apps that are any good (and there are probably so many apps now  (not all good probably) that it would be difficult to track them all, if not impossible, or maybe only if doing a deep research project on the phenomenon ) are also the ones that bring a sense of community. In these Covid times where people are living more in isolation, the sense of community is vital. It is the Buddhist idea of "sangha" or community of practitioners (sometimes organized as monasteries). Of course, the online community should not be a replacement for the actual physical community, but I don't think that matters in some cases. A feeling of belonging is the same. It is in that spirit that I say I am very grateful to the Healthy Minds program and wish it will continue to inspire and serve all those who are searching inner well being. And trust the science - it works! 




Sunday, November 13, 2016

Musing on the Interaxon Muse Meditation Headband

"For this calibration, find a comfortable position and take a deep breath".

The computer brain interface world is getting interesting. The first time I heard about these types of MUSE brainwave sensing devices was an experiment where they trained people to move a cursor on a computer screen using their brain waves and a EEG headband. Maybe it was the MUSE - not sure. The next thing they did was have those same people change the colour of the floodlights on Niagara Falls and the CN Tower using their entrained brainwaves.

 I have seen more than several research projects now that have involved the Interaxon Muse headband - a device that self-directs users into a calm state of meditation by reading their brainwaves through an EEG headband and translating the data into a meditation tracking app. It may be just the start before EEG caps and gels and wire attachments are a thing of the past.

The McMaster university library recently started loaning out this device so instead of buying one (about $400) I have borrowed one for a week. Mind you, I have 35 years of meditation experience in a variety of schools and techniques and am not expecting a device like this to teach me anything. But after taking an 8 week online mindfulness course - just videos and online instructions - I believe that meditation can be taught through technology.

After downloading the app and fumbling around trying to fit it on my head - should have looked at the visuals in the instructions -  I learned how to sync my brainwaves using the app on the ipad. I tried a 3 minute meditation in the living room while the TV was on, a laptop was playing a video in the background and I was talking to my wife who was doing her yoga exercises. My brainwaves during those 3 minutes were in the noisy/active category. I had scored no calm points and I heard zero "birds". Hearing birds means that your brainwaves are staying in a calm meditative space. Seeing a graph of my brainwaves is actually very interesting but scoring points for meditating well and being asked if I want to share that on Facebook or Twitter is another thing. Tempting though to show all my friends on social media what a noisy mess my brainwaves are - No!

I was sort of impressed with the app interface and the instructions by the MUSE meditation guide. The next time I tried it I sat in my meditation room on my meditation cushion and zabuton. I extended the time to 7 minutes. I chose the default beach imagery with the sound of lapping waves and wind. If you hear the wind, it is actually the sound of your own brainwaves making noise. You are not watching your breath. I sat in the half lotus posture with my hands in my lap, a classic meditation posture I have practiced for years. The resulting graph of my brainwaves after 7 minutes indicated that I had no active or noisy points - 98% calm state of mind and about 100 birds. I could actually hear the birds in the background if I turned up the volume.  Here is a picture of my stats. In my last 20 minute sessions the batteries in the MUSE drained and I had to resume twice so the stats are all thrown off.

It is getting interesting but I spent the rest of the day thinking that I have been under surveillance with my brainwaves subjected to mechanical replication and analysis. This experience was not at all a natural process, in spite of the kind and soft voice of the human guide behind the algorithms on the app. My gurus had years and years of training and practice in meditation before they were allowed to teach.  I didn't let that get to me because I am fascinated with the technology.

The next sitting session I tried 20 minutes - about the amount of my usual meditation time these days. The result was 100% in the calm space, over 200 birds, and no "recoveries" or straying outside the calm zone with distracted thought or lapse of attention to mindfulness of breathing. And that was just a "normal" session for me.

I am really impressed with this device but I am sure that I don't need it having learned the art and science of meditation the traditional way - sitting at the feet of the masters, going on retreats, and practicing daily. My real question and concern is how will this device work with digital natives and those new to meditation?

We live in a world of secular ethics and this device does not come attached to any religious ideology. We all know by now that a mindfulness of breathing practice cuts across the sectarian world. Creating calm brain waves just requires the right guidance and intervention. Is total reliance on the MUSE soulless and alienating?  Not necessarily, though I would probably recommend an online mindfulness of meditation course called Palouse Mindfulness rather than the MUSE for a true beginner - especially ones who are remote from teachers and centres and can't afford the cost. One of the practices in one of the major schools of Tibetan Buddhism is Lam Rim. Lam Rim literally means "gradual path". The gradual path to meditative calm is the best way.


Here is one tip from my Zen teacher on meditation that will help anyone understand the nature of mind and meditation. Sitting across from me at a table the teacher gave me a piece of paper and a pencil. He asked me to draw a small line to count each time I had a thought. It became obvious to me that the page would quickly fill up with counts of scattered thoughts. After sitting in meditation practice, the number of counts becomes noticeably fewer. Where did all those thoughts go? It is just a state of being.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction: Learn online or from an actual human teacher?

Around 40 years ago, I studied with one of the greatest Tai Chi Ch'uan masters of the last century,  Cheng Man-ch'ing. The thing is, I never studied with him in person. I had his book, which was illustrated with photographs of him doing the movements; The Golden Pheasant Stands On One Leg, Grasp The Sparrow's Tail, The Crane Spreads It's Wings, Step Forward to the Seven Stars of the Dipper, Snake Creeps Down, The Fairy Weaving at the Shuttle, etc. By looking in a mirror I thought I was able to string together a series of movements. Wrong!  I was only twisting and hurting my back and other places doing the exercises. Seven years later I met a Tai Chi Ch'uan teacher and the realization that this ancient art can only be learned by being passed down from teacher to student.

That was before the age of the ubiquitous computer. Nowadays I can watch Tai Chi instructional videos on Youtube all day. I can even switch to other physical activities and watch instructional videos about how to improve my tennis forehand. Ultimately though, I need to really practice the actual art or sport in order to derive any benefit. To really improve at all I should practice with a teacher or coach. There comes a time when we do need to meet human instructors in person to really learn. This is especially true for some of the physiotherapy exercises you can watch on Youtube because I think it is be better to have a physiotherapist prescribe the exercises.  I do know a Tai Chi practitioner who learned the Chan form of Tai Chi by watching videos he had borrowed. He was exceptional in that he already knew and practiced many other of the Tai Chi forms. And this brings me to Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) learning online.

Before I comment about what it is like to learn MBSR online, let's look at the movie the Matrix. If you have seen the movie, you know that when Neo was hooked-up into the Matrix, he learned and later mastered Kung-fu, in addition to several other martial arts, at the speed of digital data transfer and integration into programming. That would be the epitome of hooked-up online learning. The next computerized training ground, that is not science fiction, maybe be Oculus Rift, a newer virtual reality headset that brings into visual perception an immersion experience of three dimensions.

It wasn't that long ago, virtually since the dawn of the WWW, when educators had to face the dilemma of evaluating whether or not one can learn just as well by studying online as one could in a classroom. We can see now how technology, even in science fiction, has grown exponentially to make online learning as common as the air that we breath. That is why before MOOCs there were online courses where you could even get a BA or a college diploma - a real one - without almost seeing a human in person. These initial studies had to look at usability, user interface and digital literacy. They had to research even cognitive measures, how the mind pays attention to a screen, visual studies on effects on the eyes, even worries about the health effects of Wi-Fi wireless transmissions. Anyway, eLearning has made it's mark, and it is going to stick around for a long time.

I have been practicing meditation for many years so I knew about MBSR and the research that has been developed on meditation in neuroscience and medicine. There have been research studies on the effectiveness of meditation not only from Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of MBSR, but also from Herbert Benson, Richard Davidson, and so many others. I knew that the Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard (in picture here at left) was in Davidson's fMRI and EEG studies on compassion and the meditating brain.  Just yesterday a new article on the benefits of MBSR and Tai Chi exercise for healing those surviving from breast cancer appeared on the Kurzweil Accelerating Intelligence website.  Cheng Man-ch'ing is smiling and proven right again, as Tai Chi really helped helped him recover from illness.

I have admired the work Jon Kabat-Zinn for many years, though I had never studied his works - until now. I am e-Learning my way through a free online 8 week course based on MBSR, about how it was developed and delivered, as well as the benefits for health that the research has shown.  Before I only knew about the benefits his teachings were having on those in palliative care or who were diagnosed with chronic illness - the meditation as healing medicine model - stress is the silent killer.  I also liked the secular, or one might say, the scientific approach. Now that I have been taking the MBSR course, I really have no qualms about doing so without a human for guidance. This is mostly due to my own experience and learning from meditation teachers, going on retreats, reading, and doing daily practice. I have also studied Buddhism in India, Nepal and Korea. Can't really say that I ever learned meditation before through an online interface. Call me misguided if you will, but I trust my instincts. Well, I did learn Vipassana in a semi-remote sort of way.

Many of the basic techniques in MBSR come from a meditation practice called Vipassana, or insight meditation. The main focus is on watching the breath or mindful awareness of breathing, called Anapanasati in Sanskrit. I did an 11 day Vipassana retreat in Massachusetts taught by S. N. Goenka from Burma. He was not there, but he may as well have been, because they used videos and tapes in the meditation hall to present the instructions. He has many other centres around the world. I thought it was very effective, even though my previous experience with meditation teaching was  learning discipline by sitting at the feet of the masters. This is the main reason why I feel confident in doing an 8 week online MBSR course. Another reason is that the course is exceptionally well designed with guided meditations, readings, video instructions, research articles, teachers with lots of experience- the whole works.  I will provide the link to The MBSR online course that I am following at the end of this post. The online course I am taking is free, but I have looked around and seen some that are not. That 11 day Vipassana course I took in Massachusetts, which including a place to sleep and food, was also free. You give "dana" according to what you think you can.

Generally speaking I would always advise studying with a human presence for a traditional discipline that has been past down for generations, if not millennium. The Tibetan people call the Dali Lama "Kundun", which means "The Presence". Call me a conservative in this respect, but there are just too many subtle things that can go wrong without the guidance of a teacher. On the other hand, I am very, very impressed with the secular or scientific approach of Kabat-Zinn in the design and delivery of the MBSR course.  It would be great however to take the course from him or some of his qualified fellow instructors in person, and I have looked around and there centers and courses locally where it is taught. It is all over the map now.

One criticism I have is learning some basic yoga exercises online, which is one part of the overall MBSR program. Listening or watching videos of yoga postures, and trying to follow along, creates risks of injury, for practitioners of any age. Injury can happen even in a center where a teacher is present, but the presence of the teacher is more reassuring. Learning dynamic movements or mental training is not like reading a book; it is immersive, interactive and interpersonal.  When I was trying to learn Tai Chi Ch'uan from the Cheng Man-ch'ing book by looking in a mirror, I developed aches and pains from unusual twisting of my body. Something similar is happening as I am lying on the floor receiving audio instructions on yoga postures. OK, maybe blame myself for not being careful.  I heard once that physiotherapists are getting a lot of business from people who are just taking up yoga. There are a lot of not so qualified instructors out there. To be fair, there may also be a lot of people who may not have realistic expectations about how to train properly and do not know their limits.

In fact after I took the MBSR online course and kindly received my certificate, Dave Potter changed the yoga links to emphasis watching the videos over listening to the audio. Hopefully this will make remote learning easier for people, who may not have the added benefit of prior experience doing yoga or having an instructor or someone with experience for guidance.

The online MBSR course I am taking is here:
http://palousemindfulness.com/selfguidedMBSR.html
















Saturday, March 9, 2013

Medicine Buddha


Scientific information on medicine is essential but sometimes no information is the best information - the kind of consciousness that is only concerned about awareness of breathing.