There’s no denying the powers that meditation can have for us, and whether you’re looking for mental, emotional, spiritual, or physical improvement, it’s one tool that can do it all.
Although we know the many benefits, it’s hard for some of us to harness, and we find the very act of unwinding and meditating to be a challenge in itself.
If this sounds like you, you’re not alone, as there are lots of people out there who struggle to sit still and meditate.
For this very reason, Muse 2 was invented, as a way to guide people through meditation without them having to work hard to reap the benefits, so if this is an area you’re having problems with, you’ll want to know what it’s all about.
What is the Muse 2 Meditation Assistant?
This electronic device is a meditation headband that connects to headphones to allow you to get in tune with your thoughts and breathing while broadcasting through a guided meditation. The device also offers real-time feedback on your heartbeat, brain activity, body movements, and breathing with a brain scanner, so it’s always monitoring your progress.
There are so many great things we can achieve with daily meditation but it’s not always as easy as it looks.
If you’ve always wanted to go further with your meditation practice, the Muse 2 Next Generation Meditation Assistant is the way to do it, and we’re going to weigh up the good and the bad of this device to see if it’s truly worth it.
What Is The Muse 2?
The Muse 2 Meditation Assistant is a brain-sensing headband that you wear on your head to track your meditation practice.
When you first get your Muse 2, you connect your own headphones to it, set up the smartphone app, and then put in some information about what you hope to gain from a meditation practice.
When you’re ready to meditate, you wear the headband and choose the type of meditation you want to do.
The Muse 2 lets users choose from four different types of meditation: mind, heart, body, and breath.
Here’s what each of them offers, making them ideal for different times in your life when you might need meditation:
- Mind: Keeps your mind calm and focused when you need it, using an EEG electrical activity tracker in the headband.
- Heart: Tracks your heartbeat and helps synchronize it to the sound and beat of a drum using a PPG and pulse oximetry device.
- Body: An accelerometer is used to monitor the movement of your body and help you align your posture and stay still and calm.
- Breath: Uses breathing techniques to teach you to achieve calm and synchronize your breath to ambient music.
With your headphones in, you’ll listen to a guided meditation with various sounds that can help you relax and achieve a meditative state.
There are lots of options to choose from including the types of sounds you like and how long you want to mediate for, so the practice is completely up to you.
Once the meditation is over, you’ll be able to look over the data that’s been compiled on your breath, brain activity, heart rate, and body movements.
With this information, the Muse 2 will offer improvement suggestions, show you how far you’ve progressed, how deeply and long you reached a mediate state during your practice, and whether you’re closer to reaching your meditation goals.
The Best Bits
If you’re someone who has tried to meditate in the past and failed, you have a lot to gain from trying this device.
The Muse 2 converted long time non-believers in meditation and showed them at that it was possible, with loads of happy customers saying they were now able to reap the benefits of the practice.
There’s nothing you have to do to use this device and you don’t need any knowledge about meditation before you begin.
Muse 2 will walk you through every step of the way and keep track of your heart rate, breathing, and even areas where your body is moving, so you don’t have to second guess whether you’re doing it right or not.
This device isn’t just about a one-time meditation practice either; it’s so much more than that.
With the Muse 2, you can have a long term plan for improving your meditation and tracking your progress every time you use it.
Customers who had used the Muse 2 for even just a few weeks were able to see real progress and how the deepness of their meditation and the length of their sessions had improved.
According to reviews, it was incredibly easy to use and set up, thanks to the smartphone app.
You can customize your meditation sessions to be anything you want, whether you’re in quick need of calming down, or want to learn breathwork that you can use in the future, so there’s no shortage of ways to get some use out of your Muse 2.
Potential Drawbacks Of The Muse 2
For an expensive device like this, you’d hope that there wouldn’t be too much to complain about, and thankfully there’s not.
One issue that seems to come up with other reviewers though, is bugs with the software.
It seems that Muse 2 is constantly offering updates and patches to fix potential issues, but when you’re spending this much, it would be good to find the kinks had been ironed out well before they released it.
The price could also be off-putting to some people, and not within the reach of everyone’s budget.
For a meditation device, it does what it’s meant to, but if you don’t have a couple of hundred dollars to spend, you’ll have to settle for YouTube videos and other guided meditations that don’t allow you to track all of your vital statistics.
As well as paying for the device, you also have to pay for a subscription for the app.
When purchased as a bundle, you can save some money, but it’s an ongoing cost that you’ll have to come up with if you want to keep using it.
The Muse 2 Special Features
The newer generation Muse 2 has been made to be compatible with all types of devices, so regardless of whether you have an iOS or Android operating system, you’ll be good to go.
You can download the Muse app on your phone to access it on the go or at home, and with all of the other accessories included in the pack, it’s the only thing you’ll need to get instant access to meditation.
With the app, you’ll be able to choose how long you want to meditate for, the type of meditation, and what sounds you prefer to relax to.
You’ll be able to store favorite sessions for future use and customize it completely to what you like, meaning a more successful meditation practice every time.
Included with the Muse 2 Meditation Headband are all the parts you’ll need. You’ll get the brain sensing headband, a USB recharge cable, and a quick start guide.
However, you do have to provide your own earbuds if you have a specific type you want to use.
With these accessories and your phone, you’re ready to go in minutes of setup time to start using your Muse for meditation.
The Muse 2 Meditation Assistant can run for five hours on a single charge, so you’ll only need to hook it up once a week to get the batteries full again.
You’ll also be able to have more than one user at once connected to the device so you can meditate with a friend or family member at the same time.
The headphones can connect with a wireless Bluetooth connection or through the mini USB port, but you will need to provide your own.
Muse houses their meditation assistants in a hard case that keeps it protected from falls and means you can travel with it.
You can take your device with you wherever you go and know that it’s safe and ready to use whenever you need.
There’s a handy divider case to keep the cords and the headband separate as well, so if you want to access it quickly, you’ll be able to do so.
Muse 2 Finer Details
To purchase the Muse 2 Meditation Assistant, there are a few options available.
The most popular is the standalone device which retails at around $200 when you purchase it on Amazon or $40 more for the bundle which includes the hard case.
Amazon offers free returns as well, so you can send it back free of charge if there are any issues and you’ll get a full refund.
The Muse 2 comes with a one-year limited warranty which covers it from defects, but according to the happy customers, it lasts for many years after that.
When you shop on Amazon, you’ll also benefit from free shipping to your door and the option to choose either a used or brand new device, potentially saving yourself some money.
There are other versions of the Muse 2 Meditation Assistant available, with this being the base model and most affordable choice.
The Muse S is the bigger and better model, but if you’re just after a good meditation tool, there’s no reason you have to upgrade.
For most people, the Muse 2 will be everything they need to achieve daily calm and get them building a lifelong meditation practice.
A Worthy Meditation Tool
We all need to find some calm in our lives, and regular meditation practice is the easiest way to get it.
With a tool like the Muse 2 Meditation Assistant, you can build your practice and find time each day to calm your mind, even if you’ve never spent a minute trying to meditate before.
There are so many benefits available to the body and mind with regular meditation, but it’s not always so easy to do.
Using something like the Muse 2 Meditation Assistant can show you that it’s achievable for everyone, thanks to their helpful feedback and ability to help you get better every time you try.
Although it’s expensive, having something like the Muse 2 can help people who’ve struggled in the past to find a calm mind and learn the right breathing techniques and postures.
With all of the benefits that meditation offers mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and physically, it’s worth paying the price for something that can help you achieve them with ease.
Related Questions
Meditation is one of the best things you can do for your body and mind, and although it looks calming and easy, it’s quite difficult to master.
Using a meditation tool is a great way to learn how to meditate and achieve calm in your life, and if you want to learn more about the practice we’ve answered some FAQs that can help you out.
What Are the Types of Meditation?
Meditation is a varied practice that encompasses different things, and it depends on what you want to achieve with yours.
Some popular forms of meditation include mantra meditation, mindfulness meditation, transcendental meditation, and focused meditation, with each type of practice offering different outcomes.
What is the Aim of Meditation?
There are many reasons someone would meditate, but the overarching purpose of meditation is to calm the mind and clear it of thoughts.
With regular practice, you should be able to have a focused mind that is free from worry and aimless thoughts whenever you step into your meditative state, but this can take a lot of work to achieve.
