In today’s stressful society, it is important to find ways to reduce stress and anxiety that increase every day. A research team at the University of Bath in the UK reported that it is possible to maintain concentration and reduce anxiety by using a ball that contracts or expands in response to breathing.
Recently, focusing deeply on one’s breathing has been known to relieve anxiety and increase happiness, and mindfulness breathing techniques are also used in cognitive behavioral therapy and trauma treatment. However, it is quite difficult to remain focused only on one’s breathing, and many people will probably end up thinking about irrelevant things if they close their eyes in silence. If you are unable to focus on your breathing, your mental health will be less engaged and you will not be able to fully reap the benefits of breathing techniques.
Here, the research team developed a ball that contracts in response to breathing to support mindful breathing. This ball, named PAWS (Physical Artefact for Well-being Support), is said to collect breathing pattern data with a sensor attached to the subject’s body and provide tactile feedback by inflating or deflating the ball. It is a structure that converts the subject’s lung activity collected by a sensor into air pressure and causes the cheek to inflate or shrink in accordance with breathing.
The research team conducted an experiment with 58 subjects and compared a group that breathed only according to the voice guidance of a meditation app and a group that breathed using a combination of voice guidance of a meditation app and PAWS. As a result, the anxiety rate was 31% in the group that did not use a ball, but the anxiety rate significantly increased to 75% in the group that used the ball. It is said that the subjects were able to focus on breathing by using the ball, and the number of disruptive accidents occurred was reduced. Additionally, people who used the ball along with the meditation app’s voice showed significantly higher heart rate activity changes, which indicate resilience from stress and emotional regulation.
The research team is planning a large-scale PAWS trial involving more medical experts in the future and is also working on developing a portable version that is easy to use in actual clinical settings. In addition, although the review of this research paper has not been completed, the research content was presented at a conference held in April 2023 (CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems). The research team said that by giving breathing a physical form, the ball increases self-awareness and participation, which has desirable effects on mental hygiene, and hopes to be one of the solutions. Related information: this placeYou can check it here.
2023-09-18 03:00:42
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