First of all, practice makes perfect! Your brain is always active, no matter what you are doing, and the Mendi session helps you gain more control over that activity. Just like any other activity, this takes patience and practice.
Take physical weight training for example. If you just started to lift weights, you may have noticed that the first few times, the movement felt quite shaky and difficult. But after just a couple of weeks, many probably noticed dramatic improvements in both overall strength and an increased control of the movements. Is that because your muscles became a lot stronger in just a couple of weeks? It would be logical to assume so, but the real reason is simply that your brain started to gain more control of the movement, and as such, it only engaged those specific muscles that actually contribute to lifting the dumbbell, rather than activating all sorts of potentially competing muscles, contributing to the shaky movement.
It's a similar thing with your Mendi training: at first, you might see more seemingly random results, and it can feel hard to control the ball on the screen. Over time, however, you will start to see improvements and a greater sense of control. For most people, this process can take around 3-4 weeks, but for others, it takes a bit longer. The important thing is to keep training regularly.
Another important thing to keep in mind is that every Mendi session helps to make your brain more resilient, regardless of low scores in the game.
Here are some basic instructions on how to get the most out of your Mendi as a beginner:
- Sit, relax and focus on the ball - with an intention to move it upwards. The stars appear when more oxygenated blood is directed to your PFC - think of it as instant feedback for when "you're doing it right".
- A dim, preferably dark environment is ideal for the accurate signal reading so make sure that you’re away from both sun and artificial lights.
- Lastly, like with most other things, practice makes perfect! Your brain is always active, no matter what you are doing, and the Mendi session helps you gain more control over that activity - this takes patience and consistent practice.
Bonus tip: try running a short Mendi session before an activity (like reading, work, sports) and observe how it affects your performance/sharpness.
Remember that, with Mendi you are effectively practicing controlling your thought patterns by focusing them on something specific for a short duration of time. Mendi lets you measure in real-time how your thoughts (and various other psycho/physiological processes) alter the state of your prefrontal cortex. The long term goal is to gain more control over this process and unlock the brain health benefits that come with it. You can think of it as a form of meditation, with live visual feedback - where instead of wondering whether you’re doing it right Mendi can show it to you.