Headspace XR made me forget how much I hate meditation tech

I’ve never been one for staring at abstract graphics while breathing, but Headspace may be onto something with its first VR app.

When the pandemic struck, meditation and mindfulness apps like Headspace were everywhere. Totally makes sense. Yet meditating in VR? It sounds ridiculous. Why would I breathe in a headset when I could just… not. But you never know! Things could surprise you! That’s why I, the meditation skeptic, agreed to try a demo of Headspace XR. Walking into Meta’s New York office, I thought I’d stick on the headset and nod politely while strangers mulled around watching me wear a Quest 3 and breathe deeply. Technically, that is what happened, but I was surprised that I actually enjoyed what I was seeing inside the headset.

Headspace XR is what you’d get if you took the Headspace app and turned it into a virtual playground. You walk around as an abstract, gender neutral avatar and there are different locations you can go to and… play. There’s a bunch of “fountains” where you pick up colorful orbs and throw them at walls — or breathe and inhale the colors into your avatar. There’s a place called the Energy Dome where you go and wave your arms around while tracing shapes. The best I can describe it is if Beat Saber and tai chi had a baby. I’m sure I looked goofy from the outside, but inside the Energy Dome I was having a good time.

You can also pull up a little map to view all the areas within this mental health playground. A giant mood stream, where six balloons with faces representing various emotions await you. Touching one will tailor the experience to whether you’re feeling happy, sad, bored, anxious, angry, or lonely. There’s a mural with slingshots lined up in front of it that you fling virtual balls of paint at that eventually uncover a message. (At my demo, it was “Be present.”)

There’s actually a lot of slingshots. At one point, we were encouraged to just fling balls through giant shapes in the sky — brea