ZestHacks: Coffee tech and optimising your brain in 2020 #256

I first used this brain sensing headband about 5 years ago. Click here if you’d like to see my good friend Dr. Stephen Simpson modelling it in an earlier podcast. It is described as a personal meditation assistant that will gently guide you to a calm mind. Put on the Muse headband, earbuds, start the app, and close your eyes. You will hear changing sounds of weather based on the real-time state of your brain which allows you to obtain a deeper sense of focus and motivates you to build a highly rewarding practice.

Brain hack 2 to energise you: Meditation app. You might remember I mentioned Sam Harris’ Waking Up meditation app about a year ago. And I’m still using it. It makes a big difference to my day and has got me thinking about all sorts of trippy consciousness concepts. It’s very simple, and introduces the listener to lots of different types of meditation. Each day is about 10 minutes so manageable. They’ve recently introduced a 20-minute option too.

Brain hack 3 to energise you? A U.S. brain research company called Emotiv has developed a brain-scanning device with two electrodes, one for each ear (thanks to Zestology listener Sonia for flagging it up). It looks like standard ear pods, and functions like them too. I’m not keen, in fact I wouldn’t even want to wear standard earpods all day connected to either bluetooth or wifi. But that aside, technology moving into user-friendly brain-scanning raises all sorts of ethical considerations, and whilst I quite like the Muse headband, I draw the line at this! What about you? Let me know.