Health and well-being affect each of us differently. This is the story of a person.

If you had told me a year ago that my favorite relaxing activity would be to tie a computer to my head to immerse myself in a virtual world, I would never have believed you.

Virtual reality (VR) can be a promising technology, but it turns out that I am the opposite of a technician.

In my family, I am famous for my argument that CDs and VHS tapes should reappear. It is known that my husband ran away with my old phone only to install much needed updates.

Until about a year ago, the RV in any form was barely on my radar. So, it is a miracle that I started with VR meditation, much less that I have come to embrace it as a useful tool to treat my anxiety disorder.


It all started when I received an Oculus Go VR headset as a gift, with the recommendation to try the meditation application.

When I started, I had low expectations. Wouldn't the confining visual field make me feel claustrophobic? Won't I feel dizzy and nauseous? In any case, it seemed that VR could increase my anxiety, not decrease it.

Still, I decided to spin the device for as long as I could stand it, which I thought would be about 30 seconds.


Starting with VR meditation
Slipping my headset and opening the meditation app to the rhythm of the soft piano music, I was surprised to find the response of my body's relaxation activated almost immediately.

As I settled into my choice of environment (a bank overlooking the ocean at sunset) and music (a floating environment track called "refresh"), I felt that the worries of my day disappeared. My breathing slowed. My heart rate was reduced to a constant and constant rhythm.

I sat down, breathed and took the rhythm of the waves for 40 minutes. In a word, I really meditated, which in normal circumstances is extremely difficult for my anxious mind to do.

When I finally took off my headphones to continue my day, I continued to feel the calming effects of my VR meditation experience for hours.

From then on, I got hooked. Now I look forward to the time I spend every two days meditating in any of the numerous application environments, from a winter forest under the northern lights to a jungle pool flanked by waterfalls.

It is as if I could access a whole secret world of peace and tranquility, upon request. I use it to rest after a long day or prepare for a stressful work call. I take it on vacation with me. It has become the sustenance of mental health that I never knew I needed.

Benefits of anxiety meditation.
It shouldn't surprise me, of course, that virtual reality meditation would help moderate my anxiety. The benefits of meditation are well established for many mental health conditions, especially generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).


ResearchTrusted Source shows that mindfulness meditation reduces anxiety symptoms, improves stress reactivity and increases coping mechanisms in people with GAD.

One study found that after a mindfulness meditation session, participants experienced "significantly" less anxiety during the following days.

For someone like me, who lives in a permanent state of mental hyperactivity, meditation is an intervention without cost or risk that could have a great positive impact.

Why VR meditation instead of "regular" meditation
The problem with anxiety, of course, is that it makes my mind more nervous and more prepared to get out of the Zen happiness of meditation and become a hurricane of worries and pending tasks. For this reason, I believe that silent meditation without help is particularly difficult for people with anxiety.

Virtual reality helps me overcome this by compromising my senses. With a view of beautiful landscapes before my eyes and music in my ears, I am much better able to focus on the moment than when I try to clear my head of my own free will.

VR gives me something to focus on, in addition to anxious or intrusive thoughts that constantly compete for head space.

And "gently return my attention to the present," as the meditation scripts say, it's not that difficult when I can't see the mess in my room or hear my children arguing in the next room.

In addition to immersing myself in a sensory experience, simply having a great physical device on my face is an impediment to distraction. The act of putting it puts the expectation in my body and mind that now is the time to be calm.

In addition, the fact that it is an independent device