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Gaming and meditation have more in common than you think. These seemingly unrelated pursuits both offer important self-development lessons that use similar parts of our brains to mold us into better humans. Connecting the dots between gaming, meditation, and flow has led to gamified meditation training apps. It can be easy to dismiss these apps as they’re not as spiritual as meditating on the grass by the sea with a guru, nor are they as fun as crushing candy on the train to work. They don’t fit our perception of gaming or our perception of meditationbut the thing is, they work.

"Guided Meditation has a genuine ambition to help you relieve stress, and goes the extra mile to do so. Rather than simply letting you stand on a beach or atop a cliff, the experience comes with 25 different meditation sessions, each of which is voiced by one of four different teachers and based on their own styles. If you want to use VR to help escape into a more soothing atmosphere, then Guided Meditation is definitely the app for you."

"Tropical Dream VR takes players to a island paradise where they can explore the island, swim in the sea and generally just put their feet up. Designed as a kind of VR meditation experience, and unlike most other meditation apps Tropical Dream VR allows players a greater range of interaction with the scene around you, from the butterflies and bonfires, to the tropical birds and sea life, it all there to provide a tranquil, calming atmosphere. And for a more personal touch you’ll be able to add your own pictures to customise the scene."

Virtual reality is made for meditation. Immersed in a cloistered world of your own, you can step away from the stresses of reality to a gentle, calming environment. While there are new connected devices aimed at reducing your stress, VR apps, in particular, are perfectly suited for this task. Why? Meditation itself requires little to no interactivityafter all the goal is to be still. So virtual reality apps require very simple imagery, and often little action, so those designed to encourage quiet reflection work well with lower-end, mobile-based headsets. In other words, you don't need an Oculus Rift to bring upon your inner zen.

Champions of meditation in the workplace are growing in number. Now, with new immersive virtual reality technology becoming increasing available, at-desk VR meditation could be the next big thing with employees. Could VR headsets such as the Oculus RIft and Gear VR create a new tribe of virtual meditators, even in the most chaotic of workplaces?

For now, on the content side, VR mainly means a few gaming experiences with relatively niche appeal (given the pro kit needed to power them), and experimental or quasi-educational content such as virtual tours, medical therapy and attempts to foster empathy by embodying another first-person perspective. But another idea is to use VR to foster mindfulness by tuning out the day-to-day and tuning into some calming VR vistas. U.S. digital health company Provata Health is one of several companies hoping to harness the technology’s power as an escapist medium by using it as a backdrop for guided meditations and has just launched a VR iOS app.

"The basic idea of mindful meditation is that you try to focus on the present moment rather than worrying about the past or the future.... There have been hundreds of studies on mindfulness now, and there's very good evidence that it reduces stress and anxiety, and that it reduces symptoms such as chronic pain and fatigue."

It’s long been known that meditation is a viable tool in pain management and the management of stress. If you’re thinking stressful thoughts throughout the day, then those centers in your brain are going to get larger, and others will deteriorate. Studies also show that when dealing with health issues, it is often best to start with mental health first, as so much of what happens to our bodies is controlled by our minds. Meditation and mindfulness are often central to this pr...actice. However, meditation is not a natural activity. But technology, often shunned as a distraction from the practice of meditation, offers us other alternatives. Guided meditation can now be much more immersive than simply donning a pair of headphones and closing your eyes. The once complex and expensive world of virtual reality has now become simpler and more affordable. See more