The Headspace Meditation Experience

From a person with a fair bit of knowledge about meditating and a high interest in it but with little time spent actually meditating, I found that using Headspace’s application actually taught me how to meditate by having great teachers. Headspace is a meditation app, and actually includes so much more.

Why Should You already be Meditating

Like me, you have probably have read books and articles about meditation and mindfulness. A lot of the material provides some insight into what to do but also leaves questions lingering, like, “Should I keep my eyes open or closed?” and “Should I breathe through my nose and my mouth?“. Finding the right answer isn’t easy to portray in an article and there are plenty of different ways to meditate, so that can be overwhelming.

Personally, I would very much enjoy meditating in a group, but that can be tough to find. So should we just rely on our own good will and dedication to achieve the romantic utopian mindset that meditation is famed to bring? I don’t think going solo is the ideal choice for the vast majority of people, but there is much to be gained by giving up a bit of time every day to dedicate to yourself.

Meditation is a skill that is learned. Part of that is just bringing yourself back to the cushion to sit every day for the routine. It is recommended by everyone from gurus to famous musicians to even general doctor’s recommending it daily for assisting in everything from stress relief, anxiety/depression (can’t do that one one your own), to being more present and mindful with your family. And it holds that allure of being mystical, like getting super powers by tapping into something back inside of ourselves that is always there. But do we notice it?

Snap Back to Reality

But, you have work soon. You haven’t sat down yet to anything just for yourself and it is already after 11pm. Who has time to put meditation into our everyday routines? Adding one more thing to a to-do list doesn’t sound great. Why should I actually pay my hard earned money for yet another subscription? Hell, I could pay for my Netflix subsciption for that price. Sounds like a an easy thing to rule out even financially. I get more hours of experience from a Netflix subscirption. I only meditate for like 5-15 minutes a day. Being an accomplished meditator is a great idea in theory, but in practice, there are other things that need done. I probably won’t end up using it and I don’t want to end up paying for another monthly service. No way is this a good investment of time and money.

But, recently I was feeling anxious and put on an Afternoon Lift, and afterwards I was so calm and my body was so relaxed without a hint of anxiety left in me. It was just nature videos, really, but it worked for me in that moment. It helped me come back to the moment and wipe away the feelings of anxiety that were seemingly coming from somewhere that I couldn’t place (my body). Getting that actual physical relief was priceless in that moment, and it didn’t come from external chemicals or anything unnatural. I felt like it was all sucked right out of me. Netflix might pull at my emotions, and I could probably find a similarly relaxing nature video elsewhere, but since it was part of Headspace already, it was convenient and easy to use and just what I didn’t know I needed. How can I put a price on the relief that I found?

Our mental health is important and often gets last place in our to-do lists that never seem to end. But if we can create some space and just a little bit of time every day, the cumulative benefits are amazing. It won’t happen the first time, but with daily practice that adds up over time, like the grains of sand in an hour glass, we can realize our path is tending where we want it to go. And when it doesn’t, we can remember that behind all of the noise, we have a practice that helps to enrich the best times and remain present in the toughest times.

Life often gets the best of us when we least expect it. It can be hard to be truly dedicated to a meditation routine on your own. Starting a new routine and changing your behavior can be frustrating and often ends in us giving up after judging ourselves far too harshly when we were just finding our own path but didn’t fully realize it. Without someone like a teacher to be a guide, establishing a meditation routine can be hard.

What does Headspace have to offer?

If you decide to use Headspace, now you actually have a meditation teacher. More than one of them, actually. Here are two.

So, with a teaching series in your pocket with a welcoming interface that is simple, attractive, and easy to use, could there be a better modern way to maintain a meditation practice? I know there are other meditation apps out there, but my personal experience has been using Headspace.

The content in Headspace is top-notch. The sessions sometimes have videos or animation for portions of the meditations that can ease you into meditating, and help you actually enjoy the app. For example, it is easy to watch a really eye-catching animation while the teacher is talking and in the middle of it, you close your eyes (when it says, and it feels really natural to—it really is fantastic high-quality material) and open your eyes for the transition back into life. This makes the approach to meditation very accessable and familiar to our everyday actions. The meditations vary from as small as taking 5 breaths, or about a minute of meditation, to a mutli-minute meditation. It is all customizable and you can change the current session lenght before it begins.

The Wake Up is a great thing to do in place of the catching the morning news cycle.

In the afternoon, turn on a concentration session with some headphones to get through your afternoon at work. In the evening fall asleep to a Sleepcast that works great for everyone in my family, like putting kids to bed. I often end up falling asleep during a Sleepcast.

How to Use Headspace

I would suggest starting with the Basics courses which will show you the structure behind the routine of meditating. This article on headspace even offers a free meditation and details the routine perfectly, so check it out and see if it is for you. It would be easy to go down the rabbit hole on this page as the number of interesting links is incredible. But from my experience, you could do the Today’s Meditation that is only available each day for 24 hours without doing any courses. I found by going through the Basics courses, I was able to understand the routine of Today’s Meditation with a sense of clarity and already knowing what to do and when. The Today’s Meditation’s are great and I highly recommend them, but I personally recommend to do the Basics courses at some point. I will generally work through a course while sometimes opting for Today’s Meditation, depending on my mood at the time. All of them are great.

The app does a good job of teaching principles of meditation. For instance, it is often reminding us to label our thoughts and feelings. Thoughts are easier to label, but if we notice our body’s feelings are not the mind wandering, but the body talking to the mind through our feelings. Thinking. If we don’t notice that we feel tense in the body, if we aren’t listening, our mind can become anxious. When the body isn’t being listened to the anxiety often can increase or at lest not lessen. The mind often responds with more anxiety. And the cycle continues. But if we listen to the body, it appeases our body and allows our mind to stay calm and collected. And unlike a whack-a-mole game, we are labeling as light as a feather touching a glass. Feeling. Thinking.

Through meditation we will find benefits that are greater than our own selves by using the app. That is what the meditations are trying to teach as well. This is about more than just ourselves, but also about our relationships and connections with the world. And if we can be more mindful and present, we can make a positive change on others’ around us.

My Meditations with Headspace

I crossed 500 minutes of time spent meditating recently with more than 50 straight days of meditation. I can only say that the application has done for me what I always wanted to do for myself, but I found it difficult without a teacher or meditation group to keep learning.

So, my experience with Headspace has been very rewarding. I feel like I actually enjoy meditation now, with a teaching program that is flexible and never rigid. I look forward to the time that I take for myself so that I can remember my role in all of this, how my piece fits into the bigger puzzle.

I have also gotten a good feeling as to why meditation is often referred to as practicing. Beginning with open eyes, we breathe, and close our eyes and meditate. When we open them again, before moving, the meditation is still with you. You still feel like you have your eyes closed, but you can just see with your eyes, and in a whole new way. Like your are seeing for the first time again. It is so fresh. When we are leaving the practice and have reopened our eyes, it is like our eyes are reborn. It is a gift that we can see and everything looks amazing. To see is such a gift. We enter the practice and leave the practice. But in the practice of leaving, we try to stay where we were. To remember to be mindful, that it is always there even if we get distracted. And if we can remember even once during the rest of the day, that is truly an achievement.

If Meditation is Interesting

If you have have never been able to stick to meditation on your own, and you don’t really have anyone to meditate with, to guide you, then Headspace can provide a great modern experience and approach to developing a meditation practice. From The Wake Up’s to the Sleepcasts, from Today’s Meditation to the course you are currently taking, there is a lot to enjoy in this app without having to deal with the constant news cycle we get on a daily basis. It is just you experiencing your true self guided by a teacher. This app has helped me to set up a routine through the great user experience and wonderful content that rotates daily and doesn’t ever seem to end.

So, if you are curious about meditation, I cannot recommend using Headspace enough to allow your practice to flourish. I hope you find your way with whatever approach you choose and hopefully your meditation practice will become a time to look forward to getting away from everything else in your life without going anywhere in the physical world. Hopefully, that special time you take for yourself will begin creeping into the rest of your life and will set you on a path to achieve your accomplishments with clarity and peace.