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The Best VR Meditation Apps to Try

Release stress and find your inner peace wherever you are with immersive VR meditation apps.

A lot of people turn to meditation in this period to find inner peace, balance and the strength to deal with stress. Since offers always appear where there is demand, users can choose from a large variety of VR meditation apps. These apps allow you to meditate at your own convenience and in a place where you are comfortable and at ease.

Why Should You Try VR Meditation Apps?

Meditation involves getting into a deep state of mental relaxation. You should not be disturbed by anything in the world around you, such as images and sounds. However, this is difficult for beginners.

This is why VR meditation apps are so popular among people trying to meditate for the first time. They can enter an immersive world specifically designed to induce rest and relaxation. Thus, the users can focus on the experience itself and not on any disrupting elements.

Are you ready to give VR meditation apps a go? Then here are our recommendations for you:

1. Mind Labyrinth VR Dreams

Devices: HTC VIVE, Oculus Rift

This is one of the best VR meditation apps for beginners. It takes the user through a series of magical landscapes, from deep seas to tropical forests. Along the way, the user discovers motivational quotes inspiring them to find inner strength and balance.

The dreamy landscape is made even more relaxing with a selection of soundtracks created by international artist and Academy Award-winning composers. The producers created the sequence of images and sounds in a succession that takes the user through various soothing emotional states.

Tai Chi Trainer XR

Devices: a variety of VR viewers/smartphone VR headsets for Android and iOS phones

Our list of VR meditation apps includes something for people who want to choose an active form of meditating. Originating in ancient China, Tai Chi consists of slow, flowing movements with the purpose of activating the “chi” (the vital energy) and bringing the body and mind together.

tai chi trainer VR app meditation

If you are interested in this practice, Tai Chi Trainer XR is the right choice for you. It features:

  • Full Tai Chi training;
  • Quick Qigong morning routine (5 minutes session);
  • AR Tai Chi;
  • VR Tai Chi.

Thus, as you become more advanced in your meditation technique, you can switch to the less immersive AR version of the app.

3. Chakra VR

Devices: Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Go

With Chakra VR, you can enjoy a guided tour into your inner world and discover your chakras. They are seven “wheels” (direct translation from Sanskrit) that keep your spiritual life in balance:

  • The root chakra: red color;
  • The sacral chakra: orange color;
  • The solar plexus chakra: yellow color;
  • The heart chakra: green color;
  • The throat chakra: blue color;
  • The third eye chakra: indigo color;
  • The crown chakra: violet color.

chakra VR meditation app

With one of the most innovative VR meditation apps, Chakra VR, you can learn how to unblock all the chakras with the specific poses for each of them. This app received a lot of positive reviews (4.5/5 stars rating on the Oculus store) and costs only $2.99, so give it a try!

4. Flow VR

Devices: Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Go

This is one of the VR meditation apps designed for people who need a step by step approach to this activity. It features six modes aimed at helping users reach inner balance: Breath, Focus, Movement, Letting go, Calm, and Restore.

Featuring superb, calming landscapes from Iceland in 4K quality, the app is developed by an award-winning startup and includes music by bands like GusGus and Sigur Rós. As you may recall, Sigur Rós also partnered with Magic Leap to create the first immersive music video experiences.

5. Guided Meditation VR

Last but not least, we recommend a traditional approach to VR meditation apps, featuring authentic meditative music. The app contains a series of 23 relaxing landscapes, from tropical beaches and forests to majestic mountaintops and peaceful Greek coastal cities.

guided meditation VR app

Built specifically for the VR medium, this app offers one of the most immersive and relaxing experiences, capable of helping anyone disconnect from stress and worries.

 

Quelle:

https://www.virtualrealitypulse.com/?open-article-id=14234606&article-title=can-virtual-reality-be-used-to-train-firefighters-&blog-domain=arpost.co&blog-title=arpost

13. August 2020 0 comment
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KnowledgeResearch

Icelandic VR Meditation Studio Receives $500K Funding

Video credit: Flow / YouTube

Iceland Venture Studio, a fund devoted to growing Icelandic tech startups, has announced that it has raised USD $2 million (in addition to its USD $1 million fund from 2019), and has made additional investments into its first portfolio companies. These include Flow, which develops immersive virtual reality-enhanced meditation programs, and RetinaRisk, which has created an algorithm that can help to predict diabetic retinopathy years in advance. Both companies have received an investment of USD $500,000 from the fund.

In addition, Iceland Venture Studios has stated that it is diversifying outside of the region and is seeking to invest a significant part of its newly-raised funds into innovative tech startups outside of Iceland. The fund is seeking investments in companies that are focused around the decentralization of private data, algorithms, privacy, process and data security.

“We’re very committed to both the past and future of Iceland Venture Studios as both a fund as well as the companies we have been fortunate enough to help in their seed rounds,” noted CEO and co-founder, Bala Kamallakharan. “We remain very bullish on both RetinaRisk and Flow and are very proud to be able to make further investments in their companies and team. Having raised twice the money in half the time of our first fund, fund two is earmarked not just for Iceland but for any company demonstrating vision and excellence in our target market segments.”

Commenting on the announcement, Kristín Hrefna Halldórsdóttir, CEO of Flow, said: “Bala is a legendary mentor to the Icelandic tech community and we are very happy that his fund has seen fit to not only continue its support of VR-assisted meditation, but also Flow’s worldwide promotion of pure Icelandic nature and progressive culture”. She added, “The new investment of USD $500,000 into Flow will allow us to continue our journey of bringing meditation to not just the corporate world, but also to individuals who want to partake of guided meditation enhanced with VR, carefully curated music and nature straight from Iceland.”

“RetinaRisk has developed a unique, proprietary algorithm that can correctly identify those most at risk of retinopathy and allows physicians and patients alike to take preemptive steps to prevent vision loss through proper diabetic management. Iceland Venture Studio has now invested a total of SUD $500,000 into our company and we are very honored to be working with Bala and his team,” said Sigurbjörg Ásta Jónsdóttir, CEO of RetinaRisk. “These new funds will be especially valuable as we seek to make our app also available to developing countries, where easy access to health care can be severely limited by geography.”

Iceland Venture Studio states that it provides a growth solution for entrepreneurs building the next-generation of services around decentralization of personal data, algorithms, privacy, process and data security. Serving startups worldwide, the Studio has a data-driven approach to developing and accepting founders into the program. For more information on the Iceland Venture Studio, click here.

 

Quelle:

https://vrroom.buzz/vr-news/business/icelandic-vr-meditation-studio-receives-500k-funding

22. Juli 2020 0 comment
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Examples

17 Great VR Games for Relaxation & Meditation

In times like these it can be nice to be able to get away from it all, if only for a brief moment. If you have a VR headset you’re one of the lucky people who can enter other realities from the confines of your living room, so why not use it for your wellbeing? Here we’ve gathered VR games and experiences focused on relaxation and meditation. We’ll be covering apps on Quest, Rift, SteamVR, and PSVR, so there’s something for everyone (including a couple that are free!).

Below you’ll find that we split up 17 VR meditation and relaxation experiences into several categories: Nature Relaxation, Musical Relaxation, Creation, Musical Creation, Meditation, Reflection, Mindfulness, and Exploration. Did we miss any of your favorites? Drop your suggestions in the comments after the article.

Nature Relaxation

theBlu (Rift, SteamVR) – $10

TheBlu takes you underwater to get up close and personal with some beautiful aquatic scenes and creates. Many will know the iconic whale encounter in this app as a favorite first-time demo for new VR users, but the full version has two additional scenes that go beyond the original, including extra features like the ability to take pictures. The app also has a dedicated ‘Ambient Mode’ that will simply let you sit, uninterrupted, in the deep blue.

Real VR Fishing (Quest, Rift, SteamVR) – $20

You can probably guess what this one is about… but you might not expect that the app has some rather beautiful environments, even on the Quest version. So yes, you’ll be fishing and you can take it as fast or as slow as you’d like. Consider putting on some music or even a podcast while you relax and wait for the big one.

Google Earth VR (Rift, SteamVR) – Free

Google Earth VR is exactly what it sounds like… its Google Earth, but in VR. Beyond being able to explore essentially the entire globe as if you were a giant towering over it, the app can also be a wonderful way to relax. Find yourself a pretty place (there’s some great ones in the ‘Featured’ area), bring yourself down to ground level, and simply sit as a giant and take in the scene around you. You can even set the mood by adjusting the time of day. It can also be magical to just ‘wander’ starting from a familiar place and see where you wind up. Considering both the quality of the experience and the fact that its free, this one is an absolute must-try.

Musical Relaxation

Tetris Effect (Quest, Rift*, SteamVR*, PSVR) – $20, $40

etris Effect is classic Tetris gameplay wrapped in an audio-visual experience which uniquely accompanies each of the game’s levels. As you maneuver the blocks you’ll hear sounds that fit into the beat. Don’t lose yourself too much in the sights and sounds though as some of the levels will take skill and practice to complete, even on ‘Normal’ difficulty.

*via Epic Games Store

Sheaf – Together EP (SteamVR) – Free

Ever wish you could cruise down an endless highway, watching as the trees, buildings, and city streets pass you by while a synthwave soundtrack perfectly fits the vibe? Artist and musician Sheaf has created just that—a short VR experience which is hand-crafted to fit a three track synthwave album. For the great price of free, this one is a no-brainer.

Surge (SteamVR) – Free

A VR classic. This short musically-reactive VR experience from 2016 is still worth checking out for its creative visualizations and minimalistic musical composition. As it’s free there’s little to lose, but it’s so short (just one track) that you might want to consider using it as an appetizer or dessert to complement a longer VR session. If you like this, consider the followup experience, Apex, released in 2017.

Creation

Particulate (Rift, SteamVR) – $10

Particulate uses a custom engine to render millions of particles and let you play with them. You’ll have a handful of tools at your disposal to spawn and interact with a galaxy of particles, including the ability to turn on ‘Audio Reactivity’ which will make them dance to any music you play. You can make and save your own scenes or check out ‘Featured Scenes’ to just sit back, relax, and watch the colorful mingling.

Gadgeteer (Quest, Rift, SteamVR) – $15

Have you ever wished you had a whole room and a box full of tracks, balls, and dominos to build the ultimate Rube Goldberg machine? You’re in luck. Gadgeteer will let you finally imagine your childhood dream of filling an entire room with a crazy chain-reaction-machine without the cat knocking everything over. Beyond being able to build whatever you want in ‘Sandbox Mode’, Gadgeteer is a full fledged puzzle game with 60 puzzles to complete and a pleasant soundtrack to boot.

Read Our Review

Vrkshop (SteamVR) – $20

Vrkshop describes itself as a “VR woodworking game” and aims to recreate a hands-on woodshop where you can measure, mark, cut, nail, and much more. With a realistic wood-cutting system, the app challenges you to use the tools at your disposal to create furniture and other objects with no explicit instructions.

Musical Creation

Electronauts (Quest, Rift, SteamVR, PSVR) – $20

Electronauts is like a VR DJ station with training wheels. Though you can take the training wheels off if you’re especially talented, the training wheels are actually part of the appeal; Electronauts does an incredible job of letting you express your inner musical creativity even if you don’t have instrumental talent. The game serves up some 80 tracks, each which function as a custom sound-kit with unique instruments, backing tracks, and more. And as a huge bonus, the Rift and Steam versions of the game are multiplayer, meaning you can jam out with a friend (unfortunately the Oculus PC and SteamVR versions aren’t cross-platform multiplayer so make sure your friend buys on the same platform). The track list is heavy on the EDM side (though there are some chill songs to be found) so if that’s not your cup of tea you might want to look elsewhere.

Read Our Review

Drops: Rhythm Garden (Rift, SteamVR) – $5

Drops is a musically focused experience where shapes that you place make different sounds when struck with falling balls. With an endless flow of balls, you can construct a cacophony of sounds on the fly, adding new shapes and creating new paths as you go. Think of it like a Rube Goldberg machine, but for making minimal, meditative music.

Meditation, Reflection, Mindfulness, and Exploration

Meditation

Guided Tai Chi (Quest) – $10

Guided Tai Chi guides you through more than 100 “Tai Chi inspired” workouts ranging from 3 minutes up to 60 minutes. With 20 nature environments designed to help you relax. The app uses Quest’s motion controllers to instruct you in slow and thoughtful motions that can help you unwind.

Guided Meditation VR (Rift, SteamVR) – $15

Could there be a more clearly named VR meditation game? Guided Meditation VR has 27 nature filled environments with some 500 individual meditation spots across them. You can pick from a list of environments, music, and narrations which will guide you through different meditation techniques to help you relax, unwind, and forget about the world (if only for a moment). You can also choose no narration at all to simply relax and enjoy the sights and sounds (or even mix in your own music).

Reflection

Where Thoughts Go (Quest, Rift, SteamVR) – $10

Where Thoughts Go is a totally unique social experience that you won’t find elsewhere in or out of VR. In this reflective experience you’ll find yourself in peaceful environments populated with floating orbs. Grab an orb and you’ll hear someone speak. The recordings you hear are from other real, anonymous users who are sharing their dreams, fears, and secrets, as prompted by questions in each stage of the experience. You can listen to get perspective from others and leave your own audio recordings to drift through the virtual world waiting to be listened to by someone, somewhere out there.

Mindfulness

Marvellous Machine (Rift, SteamVR) – Free

Marvellous Machine is a free 15 minute thoughtfulness exercise wrapped up in a graphically impressive VR experience. You’ll be seated as you’re toured along a track listening to a narration which aims to introduce you to the basics of mindfulness. The app will encourage you to look at your surroundings, and your thoughts, in a different way.

Exploration

Fujii (Quest, Rift, SteamVR, PSVR) – $15

Fujii is a peaceful, explorative journey through a whimsical world of vibrant plants and cute critters. Though this definitely fits in the ‘game’ genre, it’s a purely peaceful game—there’s no enemies or health bars or pressure—just an inviting world with light puzzles and secrets to find at your own pace. You’ll frequently return to a garden where you can plant and tend to the flora and fauna that you collect throughout your journey. Though the game isn’t specifically designed around meditation, between your garden and other parts of the world, there’s plenty of lovely places to spend a few minutes to sit and smell the roses.

Read Our Review

Spheres (Rift) – $10

Spheres is an interactive narrative experience that will take you on a compelling tour of the cosmos. You’ll be encouraged to reach out and touch the worlds before you and listen to the songs they sing into the void. This experience is equal parts cosmology and imagination.

 

Quelle:

Foto: Image courtesy Cubicle Ninjas

17 Great VR Games for Relaxation & Meditation

21. Juli 2020 0 comment
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KnowledgeResearch

VR Meditation Could Take The Misery Out Of Long-Haul Flying

Using immersive tech for meditation is becoming more popular, but can it make flying in economy feel bearable?

Keen to explore the potential of immersive technologies to enhance passenger wellness during long-haul flights, StoryUP has partnered with French-American company Skylights, which has recently utilized cinematic VR as premium passenger entertainment to work towards integrating its Healium content onto their Allosky headsets.

Healium is an immersive media channel that aims to combat stress by combining immersive technologies, such as virtual and augmented reality, with biometrics monitoring. Stress is the number one epidemic of the 21st century according to Healium, and self-awareness is the first and most crucial step towards tackling it. It’s what the team describes as “loving-kindness content.”

The app uses real-time EEG feedback to increase feelings of positivity by placing the viewer in environments which are healed and transformed by their changing biometrics. This is accomplished using devices such as the Muse headband or smartwatches in conjunction with the visuals provided by the headset.

The app is capable of functioning independently without wearable integration or VR goggles (there is an AR version which you can use on mobile devices, currently available on iOS, coming soon to Android), although it is a much more immersive experience to use the brain-sensing headband or other wearable as a controller while in VR. The visual meditation experience is powered by your own brain and heart rate, so as you move towards greater inner peace, the various brainwave patterns and changing heart rate moves alters the visuals surround the user, making flowers spontaneously grow or the sun shine more brightly. Rather poetic, really, but also a design choice based upon research that indicates that exposure to nature and mindfulness practices can aid in relaxation and anxiety reduction.

The EEG patterns most associated with stress and anxiety are increased fast wave activity (Beta) and decreased slow wave activity (Alpha). Increases in Alpha power are associated with lower levels of anxiety and increased calmness.

A recent study published recently in Frontiers in Psychology, found that applied relaxation techniques had comparable effects to Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) as do therapeutic approaches that incorporate mindfulness training.

According to the paper, anxiety disorders are the most common mental health disorder in the United States, with as much as one third of the population experiencing it at some point in their lives. Given the number of people affected, it seems a logical step to explore the potential of accessible, user-friendly, engaging technologies to assist in this treatment process.

While previous research has established that VR can be successfully used in the treatment of anxiety disorders, including phobias and PTSD, here researchers compared a brief nature-based mindfulness VR experience to a resting control condition on participants suffering from anxiety. The results demonstrated that both a quiet rest control condition and the VR meditation significantly reduced subjective reports of anxiety.

“VR intervention uniquely resulted in shifting proportional power from higher Beta frequencies into lower Beta frequencies, and significantly reduced broadband Beta activity in the anterior cingulate cortex. These effects are consistent with a physiological reduction of anxiety,” the paper states.

The results support the notion that intentionally crafted VR experiences can be therapeutically effective, and may result in “immediate, adaptive psychophysiological outcomes.” There is early evidence, the researchers conclude, that VR based meditation interventions have the potential to play an important role in anxiety management and stress reduction. “As VR technology becomes more accessible and user-friendly, this type of intervention may find its way into a variety of environments and applications. Because the technology is relatively easy to use, it may serve as a wellness tool in work and school environments, as an intervention for persons with lack of access to nature, as a calming technique for persons receiving medical/dental procedures, as an adjunct to traditional therapeutic interventions.”

Who knows? If this catches on and eventually becomes part of the standard offering with most airlines, next time you’re facing 10+ hours squeezed in that middle seat in cattle class, you might just be able to escape to your own little Nirvana and emerge as a happier, healthier person upon landing. Until then, we’re stuck with more traditional therapies, like cornering the flight attendant for that extra G&T.

Quelle:

https://vrscout.com/news/meditation-app-long-haul-flying/

 

18. Dezember 2018 0 comment
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