Interoceptive Interaction: An Embodied Metaphor Inspired Approach to Designing for Meditation

Abstract

Meditation is a mind-body practice with considerable wellbeing benefits which can take different forms. Novices usually start with focused attention meditation that supports regulation of attention towards an inward focus or internal bodily sensations and away from external stimuli or distractors. Most meditation technologies employ metaphorical mappings of meditative states to visual or soundscape representations to support awareness of mind wandering and attention regulation, although the rationale for such mappings is seldom articulated. Moreover, such external modalities also take the focus attention away from the body. We advance the concept of interoceptive interaction and employed the embodied metaphor theory to explore the design of mappings to the interoceptive sense of thermoception. We illustrate this concept with WarmMind, an on-body interface integrating heat actuators for mapping meditation states. We report on an exploratory study with 10 participants comparing our novel thermal metaphors for mapping meditation states with comparable ones, albeit in aural modality, as provided by Muse meditation app. Findings indicate a tension between the highly discoverable soundscape's metaphors which however hinder attention regulation, and the ambiguous thermal metaphors experienced as coming from the body, and supported attention regulation. We discuss the qualities of embodied metaphors underpinning this tension and propose an initial framework to inform the design of metaphorical mappings for meditation technologies. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing ~Interaction design ~Empirical studies in interaction design

Sensory Probes: An Exploratory Design Research Method for Human-Food Interaction

“…The Body mapping probe has been particularly useful in supporting access to these interoceptive experiences, although some participants found it difficult to engage with. This is not entirely surprising, as such probe draws from interoceptive awareness which requires time to develop [13,27] . Nevertheless, the body mapping probe could benefit from additional instructions to better scaffold participants' engagement with it.…”

Dis/Immersion in Mindfulness Meditation with a Wandering Voice Assistant

“…Staying focused in the moment and not becoming distracted is an essential but difficult skill that technology could support [5,12]. Researchers have explored various technologies and their resulting embodiments to lower the difficulty of learning and engaging in mindfulness meditation as well as increase the effectiveness of meditation for users.…”

“…Therefore, we designed the speakers making up the "body" of the wandering VA to be placed close, even intimately near, to the user's body to see how it would affect the guided meditation experience. In addition, Daudén Roquet and Sas [12] and Ståhl et al [29] explored how the location of warmth affected breathing and attention control. They found that temperature feedback aided breathing control; this inspired us to imagine how other senses, hearing and tactility, affected meditation.…”

"I feel like I've never really achieved it"

“…The project 'The Sonic Cradle' is another example [50] that feeds back biodata to the user. Also, the work of Daudén Roquet & Sas [11] focuses on design for bringing attention to the body through their conceptual design WarmMind. These projects focus on using various sensory feedback to practice mindfulness, see also [8].…”