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The Trouble with Mindfulness Apps (2016)

mindful.org

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Re: The Trouble with Mindfulness Apps (2016)

#31

Post by thescribe »

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 tend to lose track of time when I meditate, so I found an app that silences my phone and then alarms audibly every fifteen minutes. I guess that is my version of a mindfulness app.

Re: The Trouble with Mindfulness Apps (2016)

#32

Post by pivotal »

SnowingXIV wrote: post #27

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 f…

I feel the same way. Headspace's guided take 10 course was a solid introduction for me, but once I got used to regular practice, headspace's "extras" weren't needed anymore. Now all I really want is a timer and tracking of when I meditated, so I use Insight Timer.

Re: The Trouble with Mindfulness Apps (2016)

#33

Post by epalmer »

criddell wrote: post #24
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 v…

What is this "Oak" app you mentioned? There are a lot of Android Apps with Oak in their name. Thanks.

Re: The Trouble with Mindfulness Apps (2016)

#34

Post by tomc1985 »

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…

There's a subtle irony here...

Reject the mindfulness apps and trust no one, but hey read this mindfulness book!

Re: The Trouble with Mindfulness Apps (2016)

#35

Post by tripzilch »

> Brewer predicts that as more apps for behavioral treatments come to market—and as others surface that aren’t clinical apps but use medical language in their marketing—organizations like the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, which provides guidelines for evidence-based treatments and a national registry of programs, could inherit a role in this wild west.

Why does it have to be US-based organisations to fact-check these claims?

I mean, I get that one answer that the appstore (and playstore) is pretty much US-dominated, but it's not like US healthcare is a glowing example to the rest of the world (or the EU, in particular). And perhaps more importantly, neither are the US' restrictions on misleading advertising regarding medical claims.

Since the play/appstore are in fact global (or multinational) things, their corporations multinationals, why not take advantage of the knowledge on other continents?

Re: The Trouble with Mindfulness Apps (2016)

#36

Post by rubatuga »

tripzilch wrote: post #35

> Brewer predicts that as more apps for behavioral treatments come to market—and as others surface that aren’t clinical apps but use medical language in their marketing—organizations like the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, which provides guidelines for evidence-based treatments and a national registry of programs, could inherit a role in this wild west. Why does it have to be US-based organisations…

Perhaps the healthcare insurance system is flawed, but not necessarily the quality of the healthcare

Re: The Trouble with Mindfulness Apps (2016)

#37

Post by criddell »

epalmer wrote: post #33
criddell wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 v…

What is this "Oak" app you mentioned? There are a lot of Android Apps with Oak in their name. Thanks.

It's an iOS app: https://www.oakmeditation.com/

For me it hits the sweet spot for simple, attractive, and useful.

Re: The Trouble with Mindfulness Apps (2016)

#38

Post by glhaynes »

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?

This is getting downvoted and piled-on but it doesn't seem to me like an unreasonable response to a comment that starts "Meditation and mindfullness are free. You really don’t need an app." and then goes on to recommend a book.

Re: The Trouble with Mindfulness Apps (2016)

#40

Post by cantrip »

kolp wrote: post #15
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…

In case anyone is searching by author name, it's actually Culadasa.

Which search engine do you use? I don't think it's possible to search for "Cudalasa" and not immediately be corrected to "Culadasa", seamlessly and with zero ambiguity.

In which case, why are you even pointing this out? The commenter spelled a name wrong and anyone with a single ounce of intelligence can understand from context what was meant.

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