Headspace - 10 Days of Meditation
Over the last year or so I've been on a path to take better care of myself. As I move from months to days away to turning 30, I've spent a lot of time reevaluating how I take care of myself. It started off right around my 29th birthday last year and has continued throughout 2016.
A couple weeks back I was listening to a podcast (in which I made Jenn listen to) called The Journal by Kevin Rose. It's a podcast where Kevin Rose interviews folks from the tech industry and learns about their practices and work habits. In a recent episode with the CEO of Basecamp, Jason Fried, who's known for writing several business novels about building a remote work force and work life balance. In short a hero for Jenn and I who dream of a job where we could work anywhere in the world. However one of the unexpected takeaways from the conversation was when they went into meditation and they discussed two iOS meditation apps. Jason recommended an app called Headspace which has been around for a while and it is the highest grossing meditation app on iOS.
I've dabbled in meditation in the last couple of years but never gave it a real shot. I downloaded the app Headspace and went through the 10-day introduction. The beginner program is completely free and are comprised of 10-minute segments each day. Over 12 days (I missed two) I went through their 10-day program and my initial impressions were really positive.
The first couple of days I struggled with stilling my mind and stopping myself from becoming incredibly fidgety. Each day there are breathing exercises woven into the meditation that really help with calming you down and making it easier for the quieter moments of the 10-minute meditations. I really appreciated the hand holding that Headspace offers through the first 10-days as meditating was anything but easy. Towards the end of the 10-days I began to look forward to doing the meditation and was getting the hang of it.
Once the 10-day trial ends you meet the end of the "free" part of the service. You then have to pay a monthly subscription of $12.99 or pay for the entire year upfront for $95. It's not cheap. Although I loved the approach of Headspace the high monthly costs stopped me from signing up. It's been a week since I've meditated and I already miss it. I'm going to try other iOS options and will report back on how those go before I decide whether or not I'm going to pay monthly for a meditation app.
