PMR
Deep relaxation training on your own. Headset only.
Module · relax
Tense, release, and learn what relaxed feels like.
PMR is a virtual-reality trainer for Meta Quest that teaches deep relaxation by progressive muscle relaxation. A hologram avatar mirrors your movements and shows each exercise, an animation behind it shows the muscles, and a narrator leads you through the whole session. You can do it on your own.
The method
Progressive muscle relaxation was developed by the American physician Edmund Jacobson in the 1920s. Muscle groups are tensed and released one after another in a set order. The contrast between tension and release teaches a person to notice when muscles are tense and to let that tension go quickly. The idea behind it: when the body relaxes, the mind follows.
The technique is usually learned from an audio recording or with a specialist. In VR the task arrives through several channels at once, in sync: you see the exercise on the avatar and in the detailed animation, you hear the narrator, and the particles in the air set the breathing rhythm. The instructions are clear enough to do the exercise right the first time.
What is in front of you
- Avatar
- A translucent hologram that repeats your movements, like a reflection in a mirror. During the exercises it works alongside you; colour on its body shows which muscles are tense and which are relaxed. Its lungs and diaphragm are visible, so you see how to breathe deeply from the diaphragm.
- Screen
- An animation behind the avatar shows in detail which muscles to tense, how, and how to release them.
- Narrator
- Gives the instructions and says which sensations to pay attention to.
- Setting
- Calm and neutral, with dim light and no bright accents. Nothing distracts from the avatar, the screen and the voice.
One session
- 1
Breathing
The session opens with the classic breathing circle. Particles synchronised with the inhale and the exhale help you breathe right; this is the first step of relaxation.
- 2
Muscle groups, one by one
Arms, legs, neck, head, forehead and the rest, in the order the method prescribes. For each group the avatar shows the exercise, the screen shows the animation, and the narrator explains what to do.
- 3
Breathing again
After all the groups, the session closes with a second breathing exercise.
Two ways to run it
PMR + CleverPoint 4 + CleverLab
The person's physiology during the session is shown in CleverLab on the PC: how the body responded to the training, and a report on its state afterwards.
The same headset and sensors run BreathBook for paced breathing and Stressonika for the test before the work. Packages: see pricing.