10 ms·

Headspace vs. Calm: A Meditation-App Battle That’s Anything but Zen

125 points by yarapavan 8y ago

rjbwork 8y ago
I find the voices used in both quite terrible. I quite like Sam Harris's voice and so I got his app. His actual voice is just endlessly zen, so when he's really trying to be soothing and calm in a guided meditation. It's just really calming and transparent, so I can focus more on the technique of meditation. He also has more of a hands off approach compared to Headspace and Calm. Whereas the other apps are pretty high touch, Waking Up is fairly low touch, and Sam lets minutes go by with no guidance, just letting you attempt the technique on your own after the introduction.
procinct 8y ago
https://outline.com/AXH95C https://outline.com/AXH95C
- asaddhamani 8y ago
  Thank you
amanzi 8y ago
I'm a fan of Insight Timer (https://insighttimer.com/ https://insighttimer.com/). It has tons of free guided meditations as well as meditation courses that you can pay for. I tried both Calm and Headspace and I just didn't like the feel of them. Both seemed to tick all the cliche monetisation strategies of mobile apps.
- jlengrand 8y ago
  I used headspace for a while, but then got hammered so heavily with ads so I heard the dude's voice for months on endm, interrupting my videos. To a point that I just can't stand him any more and considered reporting. I don't understand how an app that claims to want to help you meditate can invest so heavily on harassing users with ads everywhere. This really pushed me off meditation altogether to be honest
  - hedgew 8y ago
    I had the same experience. I'm in the correct target demographic because I'm interested in meditation and not yet doing it actively, but the ads have reduced my interest in meditation more than anything has increased it.
  - claudiawerner 8y ago
    This is the first time I'm hearing anything about headspace and the whole idea of ads in a meditation app is simply absurd! Even if they don't play while you're supposed to be meditating, aren't ads one of the features of our world which is known for detracting from mindfulness?
    - yoble 8y ago
      The ads are not in the app itself - headspace seems to spend a lot in marketing and you can get hammered by repetitive ads promoting it in youtube, etc. End result is associating the app with annoying ads.
    - jlengrand 8y ago
      Yeah my bad I wasn't clear enough. You get hammered on Youtube and the like, with short sentences that are used as well in the app itself and with the same voice. So you end up hating the guy and its made phrases. A shame, really.
- jimiray 8y ago
  I use it also and always recommend it, at worse you get a good timer for free. I probably do guided about 25% of the time mostly because I'm looking to learn a new meditation style. Also it has free yoga nidra courses, which to me is maybe more powerful than meditation. But no one talks about it the same.
- nitins 8y ago
  I am also fan of Insight timer. I had tried out a bit of headspace and calm earlier, found Insight to to work better for me.
desireco42 8y ago
I think both of those are... well kind of stupid. If you want to meditate, you can use some guiding meditation in first few times, but really you want to be able to meditate on your own. In interest of many commercial products is for you to be dependent on them. This is opposite to benefits of meditation in my view. Now as always, real thing is much harder than pretending to do it, which is why those two apps are popular. Sam Harris app is much better in that regard for example.
- playpause 8y ago
  Even people who have been meditating for decades often do guided meditations, not because they can't do what you call the 'real thing'.
  - johnisgood 8y ago
    Via apps? :D
    - johnisgood 8y ago
      Oh yes, here we come: Guided meditation through VR! Westernize meditation too. How about going outside to meditate in nature? What happened to that? :/ Do it while you still can, as we have not completely destroyed our planet yet.
      - mbrock 8y ago
        I thought meditation historically has mostly happened in seclusion from nature, in temples, monasteries, bedrooms, etc. Going indoors to sit in meditation isn't a "Western" phenomenon!
        johnisgood 8y ago
        Westernization is a "process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture". It does not necessarily have to happen in the West. Anyway, these monasteries are actually on mountains or deep in the forest for a good reason, so not exactly in seclusion from nature. Buddha himself is said to have attained Bodhi under the Bodhi Tree. Meditation and nature are strongly tied to each other. Are you trying to suggest that it is not the case? It definitely did not happen "in seclusion from nature", that would be not only counterproductive, but it is historically incorrect.
sn41 8y ago
I just didn't find headspace to be effective on a long term. One simple mindfulness exercise I did find useful is noting, especially observing when you change posture. After the initial promise however, I found that the effects did not last. I will try insight timer, since it seems to get favorable reviews.
skilled 8y ago
These apps make no sense to me. What's wrong with going outside and sitting still? Do you really need all this tech/sounds/talking/etc,. to find stillness in yourself? Meditation can be tough to learn, but you only have to do it once. I find it hard to believe that one can find true balance in their practice by using a meditation app. And what is the deal with having to pay for something that's essentially free? Is it the entertainment value, or is it so that we can tell our friends, "Hey John, I just spent $5 on that new 'stress release' meditation and I have been feeling so zen!!".
- elbear 8y ago
  Here my own experience with headspace. I was meditating for some time, but I felt like I wasn't making any progress. I know the point is not to aim for progress, but I was and it was discouraging. So headspace helped me back on track. I really liked Andy's voice and the guided session helped me see meditation in a different light. He uses all these metaphors to make you realize that thoughts are constantly passing, that you shouldn't judge yourself for getting caught up in a thought pattern. I would say that the biggest advantage to meditation apps is that they distract you from your own thoughts and draw your attention to certain topics. They can also teach you how to relax when you're finding it hard to do that by yourself. Also, I want to add, I stopped using headspace, because I didn't feel the need for guidance at some point. Actually, I felt it was distracting me, so I returned to meditation without any guidance or other devices.
- whitepoplar 8y ago
  Yeah, I feel the same way. I'd go so far as to say that even being near my phone makes it harder to concentrate. If I want to meditate, I turn it off. (Not on silent, but off. I find great comfort in not being near powered-on electronics).
  - dfgert 8y ago
    I feel the same about meditating near an powered-on electronic device, but in modern world it impossible to escape from EMW emitting devices. You can turn off all wireless capable devices in your home but can't control devices in neighbor house or nearby cell tower. I have personally had more satisfaction meditating outside in fresh air near natural environment than indoor. I also know of many meditative experts who routinely visit remote areas in forests to practice deep concentration. I would like someone to build an app to locate more favorable spot for meditation by calculating net wifi traffic in air.
EGreg 8y ago
What do you think of Sam Harris’ app specifically? Pros and cons?
- relativeadv 8y ago
  I've always meditated on my own. I tried Headspace to see what the fuss was about and thought it was laughably bad...but i'm not a beginner so it probably just wasn't aimed toward me. Sam Harris's app is the only one i find actually valuable because he frequently releases 5 to 30 minute "lessons" that are audio of him teaching some aspect of meditation or purpose. Talks on death, gratitude, the goal of meditation, thought experiments, etc. I don't do his 30 day guided meditations that are also in the app, but I'm sure they'd benefit some people. The pros with Sam's app is that he is going to give you a unique experience and ask you to "look for things" in your meditation that might otherwise take you years to realize you should be looking for. The con is the same with all guided meditations. An app can't tell what level of concentration you happen to be at during your 30 minute sit, and so it often interrupts you just as you're making some real progress.
Accacin 8y ago
I'm not really into these apps, but personally I love listening to one or two ASMR channels on YouTube. If I'm feeling stressed I have 3 or 4 that I listen to very often and they help me a lot.
- vidar 8y ago
  Can you share the links?
acqq 8y ago
> anything but Zen Well... Zen isn't just what people today associate with it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_at_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_at_War and when we're there: https://www.tofugu.com/japan/bushido/ https://www.tofugu.com/japan/bushido/
tlrobinson 8y ago
> “Since winning App of the Year, we seem to have a much higher growth rate than they do, and we’ll surpass them from now on,” Calm’s Ms. Wang says. This statement alone makes me root for Headspace.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- bsenftner 8y ago
  Capitalism wreaks the concepts of meditation.
altairiumblue 8y ago
Many of you are correct that you don't necessarily need an app and you definitely don't need guidance after a point. But Headspace specifically has been extremely helpful in teaching me how to approach meditation and how to make a habit out of it. For anyone who is just beginning I would definitely recommend going through Take10, all the Basics packs and all the Pro packs in Headspace. In this order the guidance gradually decreases and by the time you finish you will have built a good routine and will be ready to switch to unguided meditation. At the moment I use Oak - it's free but only available on iOS. It effectively acts as a timer and tracker for my unguided meditation, nothing more. I've tried Calm and I don't get appeal - the content, design, progression, voices... everything seems strictly worse than Headspace or Oak.
- mercer 8y ago
  Agreed! Headspace was what finally got me to consistently meditate, unlike the other apps I've tried including Calm. It could be a matter of taste though. The creator/'guide' of Headspace, Andy, has a kind of British bloke-ey voice that I really prefer over the deep, 'spiritual' guide of other apps. Maybe that says more about my distaste of the woo-hoo that is common in this field, but still. I've talked to people who dislike Headspace because of Andy's voice though, so YMMV.
rv-de 8y ago
I really don't understand why one would need an app to meditate. Meditation is really simple. There's no need for automated guidance.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
new_guy 8y ago
These apps are horrible. They function as a crutch for people who just don't know any better (not necessarily their own fault) and what they teach isn't even actual 'meditation'. And that makes it even worse because then you get all these people saying 'ooh I meditate' when no, they've not even meditated once. It's all western BS about making money, not about helping anyone. And people are too stupid/lazy/dumb to know any better, it's the same with 'learn to code in 24 hours', '6 abs in 6 weeks' etc. If you want to meditate - actually meditate - get rid of the apps. Just go sit somewhere and turn your attention inwards, it's so simple, children should know this. There's also a world of difference between 'being present' (which should be your default mental state) and actually meditating, they're as different as night and day, that's something else people don't get. </rant> The constructive part, if you're actually interested check out Raja Yoga, again 'yoga' that westerners do is a bastardized form of Hatha Yoga which was nothing more than a warm up in itself. There's a good series of lessons from the 1940s. You'll find them if you're meant too.
- userchris 8y ago
  Why do you seem them as a crutch/why do you see what they practice as "not meditation"? For perspective, when trying meditation at first, I did it without the use of any technology- I read "Mindfulness in Plain English" and some other articles and books, and attempted meditating based on what I learned there (with mixed periods of success). And then at some point later, I tried headspace to see what the hype was about. I found both paths helpful and effective- after all, the guided mediations in headspace largely just reflected the same things that the books had taught me. I don't have a headspace subscription and wouldn't get one, but I don't see it as significantly different than an audiobook version of some of the material I had read about in order to understand how to meditate. And maybe you could make the argument that people should just do that instead (listen to audiobooks, since the cost would be much lower). Do you see something fundamentally different?
- alexashka 8y ago
  Please take a look in the mirror, your ego is out of control. Words are for people to communicate to one another. They're not a stand-alone entity that will remain correct, regardless of time and place. In the west, yoga and meditation mean something other than what they mean, in other cultures and time periods. That's perfectly fine. Folks are doing stretches and holding poses, they like it. Great. Folks are sitting down and listening to something soothing for 10 minutes, they like it. Great. There is no downside here - the only downside you're finding is inside yourself, being projected outwards.
bsenftner 8y ago
Christ people, this is a glaring place where an app is a complete joke. Don't be so stupid!
- ryanwaggoner 8y ago
  You definitely sound like a good source of advice on how to be more zen and less reactive :)
  - popppooo32 8y ago
    His alarm is valid, and his reaction is tempered.
vntok 8y ago
> “The irony is not lost on me,” says Rich Pierson, CEO and co-founder of Headspace, of the rivalry with Calm. But he’d rather focus on his Santa Monica, Calif.-based company’s authenticity, he says, which is drawn from co-founder Andy Puddicombe’s 10 years of studying meditation at Buddhist monasteries. > “If you were going to see a psychologist, you’d probably want to know where they trained and qualified. It’s the same with meditation,” Mr. Pierson says. Calm’s founders previously worked in online gaming and advertising.
meowzero 8y ago
I've been using Headspace and the 10% Happier apps for about a year (I started with Headspace, canceled subscription, and tried 10% later). I think they're very helpful. They're especially helpful for beginners who want to try meditation. I'm reading some comments here and see some people mention how easy it's to meditate. I'm wondering if they actually meditate or know what it is. Before I started meditating, I too had similar thoughts. But I had some misconceptions of meditation before I tried these apps. These apps helped me to start my meditation on the right path. After a year, I don't think I need these apps anymore. The guided meditations are distracting themselves because the teacher jumps in at random points to remind you of things that you already know. I do like the teachings they do before an after meditations. Sometimes, they are helpful and insightful. I think these apps are fine for beginners. Once you get used to meditating for 20+ minutes every day, you probably won't need them anymore.
- superasn 8y ago
  But as a beginner who wants to start too, my question is it better to use a paid app with monthly subscription than to listen to the same guided meditation on mp3 or youtube?
  - meowzero 8y ago
    It's up to you. All these apps have few several free sessions you can try out. Heck, download all the meditation apps and try all their free sessions. Those are probably enough to help you get started. I didn't mind paying for subscriptions. They do get into different techniques and insights that the free content don't give you. Although I never tried insight timer; that app seemed to give you a lot more content for free.
  - wool_gather 8y ago
    One important thing that you get with the subscription, which could be harder-to-impossible to find free, is a progression of instruction. A 10-day series might remind you just in time about some detail you were forgetting, or provide insight on a difficulty you're likely to have encountered, or introduce a new technique and guide you through simple->full versions of it.
billfruit 8y ago
Is meditation really different from doing any focussed activity? Especially isn't reading a book same thing as meditation, only more educative.
- dwaltrip 8y ago
  Mindfulness meditation, at least, is very different. A key attribute is awareness of the current moment -- the here and now. Books, including non-fiction, take the reader to another place.
momentmaker 8y ago
Try oak meditation app by Kevin Rose. I've been using it for a while now. There is guided or unguided meditations.
remir 8y ago
Meditation apps certainly helped a lot of people discover that practice. In a stressful world, that is great. But it's funny how this turned into a big business.
timka 8y ago
TRY MEDITATION! ⁱᶠ ʸᵒᵘ ᶜᵃⁿᵗ ᵇᵉ ˢᵘᶠⁱ –Idries Shah, Knowing How To Know

125 points by yarapavan 8y ago

I find the voices used in both quite terrible. I quite like Sam Harris's voice and so I got his app. His actual voice is just endlessly zen, so when he's really trying to be soothing and calm in a guided meditation. It's just really calming and transparent, so I can focus more on the technique of meditation. He also has more of a hands off approach compared to Headspace and Calm. Whereas the other apps are pretty high touch, Waking Up is fairly low touch, and Sam lets minutes go by with no guidance, just letting you attempt the technique on your own after the introduction.

procinct 8y ago

https://outline.com/AXH95C https://outline.com/AXH95C

asaddhamani 8y ago
Thank you

amanzi 8y ago

I'm a fan of Insight Timer (https://insighttimer.com/ https://insighttimer.com/). It has tons of free guided meditations as well as meditation courses that you can pay for. I tried both Calm and Headspace and I just didn't like the feel of them. Both seemed to tick all the cliche monetisation strategies of mobile apps.

jlengrand 8y ago
I used headspace for a while, but then got hammered so heavily with ads so I heard the dude's voice for months on endm, interrupting my videos. To a point that I just can't stand him any more and considered reporting. I don't understand how an app that claims to want to help you meditate can invest so heavily on harassing users with ads everywhere. This really pushed me off meditation altogether to be honest
- hedgew 8y ago
  I had the same experience. I'm in the correct target demographic because I'm interested in meditation and not yet doing it actively, but the ads have reduced my interest in meditation more than anything has increased it.
- claudiawerner 8y ago
  This is the first time I'm hearing anything about headspace and the whole idea of ads in a meditation app is simply absurd! Even if they don't play while you're supposed to be meditating, aren't ads one of the features of our world which is known for detracting from mindfulness?
  - yoble 8y ago
    The ads are not in the app itself - headspace seems to spend a lot in marketing and you can get hammered by repetitive ads promoting it in youtube, etc. End result is associating the app with annoying ads.
  - jlengrand 8y ago
    Yeah my bad I wasn't clear enough. You get hammered on Youtube and the like, with short sentences that are used as well in the app itself and with the same voice. So you end up hating the guy and its made phrases. A shame, really.
jimiray 8y ago
I use it also and always recommend it, at worse you get a good timer for free. I probably do guided about 25% of the time mostly because I'm looking to learn a new meditation style. Also it has free yoga nidra courses, which to me is maybe more powerful than meditation. But no one talks about it the same.
nitins 8y ago
I am also fan of Insight timer. I had tried out a bit of headspace and calm earlier, found Insight to to work better for me.

desireco42 8y ago

I think both of those are... well kind of stupid. If you want to meditate, you can use some guiding meditation in first few times, but really you want to be able to meditate on your own. In interest of many commercial products is for you to be dependent on them. This is opposite to benefits of meditation in my view. Now as always, real thing is much harder than pretending to do it, which is why those two apps are popular. Sam Harris app is much better in that regard for example.

playpause 8y ago
Even people who have been meditating for decades often do guided meditations, not because they can't do what you call the 'real thing'.
- johnisgood 8y ago
  Via apps? :D
  - johnisgood 8y ago
    Oh yes, here we come: Guided meditation through VR! Westernize meditation too. How about going outside to meditate in nature? What happened to that? :/ Do it while you still can, as we have not completely destroyed our planet yet.
    - mbrock 8y ago
      I thought meditation historically has mostly happened in seclusion from nature, in temples, monasteries, bedrooms, etc. Going indoors to sit in meditation isn't a "Western" phenomenon!
      - johnisgood 8y ago
        Westernization is a "process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture". It does not necessarily have to happen in the West. Anyway, these monasteries are actually on mountains or deep in the forest for a good reason, so not exactly in seclusion from nature. Buddha himself is said to have attained Bodhi under the Bodhi Tree. Meditation and nature are strongly tied to each other. Are you trying to suggest that it is not the case? It definitely did not happen "in seclusion from nature", that would be not only counterproductive, but it is historically incorrect.

sn41 8y ago

I just didn't find headspace to be effective on a long term. One simple mindfulness exercise I did find useful is noting, especially observing when you change posture. After the initial promise however, I found that the effects did not last. I will try insight timer, since it seems to get favorable reviews.

skilled 8y ago

These apps make no sense to me. What's wrong with going outside and sitting still? Do you really need all this tech/sounds/talking/etc,. to find stillness in yourself? Meditation can be tough to learn, but you only have to do it once. I find it hard to believe that one can find true balance in their practice by using a meditation app. And what is the deal with having to pay for something that's essentially free? Is it the entertainment value, or is it so that we can tell our friends, "Hey John, I just spent $5 on that new 'stress release' meditation and I have been feeling so zen!!".

elbear 8y ago
Here my own experience with headspace. I was meditating for some time, but I felt like I wasn't making any progress. I know the point is not to aim for progress, but I was and it was discouraging. So headspace helped me back on track. I really liked Andy's voice and the guided session helped me see meditation in a different light. He uses all these metaphors to make you realize that thoughts are constantly passing, that you shouldn't judge yourself for getting caught up in a thought pattern. I would say that the biggest advantage to meditation apps is that they distract you from your own thoughts and draw your attention to certain topics. They can also teach you how to relax when you're finding it hard to do that by yourself. Also, I want to add, I stopped using headspace, because I didn't feel the need for guidance at some point. Actually, I felt it was distracting me, so I returned to meditation without any guidance or other devices.
whitepoplar 8y ago
Yeah, I feel the same way. I'd go so far as to say that even being near my phone makes it harder to concentrate. If I want to meditate, I turn it off. (Not on silent, but off. I find great comfort in not being near powered-on electronics).
- dfgert 8y ago
  I feel the same about meditating near an powered-on electronic device, but in modern world it impossible to escape from EMW emitting devices. You can turn off all wireless capable devices in your home but can't control devices in neighbor house or nearby cell tower. I have personally had more satisfaction meditating outside in fresh air near natural environment than indoor. I also know of many meditative experts who routinely visit remote areas in forests to practice deep concentration. I would like someone to build an app to locate more favorable spot for meditation by calculating net wifi traffic in air.

EGreg 8y ago

What do you think of Sam Harris’ app specifically? Pros and cons?

relativeadv 8y ago
I've always meditated on my own. I tried Headspace to see what the fuss was about and thought it was laughably bad...but i'm not a beginner so it probably just wasn't aimed toward me. Sam Harris's app is the only one i find actually valuable because he frequently releases 5 to 30 minute "lessons" that are audio of him teaching some aspect of meditation or purpose. Talks on death, gratitude, the goal of meditation, thought experiments, etc. I don't do his 30 day guided meditations that are also in the app, but I'm sure they'd benefit some people. The pros with Sam's app is that he is going to give you a unique experience and ask you to "look for things" in your meditation that might otherwise take you years to realize you should be looking for. The con is the same with all guided meditations. An app can't tell what level of concentration you happen to be at during your 30 minute sit, and so it often interrupts you just as you're making some real progress.

Accacin 8y ago

I'm not really into these apps, but personally I love listening to one or two ASMR channels on YouTube. If I'm feeling stressed I have 3 or 4 that I listen to very often and they help me a lot.

vidar 8y ago
Can you share the links?

acqq 8y ago

> anything but Zen Well... Zen isn't just what people today associate with it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_at_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_at_War and when we're there: https://www.tofugu.com/japan/bushido/ https://www.tofugu.com/japan/bushido/

tlrobinson 8y ago

> “Since winning App of the Year, we seem to have a much higher growth rate than they do, and we’ll surpass them from now on,” Calm’s Ms. Wang says. This statement alone makes me root for Headspace.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
bsenftner 8y ago
Capitalism wreaks the concepts of meditation.

altairiumblue 8y ago

Many of you are correct that you don't necessarily need an app and you definitely don't need guidance after a point. But Headspace specifically has been extremely helpful in teaching me how to approach meditation and how to make a habit out of it. For anyone who is just beginning I would definitely recommend going through Take10, all the Basics packs and all the Pro packs in Headspace. In this order the guidance gradually decreases and by the time you finish you will have built a good routine and will be ready to switch to unguided meditation. At the moment I use Oak - it's free but only available on iOS. It effectively acts as a timer and tracker for my unguided meditation, nothing more. I've tried Calm and I don't get appeal - the content, design, progression, voices... everything seems strictly worse than Headspace or Oak.

mercer 8y ago
Agreed! Headspace was what finally got me to consistently meditate, unlike the other apps I've tried including Calm. It could be a matter of taste though. The creator/'guide' of Headspace, Andy, has a kind of British bloke-ey voice that I really prefer over the deep, 'spiritual' guide of other apps. Maybe that says more about my distaste of the woo-hoo that is common in this field, but still. I've talked to people who dislike Headspace because of Andy's voice though, so YMMV.

rv-de 8y ago

I really don't understand why one would need an app to meditate. Meditation is really simple. There's no need for automated guidance.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

new_guy 8y ago

These apps are horrible. They function as a crutch for people who just don't know any better (not necessarily their own fault) and what they teach isn't even actual 'meditation'. And that makes it even worse because then you get all these people saying 'ooh I meditate' when no, they've not even meditated once. It's all western BS about making money, not about helping anyone. And people are too stupid/lazy/dumb to know any better, it's the same with 'learn to code in 24 hours', '6 abs in 6 weeks' etc. If you want to meditate - actually meditate - get rid of the apps. Just go sit somewhere and turn your attention inwards, it's so simple, children should know this. There's also a world of difference between 'being present' (which should be your default mental state) and actually meditating, they're as different as night and day, that's something else people don't get. </rant> The constructive part, if you're actually interested check out Raja Yoga, again 'yoga' that westerners do is a bastardized form of Hatha Yoga which was nothing more than a warm up in itself. There's a good series of lessons from the 1940s. You'll find them if you're meant too.

userchris 8y ago
Why do you seem them as a crutch/why do you see what they practice as "not meditation"? For perspective, when trying meditation at first, I did it without the use of any technology- I read "Mindfulness in Plain English" and some other articles and books, and attempted meditating based on what I learned there (with mixed periods of success). And then at some point later, I tried headspace to see what the hype was about. I found both paths helpful and effective- after all, the guided mediations in headspace largely just reflected the same things that the books had taught me. I don't have a headspace subscription and wouldn't get one, but I don't see it as significantly different than an audiobook version of some of the material I had read about in order to understand how to meditate. And maybe you could make the argument that people should just do that instead (listen to audiobooks, since the cost would be much lower). Do you see something fundamentally different?
alexashka 8y ago
Please take a look in the mirror, your ego is out of control. Words are for people to communicate to one another. They're not a stand-alone entity that will remain correct, regardless of time and place. In the west, yoga and meditation mean something other than what they mean, in other cultures and time periods. That's perfectly fine. Folks are doing stretches and holding poses, they like it. Great. Folks are sitting down and listening to something soothing for 10 minutes, they like it. Great. There is no downside here - the only downside you're finding is inside yourself, being projected outwards.

bsenftner 8y ago

Christ people, this is a glaring place where an app is a complete joke. Don't be so stupid!

ryanwaggoner 8y ago
You definitely sound like a good source of advice on how to be more zen and less reactive :)
- popppooo32 8y ago
  His alarm is valid, and his reaction is tempered.

vntok 8y ago

> “The irony is not lost on me,” says Rich Pierson, CEO and co-founder of Headspace, of the rivalry with Calm. But he’d rather focus on his Santa Monica, Calif.-based company’s authenticity, he says, which is drawn from co-founder Andy Puddicombe’s 10 years of studying meditation at Buddhist monasteries. > “If you were going to see a psychologist, you’d probably want to know where they trained and qualified. It’s the same with meditation,” Mr. Pierson says. Calm’s founders previously worked in online gaming and advertising.

meowzero 8y ago

I've been using Headspace and the 10% Happier apps for about a year (I started with Headspace, canceled subscription, and tried 10% later). I think they're very helpful. They're especially helpful for beginners who want to try meditation. I'm reading some comments here and see some people mention how easy it's to meditate. I'm wondering if they actually meditate or know what it is. Before I started meditating, I too had similar thoughts. But I had some misconceptions of meditation before I tried these apps. These apps helped me to start my meditation on the right path. After a year, I don't think I need these apps anymore. The guided meditations are distracting themselves because the teacher jumps in at random points to remind you of things that you already know. I do like the teachings they do before an after meditations. Sometimes, they are helpful and insightful. I think these apps are fine for beginners. Once you get used to meditating for 20+ minutes every day, you probably won't need them anymore.

superasn 8y ago
But as a beginner who wants to start too, my question is it better to use a paid app with monthly subscription than to listen to the same guided meditation on mp3 or youtube?
- meowzero 8y ago
  It's up to you. All these apps have few several free sessions you can try out. Heck, download all the meditation apps and try all their free sessions. Those are probably enough to help you get started. I didn't mind paying for subscriptions. They do get into different techniques and insights that the free content don't give you. Although I never tried insight timer; that app seemed to give you a lot more content for free.
- wool_gather 8y ago
  One important thing that you get with the subscription, which could be harder-to-impossible to find free, is a progression of instruction. A 10-day series might remind you just in time about some detail you were forgetting, or provide insight on a difficulty you're likely to have encountered, or introduce a new technique and guide you through simple->full versions of it.

billfruit 8y ago

Is meditation really different from doing any focussed activity? Especially isn't reading a book same thing as meditation, only more educative.

dwaltrip 8y ago
Mindfulness meditation, at least, is very different. A key attribute is awareness of the current moment -- the here and now. Books, including non-fiction, take the reader to another place.

momentmaker 8y ago

Try oak meditation app by Kevin Rose. I've been using it for a while now. There is guided or unguided meditations.

remir 8y ago

Meditation apps certainly helped a lot of people discover that practice. In a stressful world, that is great. But it's funny how this turned into a big business.

timka 8y ago

TRY MEDITATION! ⁱᶠ ʸᵒᵘ ᶜᵃⁿᵗ ᵇᵉ ˢᵘᶠⁱ –Idries Shah, Knowing How To Know