I’m a pretty stressed out person. For what reason, I can’t really explain. Life ain’t too shabby, if we’re being honest. But, I find myself worrying and getting aggravated these days by the littlest things â€" basically things that aren’t really “worry-worthy.†I was discussing this the other day (11 days ago, to be exact) with a good girlfriend and to my surprise she herself had been going through a similar problem of really losing touch with reality and creating some pretty harmful scenarios in her head. But, rather than the two of us sitting there and commiserating over our first world problems, my friend offered up a solution. In fact, it’s such a good solution that I thought it was worth putting my own personal emotions out there into the world in order to share this noteworthy discovery with you guys.
Here’s the cure-all…. HeadSpace [1] . It’s an app, you know, an iphone app. It’s free to download and it just happens to be one of the best apps I’ve downloaded since buying into the whole iPhone game a few years ago. In a nutshell, it’s an app that helps you learn how to meditate. For those of you shaking your heads right now and asking why FFG is feeding you complete mumbo jumbo, hear me out. I am not a yoga person. I’m not particularly fond of quiet spaces or moments of reflection. I’m the type of person that’s out living as much as one can do in a single lifetime. The whole idea of taking time out to sit and meditate on life used to sound absolutely ridiculous. Only somehow, people, it truly isn’t.
Since I’ve been using Headspace I quite honestly feel like my mind has become a bit of a chalk board. All day I’m writing on it, scratching out both positive and negative feedback, and then at night I use Headspace like a chalkboard eraser. When I’m finished doing my daily exercise my board is clear, room is made in my life for new experiences, both bad and good, and there’s space to understand why everything is happening and to appreciate it for what it is.
So what is this miracle app then?
In an nutshell, expect to become best buds with the Headspace guy, Andy, who sounds like he could have been your summer fling from a beach vacation. He’s so mellow and chilled out that his voice will quite honestly instantly put you in a meditative state after four sessions. Each session with the Headspace app is more or less a ten minute recording with said surfer dude. He talks you through how to meditate and asks you to do a lot of spatial awareness and breathing exercises. Yeah, I know how that sounds, but trust me it’s a game changer. There are even clever little animations that help you understand what Headspace is trying to teach you in managing the mind.
Last night I finished session number 10. That means I have been doing this for 10 days, or one hundred minutes. Yes, only 10 days. You have to know it’s good if after only a little more than a week I’m taking to the written word to share this as a must have in your life. I feel calmer, clearer, more able to control my emotions and much more capable of distinguishing between the ridiculous worries in life and the valid fears. In a nutshell, I can’t explain why Headspace works, but I can tell you with great certainty that it does.
For those of you that already meditate, I’m not sure if something so elementary is really for you. For those of you that are complete newbies, like myself, I really can’t see how this will do anything but change your whole idea of mediation and the important role it plays in every day life. I think so many of us just plow through life working, studying, partying, travelling, etc. But how often do we take time to step back and really appreciate all we’re doing? I feel like Headspace is really helping me a lot with that. In fact, I was so moved I actually sat down yesterday and penned a letter to the founder. There are so few things that surprise me these days, but Headspace has truly blown my socks off.
I do hope you’ll give this app a go. I do believe it can do so much if you’re willing to put in the ten minutes a day required. Now, I must say there is one little catch. The first ten sessions are free but there is a subscription after that â€" which I think you know I’ll be paying for. I’ll let you know how it goes. Don’t expect to find me in the jungle, naked and meditating under a tree this time next year. I’m just using this a tool to navigate my own life with a little more clarity and it makes me pretty happy that I can share it with you.Â
Good luck and do let me know if you end up feeling the same way about Headspace.
For those that are still skeptical, I'll let Andy take over from here. He did a TED talk a little while ago that is pretty impressive, and definitely worth including here.
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