How Muse co-founder Ariel Garten uses neurofeedback to stay focused

Executive overview

Most people struggle to meditate because they expect a blank mind — but wandering thoughts are how meditation is supposed to work. The real payoff isn't the session itself; it's the ability to catch emotional dysregulation and distraction throughout the day.

The brain trained to notice its own drift can redirect focus on demand — in meditation and at work.

Starting a meditation practice

• Thoughts during meditation are normal, not failure — the practice is noticing and returning to the breath.
• Start with 3–4 minutes; consistency of time and trigger matters more than duration.
• Anchor it to an existing habit (after brushing teeth, after a snack break) to build the routine.
• One session a day is sufficient — multiple sessions are not required.

Why meditation is worth it

• Meditators' brains look on average 7.5 years younger than non-meditators' (Dr. Eileen Luders).
• Muse used by the Mayo Clinic: reduced stress in breast cancer patients, improved cognition in busy doctors, reduced brain fog in long COVID patients.

Prefrontal cortex training with Athena

• Athena is Muse's newer device combining EEG and fNIRS (frontal near-infrared spectroscopy) to measure blood flow to the prefrontal cortex.
• fNIRS uses light to track oxygen demand at the blood-brain barrier — a portable alternative to fMRI.
• The Athena session trains the prefrontal cortex to upregulate its activity, strengthening attention, inhibition, and planning.
• Sessions are just 5 minutes — demanding enough that more is unnecessary, like timed squat sets.

Using meditation skills throughout the workday

• Meditation trains the ability to notice mental drift and redirect attention — this transfers directly to work.
• When an uncomfortable email triggers a stress response, Garten names the emotion, takes a breath, re-regulates, then moves toward solution.
• She actively considers the other person's perspective to exit the loop of reactive thinking.
• When mindless email-checking takes over, the habit itself becomes the trigger to stop and return to the task list.
• Having a pre-prepared list of priority tasks removes decision friction when breaking a bad-habit state.

Managing priorities and time with kids

• Garten uses a running weekly to-do list in macOS Notes — task management apps add no meaningful benefit.
• She sets an annual plan (started in October) and filters daily decisions through two criteria: who is the paying customer, and what achieves the most good for all stakeholders.
• Stakeholder groups — family, company, customers — are often in conflict; prioritization is a values-based call, not a formula.
• She admits she is bad at saying no, and that imperfect prioritization is normal — sometimes the decision is made for you.
• Night work sessions are a deliberate trade-off: kids in bed at 8:30, work until 10:30, protecting 8 hours of sleep.

Strategies from guests that stuck

• BJ Fogg (Tiny Habits): Break habits into tiny steps and celebrate each one — the dopamine response accelerates neural wiring and learning.
• David Eagleman: Do everyday tasks with your non-dominant hand to force new neural connections and build comfort with discomfort.
• The underlying principle: doing things you're not good at, repeatedly, trains competence — including memory retrieval, exercise, and unfamiliar work tasks.