My Beating Heart is a plush heart-shaped pillow that gently beats out a slow, steady heart-like rhythm. Creator Yury Gitman sent me one a couple weeks ago and I've been trying it out, turning it on and holding it to my chest after stepping into the office. I'm usually in quite a flurry when I get to my desk first thing — I walk for an hour every morning but my phone goes bonkers while I'm out, and when I sit down and start my mail fetching and my backup running, I see how much crud has come in. It can really fluster me, so I figured if there was any time of my day when I could use some ambient relaxation, it was first thing at work.
It works — it really works. The heart has two settings, slow and fast, and both of them calm me down in a way that's comparable to having a purring cat buzzing under your hand (but it's easier to put My Beating Heart on a shelf for the weekend than it is leaving a cat behind.)
At $120, I don't think I would have bought this for myself, but I do think I'll keep on using it once in a while now that I have one.