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The Trouble with Mindfulness Apps (2016)

mindful.org

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Re: The Trouble with Mindfulness Apps (2016)

#21

Post by bunderbunder »

eberfreitas wrote: post #9
fermienrico wrote: post #4

Meditation and mindfullness are free. You really don’t need an app. What you need is a book to get started and learn: Cudalasa’s Mind Illuminated is absolutely life changing. When it comes to mindfullness, there is a lot of bullshit out there. As an objective and critical person, I find it hard to trust anyone. If you’re in the same boat, delete all these apps and buy a copy of Cudalasa. Once you’ve internalized the…

Where can I get the book for free?

I hope you were just asking for directions to your local public library. Violating Buddhism's Second Precept isn't an ideal way to get started on Buddhist practice.

Re: The Trouble with Mindfulness Apps (2016)

#23

Post by Narretz »

fermienrico wrote: post #4

Meditation and mindfullness are free. You really don’t need an app. What you need is a book to get started and learn: Cudalasa’s Mind Illuminated is absolutely life changing. When it comes to mindfullness, there is a lot of bullshit out there. As an objective and critical person, I find it hard to trust anyone. If you’re in the same boat, delete all these apps and buy a copy of Cudalasa. Once you’ve internalized the…

I need to read a 500 pages book to get started? I've had a few mindfulness mediatation sessions with a teacher, and he was able to convey the most important parts in 10 minutes.

Re: The Trouble with Mindfulness Apps (2016)

#24

Post by criddell »

alex_lod wrote: post #3

What bothers me most about these is that they often charge money. In Buddhism the teaching of mindfulness has been offered through “dana” (donations). Teachings so close to our hearts shouldn’t be commercialized in my opinion. If they are, they lose a lot of their essence. Hard to explain :)

I think it depends on if you see a fee as buying mindfulness or supporting a teacher. I really don't have a problem with the latter.

I downloaded and have been using Oak for a few weeks now and so far, I think I like it. I haven't seen ads and the app is pretty basic. They have guided and unguided sessions and I find myself returning to the guided version even though I've pretty much memorized the instruction. The voices are nice and I actually find myself doing a better job of staying focused on my breath.

I don't know that it's been beneficial yet, but it is becoming a habit.

It also introduced me to Alan Watts and that can't be a bad thing.

Re: The Trouble with Mindfulness Apps (2016)

#25

Post by brango »

eberfreitas wrote: post #9
fermienrico wrote: post #4

Meditation and mindfullness are free. You really don’t need an app. What you need is a book to get started and learn: Cudalasa’s Mind Illuminated is absolutely life changing. When it comes to mindfullness, there is a lot of bullshit out there. As an objective and critical person, I find it hard to trust anyone. If you’re in the same boat, delete all these apps and buy a copy of Cudalasa. Once you’ve internalized the…

Where can I get the book for free?

Do some useful work for someone and ask them to reward you with the book.

Re: The Trouble with Mindfulness Apps (2016)

#26

Post by spraak »

It's a nice time to remember there are many types of meditation, and to know your goal of meditating, which can range from being more calm or peaceful, to enlightenment or connection with God. In terms of types of meditations, some are more active and dynamic. One of the easiest and most blissful is kirtan, which is chanting in a group, usually with some instruments/music. It can be helpful to perform a more active meditation first in order to settle the mind, after which a still meditation can be more fruitful.

Re: The Trouble with Mindfulness Apps (2016)

#27

Post by SnowingXIV »

Completely felt the same about these kinds of apps previously and likely still do, I've a had a few people recommend them to me and I've dismissed them immediately because to meditate or clear my head I want less electronics, I want to be away from anything remotely related to pixels on a screen.

Since I haven't had much luck on my own, I recently started to use headspace, basically it's just audio of a guy talking for a few minutes. It's helped me quite a bit, I imagine this would work just as well if it were a teacher or friend but I feel few people have to have access to someone who will do that with them every day.

Each lesson gives some tips on how to help not remove thoughts but accept them which I always tried to manually delete thoughts but it always failed and there was too much resistance. I'm adverse to taking any type of anxiety medications so this is a much cheaper and risk-free alternative.

I don't pay for it as that does distract from the point but it's been beneficial (I think). It's likely not science, but it helped create a routine of letting yourself breathe for a bit which in itself is useful.

Re: The Trouble with Mindfulness Apps (2016)

#28

Post by moh_maya »

So, the article seems focused on apps that are claim to treat / address depression. There is a difference in practicing mindfulness for "general" stress management v/s trying to use meditation / mindfulness to treat psychological illnesses.

A quick google [1,2] suggests there is some research emerging indicating that such apps can work.

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030645301...

[2] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10902-014-9589-1 (via the headspace website).

I do not disagree with the central thesis of the article, i.e., the claims that many (most) of these apps make must be validated with clinical trials before they are allowed to make such claims; especially on issues such as depression & anxiety --> in effect, they are targeting the (potentially) desperate people looking for a solution

But I think going from "these claims should be validated" to "none of these apps are useful; its all snakeoil. Take a book and do it on your own" is a bit of a leap.

Meditation & mindfulness are personal experiences. Even the best book or coach that works for others may not work for me. Calibrating my expectations and systematically trying different approaches (books, coaches, apps) is probably the only way I (or anyone) can find a method that fits one's personality / mindset.

Re: The Trouble with Mindfulness Apps (2016)

#29

Post by konradb »

Narretz wrote: post #23
fermienrico wrote: post #4

Meditation and mindfullness are free. You really don’t need an app. What you need is a book to get started and learn: Cudalasa’s Mind Illuminated is absolutely life changing. When it comes to mindfullness, there is a lot of bullshit out there. As an objective and critical person, I find it hard to trust anyone. If you’re in the same boat, delete all these apps and buy a copy of Cudalasa. Once you’ve internalized the…

I need to read a 500 pages book to get started? I've had a few mindfulness mediatation sessions with a teacher, and he was able to convey the most important parts in 10 minutes.

Just to get started you would read the first chapter or two.

Re: The Trouble with Mindfulness Apps (2016)

#30

Post by mooseburger »

Narretz wrote: post #23
fermienrico wrote: post #4

Meditation and mindfullness are free. You really don’t need an app. What you need is a book to get started and learn: Cudalasa’s Mind Illuminated is absolutely life changing. When it comes to mindfullness, there is a lot of bullshit out there. As an objective and critical person, I find it hard to trust anyone. If you’re in the same boat, delete all these apps and buy a copy of Cudalasa. Once you’ve internalized the…

I need to read a 500 pages book to get started? I've had a few mindfulness mediatation sessions with a teacher, and he was able to convey the most important parts in 10 minutes.

No, you don't need to read the whole book just to start. It divides the practice into ten stages, and you don't move on from a stage until you have mastered it. So you only need to read about the first stage to get started.

Mind Illuminated isn't really about mindfulness meditation though, but about getting to the threshold of Enlightenment (this does involve mindfulness).

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