Abundant distractions and stress cause people to frequently lose some awareness of their bodies and disconnect from important experiences. Assistive guidance in attending to oneself can help to minimize such disconnections. A primary technique in such guidance is to induce focused-attention meditation, in which breathing becomes a central focus of the mind. In such contexts, breath-awareness can play an important role in increasing mindfulness (Prpa, et al 2018).
For many people, various forms of digital technology serve to mediate an increasing number of daily interactions with the world. As computing becomes more ubiquitous, more and more human actions are measurable, storable, and quantifiable. For example, smartphones and wearables have standard features for continuous location tracking, monitoring of social interactions, and capturing physical activity trends.
The rise of such technologies continues to intensify the focus on productivity by closely monitoring our interactions with people and the surrounding environment. Some experts are raising the concern that too much outward focus on technology can result in poorer perception and engagement with the embodied self (Turkle 2011). And yet, companies like Muvik AI recognize that there are opportunities beyond quantification. By designing technology as an experience (McCarthy and Wright 2004), and also by minimizing distractions and cultivating better self-focus, it’s possible to move toward improving both the quality of human interactions and the quality of human lives.
Practicing mindfulness encompasses a number of various approaches that bring user awareness to focus on the present moment. A growing number of mindfulness designs center on the practice of focused-attention controlled breathing. Using this technique, the practitioner is led to shift mental attention away from external stressors toward internal sensations from breathing. The practice of sustained focused attention on breathing has been shown to improve well-being and reduce stress (Khourya, et al 2013). Perhaps most importantly, this technique cultivates interoceptive awareness—the ability to receive and attend to the signals that originate within the body (Farb, et al 2015). This awareness has been shown to improve attention-task performance and better regulation of emotions (Doll, et al 2016).
Muvik AI offers heightened awareness of mind and body by presenting users with access to adaptive breath-by-breath guidance—with auditory feedback. This is done by synthesizing breathing pattern trends over time and embedding them into adaptive musical structures. These systems train users to become more attentive to breathing and this enables the user to increase control over their mental processes. At Muvik AI, we are experts at exploiting the power of sound because we understand its innate ability to calm the mind through non-distracting prompts that induce the user to focus on breathing.
References
- Mirjana Prpa, et al (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, http://metacreation.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/p2.pdf
- Sherry Turkle (2011), Alone Together, http://spectrum.mit.edu/spring-2011/alone-together/
- John McCarthy and Peter Wright (2004), Technology as Experience, https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/technology-experience
- Khourya, et al (2013), Mindfulness-based therapy: A comprehensive meta-analysis, https://psicoterapiabilbao.es/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Khoury_2013_mindfulness-metaanalys.pdf
- Farb, et al (2015), Interoception, contemplative practice, and health.Frontiers in psychology, https://cedar.exeter.ac.uk/media/universityofexeter/schoolofpsychology/cedar/documents/mindfulness/Interoception,_contemplative_practice_and_health.pdf
- Doll, et al (2016), Mindful attention to breath regulates emotions via increased amygdala–prefrontal cortex connectivity , https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811916002469
- J. Eckhardt, Kristen & A. Dinsmore, Julie. (2012). Mindful Music Listening as a Potential Treatment for Depression. Journal of Creativity in Mental Health. 7. 175-186. 10.1080/15401383.2012.685020.
