emWave2

Heya, @Ollin,

A little while ago, @Peter Zafirides reshared a graphic on his site from heartmath, the makers of emwave2, which got curious about their technology and about biofeedback in general. I ended up getting a version of their emWave product that connects up to your computer using a USB port. It's very similar to the emWave2, except it uses the computer as a display instead of being a self-contained unit.

I think it's a good system. It turns out when you breathe in, your heart rate goes up and when you breath out your heart rate slows down. The emWave sensor measures these tiny variations in your heart rate. It is called "heart rate variability," (HRV) and there appears to be significant research saying that when the variations in your heart rate are smooth and gradual, you tend to be in a more relaxed state. You can get yourself to this relaxed state by breathing slowly.

In some sense, it's pretty simple. With the version I have, you just do slow, deep breathing, and it charts your heart rate variability. This gives you a sense of accomplishment when your heart rate variability gets smooth and gradual.

I actually got another device, the IOM from Wild Divine, that is another HRV biofeedback tool that does pretty much the same thing. I recall liking it a bit more, I think because I trusted its measurement of my heart rate a bit more (measuring heart rate from a fingertip sensor is hard and requires an algorithm that makes educated guesses).

Unfortunately, I was so busy, that I never followed up with the HRV work like I would have liked to. I would definitely like to try it again. For me, I would love to meditate because I know that there are huge benefits to it that would help me a lot. At the same time, I find meditation excruciatingly boring. I found the HRV work with either gadget to be more interesting than meditating, so trying again is definitely on my short list when I get some time.

There is significant marketing hype from both gadgets, but there is also significant scientific evidence behind them as well. Last year I went to a Mind-Body Medicine conference for practitioners last year sponsored by the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind-Body Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Mass General Hospital. Herbert Benson is the former Harvard researcher who discovered the relaxation response, which is essentially the opposite of the stress response (great idea, right?). He's been running what is now called the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind-Body Medicine ever since and has quite a few trusted clinicians that he works with. When emWave came up during a Q&A session, several of the clinicians recommended it enthusiastically as a way of bringing up the relaxation response.

The clinicians at the Benson-Henry institute really know relaxation work and really know the scientific literature, so if they recommend it, I think it's probably a great product for the right person. As they would say, anything that brings out the relaxation response is great for the health of both your mind and your body.