How to Pick a Meditation App
well.blogs.nytimes.com
well.blogs.nytimes.com
"One of the more challenging problems in learning to meditate is remembering to do it."
I do it every night before going to sleep. That's not hard to remember, plus it clears your mind for a deeper sleep. You can go to bed at your normal time as well, as the meditation can be considered as part of your sleep schedule. It definitely won't (and hasn't for me) detract from your sleep.
Just start by focusing on the tip of your nose and controlling your breathing. Then when you are ready, allow your body to take over the breathing while you watch. Then also allow it to take over the monologue in your head and you listen. Eventually you become an observer of all your thoughts and senses, and so become free of them.
Except it's a lot easier said than done. I've personally enjoyed my Headspace subscription. I have no qualms with paying for it, and feel it has been more effective than all of the material I've ever read on meditation that I've looked at. But YMMV.
Plenty of people find them valuable, but they're also a pretty extreme way to start out. To me it seems likely to turn people off; after all they're designed to be a kind of boot camp experience.
And then on the internet people are often bringing up how they sit in lotus posture for an hour every day...
People can discuss whatever they want and make whatever suggestions they want, of course, but I think it's all likely to construe meditation as necessarily tedious, painful, and time-consuming.
I'm curious, have you tried maintaining a habit of sitting for something like 10 or 5 minutes per day? In some non-contorted posture, like kneeling on a meditation bench?
Not to imply that "everyone should be able to do that" or whatever, but if all your attempts for years have been ambitious, that could be demotivating... whereas kneeling and breathing for 5 minutes is a great way to get started.
That said, I can't plead ignorance, just overconfidence. Since the retreat, I have lasted no longer than fifteen minutes at a time. I prefer lying down (I'm not tempted to sleep). It actually feels like I'm a worse meditator now than I was before the retreat, though I've been assured that this is a "sign of progress."
Truthfully, after maybe 140 hours of practice, I have doubts about the purported benefits. The ultimate aim, the end of suffering, seems like an impossible and likely undesirable goal. For now, I use it as needed to clear my mind when I need to focus.
The vipassana retreats are built on Buddhism (though the founder prefers to reformulate it in more secular terms) so it's not surprising that they're aimed towards some notion of nirvana.
At the very least, simple breathing exercises can be super obviously relaxing and mind-clearing. Lots of people do them for just ten breaths. Five minutes is quite a lot from that perspective, so I really think we shouldn't dismiss that kind of duration.
Walking meditation can also help prepare the mind for sitting practice: http://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/books-articles/articl...
Easier said than believed when there's a sixty-year-old woman within view managing just fine without one ^^.
I actually appreciated the discipline of the retreat, I was just physically unprepared for the sitting (too inflexible). I'm open to other techniques, and when I'm alone I don't force myself into an uncomfortable posture. Thanks for the link.
I find its best to do 12 minutes in the morning, right when I wake up. No food yet or anything; just leave the bedroom, head to the corner of the room, hit my timer and go. 12 minutes is my happy medium, but it took some time to get there; I started at 3 (can't argue with 3 minutes) then doubled it to 6, then doubled it to 12. On the weekends I do 24, and often times more. But the key was building up from that initial 3 minute daily commitment.
I know everyone hears this all the time, but Meditation is the greatest thing. Hard to explain unless you do it every day, but it has such a wonderful transformative power. Its really helped improve my code, too.
https://itunes.apple.com/app/tiny-calm/id1039698577?mt=8
Has simple reminders, quick access widget, tracking and encouragement - basically all the features I wanted in a meditation app but I couldn't find for free on the appstore.
It was my first app and released it after 2 months of learning to code. Mostly learned from reading Apple's swift book, taking a $10 udemy course (there are a bunch out there) and lots of stackoverflow when I got stuck.
I blogged about the process from hello world here - http://tinyhappysteps.com/
All you need is a timer which is already built in to most phones; if you want a slightly better timer that has a soothing chime, use https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.xipa.medigo... which is also free (and has no ads, social networking features or other annoying stuff).
There's no discussion of any substance here, it's pure filler. Differences in meditation technique and course format between apps find no mention, and there's no evidence provided showing that any of these apps is an effective aid to meditation. Most considerations on the list are applicable to an app focused on just about any positive habit people might want to incorporate into their daily lives.
How to Pick a Meditation App (well.blogs.nytimes.com)
13 points by delambo 1 hour ago
user: delambo
about: My real-name HN handle. Web developer at The New York Times. @delambro
Headspace is probably the easiest and best way to get started with meditation, due to its great instructions, sublime voice quality (both technically and phonetically/subjectively), and clear motivating daily progress (with reminders).
This video [1], which occurs early in the free introduction course on Headspace, is a good example of why Headspace is vastly more than just a scheduling app. Meditation can be hard, but Headspaces makes it easy to get into.
Please be mindful, everybody has their own ways.
I haven't looked into any of those yet but was wondering if HN would recommend them.
What I've been doing on and off is to play a calming "meditation tune", sit down on a pillow, try to get into lotus (eventually shifting to a simple sitting when it becomes uncomfortable), and flush thoughts out. So far I haven't reached the stage of focusing on breathing, so many things rushing through my mind lately.
I now use Enso app [1] just to alert the 15 min duration, it's free on the App Store (optional purchases for different alert bells).
[1] https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/enso-meditation-timer-bell/i...