Meditation experts try Virtual Reality Mindfulness: A pilot study evaluation of the feasibility and acceptability of Virtual Reality to facilitate mindfulness practice in people attending a Mindfulness conference.

María V Navarro-Haro,Luis Borao,Marsha M Linehan,Marta Modrego-Alarcón,Hunter G Hoffman,Yolanda López-Del-Hoyo,Daniel Campos,Javier García-Campayo,Azucena García-Palacios,Etsuro Ito

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0187777

Abstract

Regular mindfulness practice benefits people both mentally and physically, but many populations who could benefit do not practice mindfulness. Virtual Reality (VR) is a new technology that helps capture participants’ attention and gives users the illusion of “being there” in the 3D computer generated environment, facilitating sense of presence. By limiting distractions from the real world, increasing sense of presence and giving people an interesting place to go to practice mindfulness, Virtual Reality may facilitate mindfulness practice. Traditional Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT®) mindfulness skills training was specifically designed for clinical treatment of people who have trouble focusing attention, however severe patients often show difficulties or lack of motivation to practice mindfulness during the training. The present pilot study explored whether a sample of mindfulness experts would find useful and recommend a new VR Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT®) mindfulness skills training technique and whether they would show any benefit. Forty four participants attending a mindfulness conference put on an Oculus Rift DK2 Virtual Reality helmet and floated down a calm 3D computer generated virtual river while listening to digitized DBT® mindfulness skills training instructions. On subjective questionnaires completed by the participants before and after the VR DBT® mindfulness skills training session, participants reported increases/improvements in state of mindfulness, and reductions in negative emotional states. After VR, participants reported significantly less sadness, anger, and anxiety, and reported being significantly more relaxed. Participants reported a moderate to strong illusion of going inside the 3D computer generated world (i.e., moderate to high “presence” in VR) and showed high acceptance of VR as a technique to practice mindfulness. These results show encouraging preliminary evidence of the feasibility and acceptability of using VR to practice mindfulness based on clinical expert feedback. VR is a technology with potential to increase computerized dissemination of DBT® skills training modules. Future research is warranted.

Highlights

Mindfulness has been defined as “the act of consciously focusing the mind in the present moment without judgment and without attachment to the moment” [1]
The other authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. These results show encouraging preliminary evidence of the feasibility and acceptability of using Virtual Reality (VR) to practice mindfulness based on clinical expert feedback
The current pilot acceptability/feasibility study explored whether people who already practiced mindfulness on a regular basis were willing and able to try practicing Dialectical Behavioral Therapy mindfulness skills training while in virtual reality, and whether they reported any benefits afterwards

Summary

Introduction

Mindfulness has been defined as “the act of consciously focusing the mind in the present moment without judgment and without attachment to the moment” [1]. Mindfulness refers to the self-regulation of attention to one’s experiences in the present moment with curiosity, openness and acceptance [2]. Mindfulness-based interventions, such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction [3] are used by the general population to increase the health of non-patients via “wellness” programs [4]. Research in non-patient populations indicates that mindfulness practice helps decrease depressive symptoms and rumination [5] as well as increase positive affect [6, 7] in non-clinical populations. A review study indicates that participation in a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program yields benefits for non-patients, such as decreasing stress and burnout of health care practitioners [11, 12]. Similar benefits of mindfulness have been found across different cultures [13]

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