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How to Pick a Meditation App

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Re: How to Pick a Meditation App

#21

Post by mbrock »

rtl49 wrote: post #20
mbrock wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The eagerness with which people recommend those very intense ten day retreats to anyone saying they'd like to start meditating indicates a problem, in my view. 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 s…

I agree that some people recommend the retreats with too little restraint. I'm a fairly young and healthy person, and I still found sitting still while cross-legged for long periods of time very painful. Even on the last day I found it impossible to sit longer than an hour without moving. And this practice is encouraged -- they were called "sittings of strong determination." This is not to mention the difficulty of m…

Yeah, meditation is a magnet for grand claims. I ignore that stuff too, except to the extent that I find Buddhist philosophy interesting.

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.

Re: How to Pick a Meditation App

#22

Post by foobarqux »

king_magic wrote: post #5
hacker_9 wrote: post #2

I've been meditating for over 2 years now and can tell you you definitely do not need to pay for an app to do it. "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 sl…

> 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 subscr…

Each session of the trial seemed to contain essentially the same instructions. Is there anything more to it?

Re: How to Pick a Meditation App

#24

Post by kasey_junk »

swayvil wrote: post #23

Speaking as a guy who has been meditating for a couple decades, the whole concept of meditation apps seems stupid.

I've practiced with & without apps for a similar time period. The apps helped me keep a schedule I found difficult without them. YMMV but for me headspace was worth it.

Re: How to Pick a Meditation App

#25

Post by ilurk »

Youtubbing for "mindfulness meditation" yields multiple results.

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.

Re: How to Pick a Meditation App

#26

Post by [deleted] »

hacker_9 wrote: post #2

I've been meditating for over 2 years now and can tell you you definitely do not need to pay for an app to do it. "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 sl…

[deleted]

Re: How to Pick a Meditation App

#27

Post by cnp »

mbrock wrote: post #12
rtl49 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been (trying to) meditate for about four years now. I even attended a ten day silent meditation retreat in September, which I wrote about in another post. I still find it extremely difficult. People vary in their aptitude for meditation, and for those like me these "aids" are appealing. For myself, I don't see the value of the apps; I'd just as soon use any of hundreds of decent guided meditations on Youtube.

The eagerness with which people recommend those very intense ten day retreats to anyone saying they'd like to start meditating indicates a problem, in my view. 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 s…

Totally agree.

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.

Re: How to Pick a Meditation App

#28

Post by avtar »

rtl49 wrote: post #20
mbrock wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The eagerness with which people recommend those very intense ten day retreats to anyone saying they'd like to start meditating indicates a problem, in my view. 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 s…

I agree that some people recommend the retreats with too little restraint. I'm a fairly young and healthy person, and I still found sitting still while cross-legged for long periods of time very painful. Even on the last day I found it impossible to sit longer than an hour without moving. And this practice is encouraged -- they were called "sittings of strong determination." This is not to mention the difficulty of m…

There's no shame in using a chair for sitting :) I'm not sure if you attended a ten day Goenka retreat but other teaching styles in the same tradition can be more flexible.

Walking meditation can also help prepare the mind for sitting practice: http://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/books-articles/articl...

Re: How to Pick a Meditation App

#29

Post by akanshmurthy »

hacker_9 wrote: post #2

I've been meditating for over 2 years now and can tell you you definitely do not need to pay for an app to do it. "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 sl…

I totally agree. There is no need to pay to meditate. Sometimes, the best things in life are free. You can research breathing methods, posture styles, and more online.

Re: How to Pick a Meditation App

#30

Post by jph »

tinyhappysteps wrote: post #14

Quick plug - made a free app with no ads or IAP - 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.

Tiny Calm looks great - thank you for creating and sharing!
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