Some days are more successful than others, but all-in-all
I’ve become somewhat used to the idea of meditating in the mornings. The newest
addition to my practice this week has been my attempt to make use of mediation
apps, and I’d like to discuss what I’ve found while using them (i.e., what
works and what doesn’t).
For the uninitiated
I believe I’ve said in my previous posts that meditation
shares many similarities with exercising, but let me demonstrate that the
connection goes beyond the difficulties of motivation. The ubiquitous place of
small yet powerful electronics have brought about the beginning of the era of
the “quantified self,” and the data that our devices are collecting goes beyond
our running speeds. Meditation apps are wedding the usefulness of a mediation guide,
a timer, and a mediation log to track progress. My favorite app this far,
called Headspace, provides guided
mediation sessions, reminds you to take time to mediate, provides you with
goals, and rewards your success. It also teaches you the basics of mediation
and offers new advice as you go along. It’s very useful for someone who is
already glued to his or her phone, as half of the battle with mediation is
simply remembering to do it.
The meditation apps I’ve used employee several learning
strategies. Scaffolding is a central feature of nearly every app I’ve tried.
It’s logical to start small. Headspace begins
the first ten mediation sessions at ten minutes, while another app I tried, Insight Timer, only allows you to
increase your time beyond ten minutes if you wish. As with nearly all
“quantified self” areas, meditation apps attempt a bit of gamefication to
increase motivation. Insight Timer keeps
track of the lengths and consistency of your mediation, providing statistics,
charts, and milestone achievements. Headspace
takes it a step further with ladders to climb and leveling up after to
certain milestones (e.g., 10 sessions completed).
My two favorite apps, which I’ve mentioned, both include at
least an attempt at a social component. Headspace
allows you to invite and challenge your friends within the app. Although I think I’d have a difficult time
convincing my friends to meditate, I find the idea to be very useful. Both apps
also include “this many people are mediating around the world right now” thing,
which I think is pretty useless, but some might find it encouraging to think
that they are part of something more significant. Truthfully, neither of the
social components work for me. I imagine being in a meditation classroom, where
I’m either tasked with finding a partner to bring to class or simply shown dots
on a map illustrating people mediating. I don’t think I’d find that very
useful. I wish these apps would provide a way to make connections with these
other meditating people. Maybe a way to communicate with them would be nice.
Lastly, I want to discuss the expert or guides they use on
these apps. While I prefer to sit in silence or meditate listening to someone
talking about something unrelated to meditation, I have meditated listening to
guided mediation experts. Jack Cornfield is a favorite (who I was glad to find
on Insight Timer), but some of the
teachers don’t really make a connection with me. The narrator for the Headspace app is really not my favorite.
He speaks too matter-of-factly, and I find his explanations or encouraging to
be a bit distracting. He does little to increase my ZPD, whereas the better
meditators (like Cornfield) provide new ideas and perspectives that I wouldn’t
have been able to come up with on my own, but they are really helpful once I
understand them.
I’ve found adding technology to this undertaking has been
really helpful. I’m still on the outlook for new applications, and I’m just
starting to dabble in online mediation forums, which is a very untapped place
of wild potential. I’ll update you on my progress there next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment