Can Meditation Gadgets Help You Reduce Your Stress—and Find Happiness? – WSJ.

New gadgets and apps are trying to make mindfulness meditation—an often perplexing practice—a lot easier for beginners. But how much can we expect our smartphones to enlighten us?

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“Musing” may not be meditating—an ancient and powerful practice. But could it be a baby step in that direction? Based on a pilot study of the Muse that Dr. Farb recently completed, he thinks the question is worth exploring. “It might be that in the broad trajectory of a meditative training path, [the Muse is] only the first 1% of the path or the first half percent of the path,” said Dr. Farb. “But you got to start somewhere.”

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Interesting overview, we think that in the end, if you think 20 minutes with a gadget (or nothing at all) is going to help “reduce stress” – that’s seems like the most important thing (you’re doing it and believing it) – if you’re tracking goals and metrics and seek improvement, you’ll probably get there, a gadget could help with that.

Alex Walker’s circuit board illustration is fantastic.