App for meditation, Insight Timer

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Recommended apps for meditation : Insight Timer

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App for meditation habits

So far I keep mentioning why meditation is important, how to do it in daily life, and introducing some tools for the beginner, 

training methods for children 

One of the ways to make the meditation habit is, that you feel interested and keep reminding yourself. Of course, there are various materials on the internet such as YouTube and some lectures but isn’t it tiring you keep searching for it?

Today Let me share a meditation application that you can use. Last time I shared some useful meditation apps that you can use. If you are curious, you can check this post here.

App for meditation: Insight Timer

Today I want to share of my thoughts of ‘Insight timer’ app. Some features are free but once you pay for membership you can use various contents.
The membership cost is $60 per year you have a trial period during the 7 days. Once you use it for free time, you can consider whether you pay or not.

InsightTimer
InsightTimer

Personalize Page

Once you download this app, they ask some general question about myself such as what do I interested in, why I try to use this app. Also set my born year and profiled



InsightTimer

As you can guess from the application name, one of the features of this app is to set the time with various instruments. Because of this feature, I can called it this app for meditation.

Like the below image, set the time with what you like. Surprisingly, it has wooden tools or instruments that are used in the temple or oriental traditional instruments. Especially, if you are a plus member(premium member) they will provide new bells every month. You can set the various bells or, ambient sounds. Even you can set the bell’s interval and start sounds.

Of course, someone think this app has too fancy an alarm feature. It is because alarm and timer feature is really basic, you can find it from the phone easily.

But I believe that when you distinguish some timer from the regluar one it help you to focus on meditation.
If you used a basic timer from your phone, you might feel you got disturbed by this noisy alarm. Even you can’t focus well by worrying about when this alarm will ring. Even it gives you to bad impression of meditation.

Although choosing the bell sounds in this app is a really small feature, but once you used it you found it you totally focus on the meditation well.


InsightTimer

Maybe someone used the short song to set some specific minutes. But it is hard to control the detail time measure such as 1 minutes 1 second or 3 seconds. Also, humans easily get used to some sounds. At first you might be totally in the mediation. Once you used this song several times, instead of focusing on the meditation you start to focus on some pitch of songs or patterns. eventually, instead of meditation you just will be waiting until this song will be finished.

However, once you use various instruments by using this ‘Light Timer’. Every time you will be new to those new sounds. Even some unique sounds stimulate your imagination and cause you to focus on the meditation.

Because of that reason, it makes the user immersed in the meditation.

App Functions

Except this features, It provided various resources for the beginner. On the home tap, it have sleep, breathe, new courses, workplace, morning etc menu.

As you can guess from sleep and breathe, it have some contents to help for relax and breathe.  On the course part, it contains various courses you can easily search by keyword, lecturer , or period of days.



It also has a menu of check-in menu that can fill out my mood today. Once this mood chart is filled I realize who I control my mood and how I fill my day with eventually these days become week and months. It changes me. Except it, it has a journal tap that writes down my thoughts for today. As you know writing a journal is really important by focusing my self. Although you are not writing a journal, this app helps you to make a habit of it by a simple layout format. The good thing is these journals are easily forwarded to other apps.

The Journal top is for recording myself, there is Quotes tap that is motivated by others.  Interesting is, that people can comment about this quote and they can share their opinion and get positive energy.



In addition, there are music yoga and live tabs.

In the music section, you can listen to various genres of music, as well as natural sounds (rain, water), musical instruments, etc. Yoga and Live Tap take place in real time. If you go in on time, you can hear tips on how to do yoga or mindfulness. Since it is live, I can share opinions and do things together with other members, so I think it is effective in forming habits.



In addition, there are challenge and company-related tabs. For company-related matters, you must authenticate your company email before you can access it. The challenge part is a course where you practice with a certain period of time and topic, such as 7 to 28 days, to form habits. Since it is a challenge, it is structured so that you must listen to all the lectures given each day before you can move on to the next lecture.

As such, this app includes a variety of functions and content. So, I often think I’ll watch it later, but I can’t find the content. There is a bookmark function for such cases. Bookmarking is effective because you can listen to the lecture over and over again at any time.



Insight Timer Review

What I personally liked was that the timer function was powerful, so I thought it would be effective if I used it to practice meditation alone or organize my thoughts. Even for me by using their timer I can focus longer than before.

In addition, I think it is a big advantage that there is a live channel so you can communicate with other people and share your difficulties.

However, the downside is that, as mentioned earlier, there is a lot of content, so it takes a long time to find the content that suits me, and it is a bit cumbersome to have to create and manage a menu in the bookmarks.

Other than that, it’s a good app for meditation overall.

 

 

meditation items

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3 basic meditation items for beginners

pexels-prasanth-inturi-1051838

 

If you just start doing some meditation for now, you can start right now without any items, however, if you are the person who prepares everything before you start a new routine or learning. Let me share 5 items that you can prepare it. 

 

this article contains affiliate items that I want to recommend to you. When you buy a product through the link, a certain commission is paid to me

 

Essential Items for meditation beginners (summary)

Yoga Mat


yogamat

Feature

1. Thick enough(6mm) for meditation

2. Easy to store with stripe 

3. Safe material and easy to maintain. 

Comfortable clothing


meditation items

Yoga Trouser  (Woman) 

Feature

1. With bandage, comfortable

2. soft material 

3. Practical use 


meditation items

Sweatpants (Man) 

Feature

1. With band and stripe easy to wear

2. easy to maintain materials 

Comfortable clothing


meditation items

Socks

Feature

1. Cotton socks wear for four seasons

2. soft texture with various color 


meditation items

Blanket /shawl 

Feature

1. Okay with machine wash 

2. soft texture with simple design 

1. Yoga mat

As I mentioned in this post, you can start meditation in various ways standing, sitting, and lying down. However, most of the people who trained in meditation for a long time, sit on the floor with a straight spine and stare at the front. For this posture, you need a mat that you can sit comfortably during the meditation. Of course, if you have a cozy and thick carpet, you can use it as an alternative. If you don’t have anything, then you can use a yoga mat. 


meditation items

It is the because Yoga Mat is compact size so you can easily store in your room. Although there are various yoga mats, I believe this is a reasonable product that you can use it.  

Firstly, it is 6mm thickness, and when you use it you feel cushioning so when you sit in the same posture for a long time, you can’t feel pain. 

Its material does not contain any toxic and is easy to maintain for dirty. 

Lastly, it provided a stripe for stores easily. Once you used it just roll it and wrap it with stripe. 

2. Comfortable Clothings

The next item that you need is comfortable clothing that helps you to focus. Of course, you can do meditation with business clothing at the office. Again as I mentioned above, this is people who do it at home. Think about that, when you wear too tight jeans, it is hard to sit on the floor for more than 1 minute. 

The definition of comfortable clothing is really subjective.  Some like sportswear, others like loose clothing. 

This is just a reference you can consider to have. 

Yoga trousers for woman

I want to recommend long pants with spandex.  It is because when you do meditation for some moment, you do not have any movement. That makes your body’s temperature drop it. So, long sleep is better for wearing.

With the spandex, the waist part is band, so you will feel more comfortable with it, this material is really soft too.  Lastly, this trouser is stylish in design, you can wear them daily time such as when going out to meet friends or work. 

Sweatpants for man  

I believe sweatpants is a good option for the male. Especially These pants consist of cotton and spandex, so when you change posture, feel comfortable. Also, it gets less wrinkle than 100% of cotton. Also, the waist part has a band and stripe easy to wear. 

meditation items
meditation items

3. Cloth for make you warm

For meditation for a long time. Keeping the body temperature is important. Once you feel cold or hot, then you can’t focus anymore. For that reason, you should put some clothes nearby. 

Socks. 

Personally, I like to stay barefoot at home, but when I meditate for a few minutes, I start to feel chilly on my feet. When I do the meditation, I wear some thin cotton socks. In the winter time of course I wear thick winter socks too. For now, I want to recommend cotton socks that you can wear for four seasons and easily wash with machine wash. 

Blanket/Shawl 

Sometime, when I stay still, I feel cold, then I drag the blanket and cover with my body. The reason I use blanket or is, it is various size and most of blanket big enough to cover most of my body. Also regular day, just cover it on the bed, and when you need it drag from bed. I want to recommend this product that less hair and easy to maintain with machine wash.

Cotton Blanket 

 

Polyester Blanket 

meditation items

meditation items

 

Today I mentioned some items for the meditation, hope this help you to step up the meditation 

 

 

 

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guided meditation youtube for kids

meditation training 

 

guided meditation youtube for kids

useful youtube video for meditation training

Today in this post I want to explain more about the method of meditation training for children.

Recently, I talked about the importance of meditation for children and gave tips for training them. If you are still not sure what to start, I want to share some guided meditation YouTube for kids that you can use for training kids.

The Mindfulness Teacher.

As you can guess from the title, this YouTube channel teaches how to meditate for children. This video’s average length is only 5 minutes. The good thing about this channel is once the mindfulness is done, give some simple feedback that children can feel right after mindfulness such as having a headache or feeling hungry and how it happened. I believe this empathic statement makes children feel relieved and comfortable doing meditation.

mindfulness of body parts

As I mentioned in the previous post, trying to focus on breathing and body parts is an easy way to let kids to familiar with it. I want to recommend some content from this channel. Firstly I want to recommend try the X-ray video, it makes kids to think they are taking the X-ray from foot to head. By doing this activity, kids pay attention to each of their body parts’ movements and their feelings too.

guided meditation youtube

mindfulness of breathing

Regarding breathing contents, it has various contents from basic breathing to different methods of breathing. I found a content called Rainbow Relaxation that kids can feel fun. Firstly, let the kid to imagine their hands are brushes for drawing color ring. With breathing, the kid can draw the ring and change the ring too. Although it is short content, really useful to kids get familiar with it. This channel also provided various breathing contents such as rectangle breathing, circle breathing and star breathing. Although it is a really short video under 1 minute.  Once you turn on it, kids will be fascinated with this video with colorful and straightforward content. Once they practice several times, they naturally learn how to deep breath for mindfulness.

guided meditation youtube

Timer

Lastly, this channel also has a countdown timer with relaxing pictures and background songs. I believe parents or teachers will use count for counting meditation duration of about under 1 minute. Some count with a clock’s secondhand or phone alarm. But as you know children are not comfortable with silence. Maybe for some kids, that moment is really boring to die. For the kids, I believe using some video countdown will solve this problem. As you glance, it is a really simple video with a timer, calm an image and relaxing music. Once you use this content for training kids’ meditation, it will helpful to kids more attention on meditation

Various

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Length of video

under 5 minutes

Age for video

3~13 age who never tried mindfulness training.

New Horizon – Meditation & Sleep Stories 

If your children get familiar with meditation and breathing, also they can focus for more than 5 minutes, this channel can be helpful for your children. Even the children can’t sleep at night time, this content can be useful.

 mindfulness of thoughts

This content has ‘Guided meditation for children’ and ‘sleep meditation for Kids.’ Firstly guided meditation is more focused on breathing with imaginary narration with different themes. For example, the Garden theme makes children stay in the forest by doing this meditation, children will take off their anxiety and worry. At the end of the video about 1-2 minutes, the narrator reminds kids to return to real life by focusing on each of body part again. It helps kid not to doze during the meditation.

Another content is sleep meditation for children, which is similar to “Guidant Meditation for Children,” but has a much longer average running time of 30 minutes. There are also various content, including the Wizarding Kingdom and the Animal World(Sloth). Because it’s long content, the details of the explanation stimulate children’s imagination well. But since it focuses on sleep, it initially focuses on detailed narration, and after about 10 minutes, it repeats that the narration is a safe place to sleep right now. So, in the end, it’s a video that encourages children to fall asleep naturally.

This video stimulates kids’ imagination, if kids like to imagine, this video can help them to step into the meditation training and help with insomnia Since this video is quite long, before kids start the meditation, let them posture naturally such as lying down on the bed or sit in a chair.

guided meditation youtube for kids2

Various

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Length of video

10~30 minutes

Age for video

8~13 age who get familiar with mindfulness training

KIDZEN – Music For Kids

The last channel that I want to share is Music for Kids. Rather than meditating, I believe this channel can help children who are accustomed to stimuli, such as cell phones or electronic devices, to calm them down. Rather than asking children to listen with their eyes closed as if meditating, play this song when they are doing free activities, such as drawing or playing. For instance, below thumb image from Relaxing Music For Children – Be Calm and Focused (cute animals) | 3 Hours Extended Mix.  As you can hear by clicking on the link, it’s a really peaceful song. I even listened to it when I was searching through the material for this post, and the calm song allowed me to fully immerse myself. Especially, I believe for the kids, this song will help them feel more emotionally stable. Listening to such a calm song many times makes them more accustomed to being still and quiet, and meditation training from then on is effective.

guided meditation youtube for kids

Various

⭐⭐⭐

Length of video

3~ 12 hours

Age for video

3~13 age who never tried mindfulness training.

In conclusion,

Today I share some useful youtube video that you can use for training children meditation. Hope this contents helpful for you!

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A variety of contemplating methodsThe Origin of meditation

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children’s meditation

children's meditation

 

Important of Children’s Meditation

children's meditation

Children’s Meditation

Have you ever heard about children’s meditation?  You might wonder why children need it.

From an early age, children’s brains become sensitive to stimuli as electronic devices are exposed to increased exposure. (It depends on the parents, some give phones from 0~1 years old, while others expose  devices from 5 years old)   Of course, it has the advantage of activating the brain by being exposed to electronic devices early. However, the stimulated brain can also lead to difficulties in personality formation.  For example, if a child uses electronic devices such as phones, PCs, and Tables for too long(more than 2 hours). It can lead to a lack of self-regulation and concentration. This is because, as a child gets used to fast and strong stimuli, the child easily loses interest without them. In addition, if the child gets too used to electronic devices, the child can have difficulty making relationships with others.

children's meditation

How to Reduce digital device exposure for children?

So, how can children be less affected by devices? Of course, smart parents adjust the time on their electronic devices or delay access to them so that they are less affected. However, if children have already started using electronic devices, it is harder than you think to reduce using devices time. Then, an alternative to developing their emotions and self-control is meditation and mindfulness.  As you know, meditation really helps to improve the brain

Here is an interesting experiment. In 2016, there was a study related to children’s meditation.  In this study, the researcher conducted a separate experiment on 7-8-year-old healthy children, with and without meditation for eight weeks. The group who meditated reduced the level of anxiety, impulse, and oppositional. Furthermore, cognitive problems and hyperactivity figures also improved. Based on this result, children’s meditation and mindfulness training can help for ADHD symptoms. Not only that, there are positive effects on children. For the children who conducted mindfulness, their social skills improved, and socializing with friends, meta-cognition also improved.

children's meditation

When is the right age to starting meditation?

Now, based on the research, mindfulness is really helpful for children then, at what age should I start meditating?

Of course, the degree of development varies depending on the children’s environment and physical characteristics, but you can do it from the age of six.

This is because from this period, it is a time to understand personal feelings, to recognize others’ feelings, and to gradually establish relationships with others. Especially from this time on, my vocabulary has improved and I start to get interested in various vocabulary and descriptions. So if they develop how to do mindfulness by using words or tools, their imagination and vocabulary will improve even more. Furthermore, their self-regulation and attention will increase. At this time, rather than forcing a child to sit down, I should proceed this training method comfortably through play so that children do not get bored and enjoy it. Especially, it is also a way to keep the time short at first and then increase the time later.

children's meditation

How to form meditation habits for children?

In the aforementioned study of child meditation and mindfulness, it conducted similarly.

The experiment, which lasted for eight weeks, was conducted for three days, nine minutes each in the first week, and increased it to three times a week, 12 minutes each in the second week, 15 minutes in the third week, and 18 minutes in the fourth week, before increasing it to 30 minutes in the eighth week. If children start to enjoy meditation once, and there is no pressure to meditate, I think this is the way to increase their time. Also, meditation is a really good habit in life, so doing 10 minutes three days a week rather than doing 30 minutes once a week helps form habits, and it is easy for children to adapt.

children's meditation

In Short

To sum up, These days, the keywords meditation and self-mindfulness are hot topics. As technology advances day by day, our lives have become richer and more convenient. However, there are many times when our mind and heart easily get lost in something else and we lose ourselves. I think it is especially important to teach children these days, who are exposed to electronic devices from a young age, how to control themselves and meet themselves from an early age.

Read More

Companies Encourage employee Meditation For Well-being

Useful Meditation app 

 reference from

 Mindfulness-Oriented Meditation for Primary School Children: Effects on Attention and Psychological Well-Being 

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3 factors you need to care for Children’s Meditation Training.

meditation training 

 

3 factor to careing for Children’s Meditation Training.

meditation training 

Last time I posted about the importance of children’s meditation. I talked about why it is needed for children, and when is the right age to start meditation training. How to form the meditation habit. It sounds really right and great to make these habits, but it is not easy to let children stay in a certain posture for a while.

Today in this post I want to explain more about the method of meditation training for children.

meditation training 

Three factors for children’s meditation training

There was a children’s meditation experiment in 2016 at an Italian primary school.  When they practice meditation with children, they are focused on three things: ‘mindfulness of breathing’, ‘mindfulness of body parts’, and ‘mindfulness of thoughts’. Since children can’t concentrate for a long time and by the time the training time is longer, they easily lose interest. By conducting this meditation training with these three factors, children could focus on the meditation at the end of the period, and their meditation time became longer.

1. Mindfulness of Breathing

Every human being knows how to breathe naturally, but ironically, this is one of the important factors in meditation training. It is because by inhaling and exhaling you can focus on you and it brings you calm down. So, breathing is the gate of mediation. Although it is an important process for meditation, at the same time it makes children feel bored since these are natural things and tedious stuff.

In the research, they used various tools to let them feel fun. For example, put a small object such as a pen or pencil on the belly. It makes children pay attention to their bellies. When they inhale their breath, their stomachs are bulging. Another way is to put their hand on their stomach and feel the movement of the stomach or put my hand on a classmate’s belly to feel it. Checking their stomachs lets children to interested in and have meditation habits. Other fun method is let children think the meaning of in and out when they breathe. Then they will more focus circulate of air in and out through the nose.

Another method is using children’s imagination. When the trainer guides the children that there is a dwarf near the nostril and makes them think about how this man will move when the children breathe. These instructions make them to feel fun in tedious meditation training

meditation training 

2. mindfulness of body parts

Once children warm up with statics breathing training, the next step is dynamic training with the body. In this chapter, make children pay attention to their bodies. Using the body, also makes children feel fun in meditation training.

In the research, they used an interesting method. it is called ‘Raisins meditation’ Give several raisins to children’s hands and then let them smell, watch, and touch it. Lastly, let them eat and taste it. This meditation stimulates the four senses (sight, taste, touch, smell). Another method is touching other classmate’s hands and feeling of skin, nails and temperature of hands. Furthermore touching the different parts of the face.
By touching body parts, it stimulate children brain.

There is more dynamic meditation training method. Let children walk slowly and try to feel how every part of the body part is working, such as when they step the foot on the floor, which part of the footstep first, and which muscle is used.
Made children run or jump for a short time and then let them focus on their heartbeat or panting sounds. But this training should be done end of the training, if not they keep wanting to jump and run which is hard to control.

meditation training 

3. mindfulness of thoughts

As you know children have a great imagination, and by using this children can enjoy meditation training. In the experiment, they used these methods. Let children imagine they were clouds in the sky and then, write their main thoughts on paper such as what they are in their minds, or come up with something by looking at the cloud. Once it is done, make children represent their feelings using their bodies. It can be the movement of clouds by crawling or walking.

Another method is, to try to feel their emotion or main thoughts of the moment. Also, try to think about how this feeling or thing comes from and how it disappears.
Or look at family, friends, and classmates’ eyes and try to understand what they think and then, try to transmit wishes (peace, happiness, health) mentally.

Another is, to imagine they are the animals and strolling in the forest. The children will draw animal postures and try to behave like animals. Another imagination is, lying down on the floor and making them imagine they were a paper-facing scan in the copy machine. Then children will represent it by rolling their bodies on the floor.

In particular, by encouraging children to imagine, they can strengthen their imagination.

meditation training 

In Short

I believe these three factors(mindfulness of breathing, mindfulness of body parts, and mindfulness of thoughts) will help children to train in meditation fun. You don’t need to try every three factors, depending on your situation, you can choose some factors. The important thing is, to make children feel fun in meditation training by using your games and imagination to get used to meditation.

Although these are good methods to apply to children, if your children start first, then try under 10 minutes first. After that, you can extend the 2~3 minutes per day. About 1 month later, children can focus on meditation for more than 30 minutes.

Doing it often for a short time is more effective in making habits than doing it sometimes for a long time. For example, doing 10 minutes 3 times a week is better than 30 minutes of meditation once a week.

Read More

Companies Encourage employee Meditation For Well-being

Useful Meditation app 

Meditation to help improve the brain 

What is Meditation and Mindfulness? 

 reference from

 Mindfulness-Oriented Meditation for Primary School Children: Effects on Attention and Psychological Well-Being 

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We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Application for meditation

useful youtube video for meditation training

 

Recommended apps for meditation habits

dynamic contemplating

Application for meditation habits

Today meditation has a spotlight whole over the countries because of plenty of beneficial of it. Even some companies started meditation sessions at the workplace for employees and mindfulness classes also opened at the sports centers too. If you are interested in this class but, you don’t have enough time or there is no class nearby, then you can try to use the meditation application. In this post, let me introduce some applications of meditation that I used for a few days.

Application for meditation: Aura

The first application that I want to share is Aura. 

This app is a paid app and can be used by paying $11.99 per month or $59.99 per year. When you first sign up, you can explore the app for free for 7 days. If you look at the landing page of this app (at the very beginning), it says all in one. So, it is quite useful as it provides various content other than meditation.

app for meditation Aura
app for meditation Aura

Personalize Page

When you first install the app, it is complicated because you have to enter quite a lot of information.

You need to check your age, the time you want to use, the nationality of the coach you are taking classes from, and the field you are interested in.

Although it is a bit cumbersome, it has the advantage of allowing you to quickly find the information that is right for you by recommending content to suit your tastes based on the data.

app for meditation Aura
app for meditation Aura
app for meditation Aura

You can also select the content you are interested in, and it is divided into 11 types of content, including mindfulness, ASMR, prayer, and work wellness. You can also choose a topic based on when you want to use the app. For example, if you need advice and coaching on health management, health coaching,

If you need to manage stress at work, then check on ‘Work’

When you are depressed, you can choose the ones that suit you by selecting ‘Depression’. In particular, the Aura app also has a separate session called Beginner Meditation, which will be helpful for those who are starting to meditate for the first time and do not know how to form habits, starting with breathing.

app for meditation Aura
app for meditation Aura

App Functions

After basic settings, there are 5 tabs at the bottom.

Sleep tap includes sounds, ASMR, music, stories, etc. that help you fall asleep. You can set the duration of the time, this content will continue until you fell asleep. Additionally, there are even stories that are good for children to listen to before going to bed. If your child does not sleep well, it would be a good idea to help them develop sleeping habits by listening to this content together.

app for meditation Aura
meditation app Aura

Coaching is conducted 1:1, and after choosing an instructor that suits you, you can learn about your attitude toward life and stress management methods by taking classes. However, for this part, you must pay an additional amount to the instructor. This is not a free service.

The Live tab has the advantage of allowing you to actually listen to teachers’ coaching, so if you find a coach that suits you, you can continue taking their classes over and over again.



Aura’s home page recommends sessions, classes, and podcasts worth listening to today. When you click the mail icon on the right, the notifications item appears, where you can check the features session. In particular, you can listen to the health management know-how of famous celebrities, and by listening, you can learn about how they managed their mental health to get to that point.

Lastly, on the me page, you can check the content you recently listened to or saved. There is also a section at the bottom where you can check your mood called My mood. You can check how your mood is changing while using the app.



Aura Review

I used this Aura app for 5 days so far, I really enjoy this app. It pushes an alert nudge and reminds me to start the mindfulness course. It is really helpful for my insomnia. Usually, I can’t sleep well by thinking something has not happened yet, however, once I start listening to the ASMR, or calm music, I stop thinking, and makes me relax too.

Also, once in a while, I took a celebrity session from New on Aura. That is also really helpful to how to maintain my mental health.

Application for meditation: Headspace

This Headspace app focuses on well-being with mindfulness. You have to pay $12.99 for one month or $69.99 for one year, and you can use it for free for 14 days.

I especially like the app because of its cute UI, and I have been consistently sending meditations where I can enjoy happy ticks and other features. After initially installing, you will almost see a screen like this, and you can turn it on by pushing it to start with pairing, filling, and breathing.

app for meditation headspace
app for meditation headspace
app for meditation headspace

It consists of three tabs. First, the Today tab introduces content that can be done in the morning, afternoon, and evening, and can be compared in your own time.

The tab consists of various contents based on keywords. Surprisingly, there are keywords with interesting topics such as Women’s collection and Beginner Meditation, so I will continue to use the app for a long time. Also, there is Mindful Money, and there are items introduced on how to manage and save money. Also, most videos are about 3 to 5 minutes long, so you can watch them without any pressure.


The My Page section allowed me to keep a record of the videos I had watched. In the part where I ask questions, I am trying to analyze my mind’s tasks so that I can see if my stress is a big deal.


Headspace Review

This Headspace app is a simple and really cute design with practical content. I believe this is a really good app for the beginner of meditation and mindfulness

So far, I just reviewed the Application for meditation (Aura, Headspace). I will use more apps and share it soon!

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We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Companies encourage employee meditation

sitting contemplating


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Companies Encourage employee Meditation For Well-being

encourage employee meditation

Big companies encourage employee meditation for well-being

The company is the place where you spend most time of your day. at the same time, it is the place to get stressed easily, depending on my mood. Some employees spend too much energy on their mental condition, they even cannot concentrate on their work as well as relationships between colleagues. In the past, companies were not very worried or concerned about personal condition, but now the perceptions of big companies are changing. As companies begin to recognize that the efficiency of work varies depending on the conditions and well-being of employees, some large companies encourage employee meditation by providing training and meditation rooms.

encourage employee meditation

Apple

As is well known, Steve Jobs, the president of Apple, also knew about the importance of meditation before then. He is known to have meditated to help himself face problems and manage stress. He wanted to bring it to his employees and share its effects, so he allowed about half an hour of meditation at the office every day and offered meditation and yoga classes.

Google

It is famous for creating clubs within Google to encourage employees to participate in various activities outside their duties. However, a few years ago, a software developer organized a program called “Search Inside Yourself” to review and care for employees’ minds. At that time, the employee had strong positive feedback on this activity, as they learned how to relieve their stress and keep their minds well-thought-out, and they have been continuing the program until now. Especially, as the program develops every year, it teaches them various ways to meditate and find answers by asking these questions ‘What do I like? ‘, ‘When I feel happy?’ 

encourage employee meditation

General Mills

It is also a company that encourages employees to work happily and healthily at the company. A few years ago, its executives introduced a mindfulness program to encourage employees to have a healthy mindset. Furthermore, the program has also increased fellowship toward colleagues.

Since then, it has expanded and become more systematic. Now, it has become a seven-week program. Through this program, employees can learn how to manage their stress and how to behave when working with other colleagues.

Meta (Facebook)

These days, Meta, which values creativity and pursues various innovations with new technologies, is particularly putting effort into enhancing the company’s culture. This is because when an employee is stressed or unstable, the employee affects the company’s culture. So Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been known for several years for meditation classes that allow employees to find peace of mind and further enhance happiness and creativity, as well as informally meeting to strengthen the company’s culture.

encourage employee meditation

Sony

Surprisingly, the company recognized the importance of a healthy mind early on and began programs for the mental and life health of its employees in 1992. So, it offers programs to employees of subsidiaries as well as domestic partners so that they can have fun working for their company. Sony encourages employee meditation and some branches are offering fitness centers for employees and a cafe for health too.

Intel 

Intel is also currently introducing mindful and meditation classes. Interestingly, it was initially a small-scale activity led by employees. However, it turned out over time that employees participated and gave a lot of positive feedback and were able to work more effectively. Especially, one employee who worked at the software department was able to come up with the errors I encountered when working on a computer faster. In addition, after discovering that the reliability and intimacy of employees have increased, the company has adopted this program and fully supports it until now. 

encourage employee meditation

Goldman Sachs  

Goldman Sachs, a company that deals with and analyzes numbers, also already knew the importance of mindfulness. Notably, Sarah Wood, who introduced this program, created a meditation program that was the driving force behind her commitment to work and spread it to her colleagues. She said that meditation training allows her to find happiness in her daily life. Meditation classes have continued steadily due to her constant efforts and Goldman Sachs interest in improving employee’s wellbeing. 

Nike 

The combination of active brand image and meditation is hard to imagine, but Nike has already prepared a space for its employees to relax. Here, the employees can take a nap and have a tranquil time, such as praying and meditating. Nike seems to have already realized that while physical health and activities through exercise are important, the mind is also healthy when the mind is healthy. Nike already knows the importance of mindfulness, especially as their slogan, ‘Just do it’, is mind-free and can act when it is positive. That’s why Nike encourages its employees to do mindfulness whenever they want. 

As you can see above 8 global companies, realize the importance of their employees’ mental conditions in advance and provide various programs. In this way, these global companies continue to move forward thanks to their sincere heart and interest in their employees.

 Reference from

workplace-culture

What Companies Use Mindfulness Programs for Employees?

How Businesses Use Mindfulness and Meditation for Productivity and Health

6 Companies Using Meditation for a Productive and Happier Workplace

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The Origin of meditation

encourage employee meditation


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The Origin Of Meditation

origin of meditation

These days meditation and mindfulness are becoming popular all over the world. Even some big tech companies‘ CEOs such as Steve Jobs from Apple, and Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook. Some companies already have knowledge importance of meditation practiced themselves and tried to apply it to their own company. At Apple, Steve Jobs encouraged employees to take 30 min for meditation at the workplace. One of the Google software engineers (Chade-Meng Tan) leads the ‘Search Inside Yourself’ coaching meditate program to employees for a better life. 

 

then you might be curious ‘why it is important?’ ‘what is mindfulness?’ ‘what is the origin of meditation and mindfulness.?’  As for when you begin it, the timing varies slightly depending on the point of view.

origin of meditation

First, if you look closely at the Buddha statue, the posture is unique. Most hands and arm shapes are partially different depending on region. Usually, East Asia’s status is a softer shape than West Asia’s (India) one. Although the status is different, there is a common shape of legs. when you look at the legs, are crossed on their opposite legs called the lotus position. This position is also really common at mediation. That’s why, the most well-known origin of meditation is Indian Buddhism.

pexels-sadaham-yathra-813421

Then, let’s zoom in on Buddhism simply, Buddha, was born 2600 years ago as the prince of India. and he has been agonizing over suffering, a matter of life, rather than enjoying his wealth and glory as a prince. When he was the age of 29, he left home to find his answer. For this reason, he learned and trained under the guru, but he didn’t get an answer to the question. After he wandered for a few years finally he discovered the truth while meditating under the tree of Buddha(an oleaster).

After that, he taught to people how to get out of the pain of life, and spread meditation. This is the common assumption of how the meditation started. Some believe meditation originated from Taoism or yoga. Some scholars speculate that meditation may have been there before, although it is not on the record.

Although these meditations look similar, the purpose of doing this behavior is slightly different. Buddhism is for the liberation of one’s own suffering, and while concentration-enhancing self-reflection is more emphasized in other areas, it is clear that both are important to check one’s mind and become a better person. Some religious groups did to look for the truth of life. Some groups did this to maintain their mental health. However, the common thing is this meditation tries to focus on myself rather than on outside circumstances.

 

 

This behavior  is spread to whole over India and gradually extended to East Asia, such as China and Japan. When watching some Asian martial arts movies, you find a main character sitting and meditating at a waterfall or rock. 

origin of meditation

Then, when did it spread to the West? It was first known to Europe through the Silk Road from about the 3rd century B.C. Then, through the Middle Ages, meditation became increasingly popular and many people began to take over, which some people believe was made possible by the development of colonialism and transportation communication. Since the 20th century, people have been traveling in the East, learning meditation by experiencing the food and culture of the country, and continuing the training when they come back to their homes and informing the people around them, they have gradually extended to meditation and mindfulness. This trend still affects us nowadays. That’s why fitness companies open meditation lessons in metropolitan, big companies try to provide this session at the office, and research on it healthy wise also has increased in recent decades. 

origin of meditation

There is another point of view of the origin of meditation. Some people believe that meditation began similarly in the West, especially in ancient Greece. This is because Greeks enjoyed discussing mathematics frequently. After all, they constantly asked questions and meditated. However, since then, data on how it has been inherited have not been found yet, so it is more widely known that it originated in the East and is accepted as a leading origin of meditation. 

 

 

 

There is still controversy over the origin and history of meditation because it is difficult to accurately define who made it. But, importantly, it is a self-care training method that has been going on for thousands of years now, and there is no denying that it works just as well for you to control your mental health and body condition.

 Reference from

10 Big Companies That Promote Employee Meditation

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Meditation to help improve brain

improve brain


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Meditation to help improve brain

improve brain

You might heard that meditation is really helpful on the body, but still, you are not sure how just staying calm improves brain and body condition. In this post, let me explain how it has a good effect on the brain with 4 benefits.   

improve brain

1. Improve Brain by Activation

There is some study about meditation making the brain more active. When the researcher compared with meditation expert group(Tibetan Monk) with the meditation newbie group, they found that part of attention and focus in the brain is more activated than the normal group. In here the expert group who they have done 19,000 hours of meditation.  This expert group has done the ‘Focus attention meditation.’ That is paying attention to certain objects and trying to detect the mind that gets obstacles to focus and repeat to focus on some object.  Researchers found that these sequential mental attentions to certain objects are deeply related to dissociable systems in the brain.  When the expert meditation group, sustaining attention is activated and it helps to maintain these statuses.  By doing these practices, it benefit to improve brain function (parietal areas and the thalamus) in the long term. 

improve brain

2. Helps reduce brain shrinkage due to aging

It is known that during the aging process, the size of the hippocampal complex naturally decreases, and meditation can have a positive effect on this aging phenomenon. A study comparing long-term meditators with a normal group found that these cells shrink in size with age. However, the long-term meditation group did not notice any significant size reduction.

Additionally, it has been discovered that brain cell growth and preservation are observed when meditation is repeated continuously in a normal brain. It is predicted that if you continue to practice meditation consistently, it will positively affect brain degeneration and cell loss due to aging. Not much research is being done on this, but as research on meditation practice continues to become more active, we will be able to find an answer for improve brain 

improve brain

3. Improve Brain Memory

  There are some studies on the relationship between memory and meditation too. Practicing meditation training improves working memory capacity. Stress usually has a negative effect on brain memory and causes emotional disorders, and there has been research into the effects of meditation. First, we divided the groups into meditation training and examined working memory capacity according to the time of meditation training. The group with low meditation practice time showed a decrease in working memory capacity, and the group with long practice time showed an increase in working memory capacity. Appeared. If you practice consistently, your brain will be activated, and the total amount of memory you can remember will increase and improve brain functions. Above all, it has been found that when memory decline occurs due to stress, meditation can prevent the decline.

In addition, it is predicted that it will have a positive effect on memory decline due to neurodegeneration. In particular, while there is no specific treatment for neurodegenerative diseases, it has recently been revealed that consistent meditation improves cognitive ability and memory, and research on this is increasing.  

improve brain

4. Improve Brain Spatial Abilities

Lastly, meditation is also effective in enhancing spatial abilities. There is another study that showed that spatial cognitive ability improved with continued meditation training. This study was an experiment with 32 people, and was conducted by first measuring spatial ability before meditation and then randomly performing meditation training. In particular, the group that received meditation and mindfulness training showed better results in spatial ability and rotation training than the group that did not. Since this effect appears even with short-term training, it suggests that spatial cognitive ability can be improved through continued meditation.

improve brain

In Short 

To summarize, meditation and mindfulness are really beneficial to the brain by improving memory and spatial ability, reducing brain size, and activating the brain. However, Jung’s meditation and mindfulness are so abstract that it is necessary to distinguish what meditation is here. Some studies have defined meditation as complete concentration on an object. Some studies have compared meditation times to obtain results. Therefore, it is difficult to guarantee that you will get the same results as them.

However, the most important thing is the group who had positive results on their brain, they kept practicing and it presented positive results. Whichever meditation and mindfulness method you use, the most important thing is continuing this pattern as a habit. 

 

 

Read More 

Global Companies Encourage employee meditation for well-being

 

 Reference from

Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation – 2009

Reduced age-related degeneration of the hippocampal subiculum in long-term meditators


Meditation and neurodegenerative diseases
2013

Examining the protective effects of mindfulness training on working memory capacity and affective experience

 

Improving spatial abilities through mindfulness: effects on the mental rotation task – 2011

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A variety of contemplating methods

Static contemplating


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A variety of contemplating methods

Static contemplating

When you think about contemplating method, people usually imagine sitting in a quiet area and closing their eyes until they realize some lesson or truth. Maybe this is true for some religious or martial artists.

However, we just talk about daily meditation for your mental health, for your mindfulness. Regarding on daily meditation methods, it consist of two kinds. First, static contemplating method is sitting in a certain area. That really common concept when people imagine meditation people think about this.  Another is dynamic contemplating method which happens when you do something. Such as walking, and driving. 

Static contemplating

Static Meditation

Static Contemplating, although this term sounds fancy, is actually a really common way to do meditation. As you guess from the name of the term, ‘Static meditation’ is when you do not move and just stop with a certain posture. This contemplating also sorts with postures.

  1. Standing meditation: Doing contemplating by standing up and closing your eyes.
  2. Sit meditation: Sit down on the floor. 
  3. lying meditation: lying down on the mat and focusing on yourself. 

Although these postures are different, they really help you in for caring your mental health.

When you try this postures, make sure your posture is straight with your back and head, and breathe deeply and naturally.

standing contemplating

Standing Meditation

This posture is efficient when you study or work. Especially if you can’t focus on your task. Just stand up from your chair and close your eyes (if you want you can open your eyes too). During this time, you are not try to think about your task, instead, you try to be aware of the smell, sound, or view of nearby. If there is nothing to gaze then turn on the view picture on the monitor that you want to go to or that you like. I believe this picture makes you peaceful and relaxed. 

Maybe someone is afraid that you do not have enough time to do that because of the many tasks that you need to do.  You don’t need to take too much on this. Even you can try it briefly like 30 seconds. Once you do that, you will be more relaxed or think differently about your task. Even you can smile at your colleague after some short meditation. Also, it is helpful on your eyesight too, as you know after you gaze monitor or device few minutes, you should relax your eyes too.  Once you are familiar with this meditation, you can try it several times or longer time in your work place. I pretty sure it helps you to control your stress from work. 

sitting contemplating

Sitting Meditation

Sitting on the chair 

You can do this medication when you sit chair, sofa, or park bench. In that case, you should make the right posture, by straight your spine, do not crossing your legs too.  Do not worry about other body parts(especially hand and foot), just put it naturally. If you are not sure where should I put the hands, then, put them on the legs naturally.  

Sitting on the cushion 

Another way is sitting on the cushion. If you enjoy yoga in daily life, you are already familiar with this posture(Like the image just above).  If you don’t have a cushion then you can use the yoga mat. I totally recommend you to have the cushion or mat for this posture it is because without it you will feel pain in your leg, foot, and hip. then you can’t focus on meditation even if you can’t try it for a long time. The worst is you don’t want to try contemplating anymore. 

Caution for Sitting meditation

When you sit on the cushion try to cross your two legs it helps you to straighten your spine. Also, your head and spine should be in one line. You can close your eyes if not, then you can open your eyes too. 

 If you are not familiar with this crossed-two-legs posture or hard to do then try a natural posture that you can easily do such as straight your legs or, sitting on a chair.  

When you sit, you might be curious ‘what should I do?’ This moment is totally yours, stop thinking about your concerns, If you open your eyes then, you just gaze at what you see now, and from there just think and imagine like, today’s weather is really nice, there is a bird on the tree.  

Do not try to no think anything and make your brain empty, I know this is really difficult, even if you success it is really hard to do maintain more than 5 minutes. Instead of making your mind empty. Just stay comfortable and try to relax. If you can’t clear your mind with worries then start counting numbers or focusing on your breath. Like Do I breathe deeply enough, how often do I breath?  Then you will start to think other things are not problem anymore. 

lyingdown contemplating

Lying down Meditation

This meditation, you can easily try this right after you just wake up from sleep shortly. Just start thinking simple questions such as ‘What I am going to do soon?’, ‘Where should I go to today?’ ‘What should I eat for breakfast?’ Or just look out the window and enjoy the moment of morning.  But this time you shouldn’t go back to sleep by doing this.  

 

You can also try this meditation after the exercise is done. Lying down on the mat focusing your breath and cooling down your body. At the same time, you can check your body condition too. For example, today after stretching your legs, you will feel your thigh more relaxed than before. Also, you can ask yourself that ‘How’s the exercise? Is it hard for me?’, ‘If so, why it was hard for me? ‘   I believe it makes you enjoy the exercise time and you also aware that your body is healthier than before.

Caution for Lying Meditation 

However, I recommend you to try this posture right after you wake up on the bed or after the workout. Then how about before going to sleep?  Actually, I do not recommend doing that time at least you really do not have time for contemplating except the night time. It is because when you start contemplatingyour body and mind are relaxed, which causes you to fall asleep. Of course, relaxing and going to sleep well is nice! However, once this happens several times, your mind starts to believe contemplating is going to sleep. So when you try it in the middle of the day, this habit makes you sleep. I want to stress that if you want to try this posture before you go to sleep, you should try few minutes and set the alarm to prevent you from dozing off. Also you should keep aware that this is not sleep and rest. It is meditation, try to keep thinking. Like ‘What did I achieve today’, ‘What was thankful during today’ ‘Do I have a happy moment today? if so, what was it?’  

dynamic contemplating

Dynamic Meditation

If static meditation is too boring for you then you can try others to caring your mind. Dynamic meditation, you don’t need to stay in a quiet area or isolate the room. If you want to listen then, you can have it. As you notice from name of meditation, you can move. It could be house choring, dancing, walking or driving. Any movement you can do.

However, One thing is different with regular movement, when you doing meditation you need to totally focused on your breath and your movements. You need to be aware of what you doing now. At the same time, you can ask some questions to myself. Such as ‘How many times do I breathe with this movement?’ ‘How I feel?’ ‘Do I feel comfortable?’ ‘Do I have under stress these days? ‘

Although these are really simple questions, by pondering the answer your mind will be clearer than before you start contemplating. Once you try it several times in daily life, soon you realize, you prefer doing contemplating instead of spending your time on useless such as watching YouTube or the news.

Caution for dynamic contemplating

When you doing this dynamic meditation, do not do violent actions such as boxing. Sometimes, when you dive in thinking, you are easily careless about your activity then it causes some hurt to your body. For example, when you doing boxing you are in the middle of a thought, then you might hurt your wrist when you punch the target. Oppositely, when you totally focus on the exercise such as running at full speed, then you can’t think anything. It is because your body uses oxygen and resources to your body for movement. 

When you try dynamic meditation, just join contemplating with your daily routine to make some habits. Furthermore, try to give a stimulus to your body or focus on meditation in daily life.

In Short 

To sum up, depending on postures and movement, meditation is divided into two things: ‘Statistic contemplating’ and ‘Dynamic contemplating’. Also, Statistic contemplating can be sorted into three different postures. Although these contemplating are called differently, these contemplating’s main goal is to try to understand myself by paying attention to me having questions and asking myself.  

I believe this contemplating helps you to release some stress that you get every day by turning your eyes away to other things, not the circumstance and situation that you facing. Furthermore it is helpful for your brain  If you are not familiar with meditation and don’t know how to start meditation every day, ‘why don’t you start one of the methods that you are interested in?’ I believe this small habit becomes a game-changer in your life.

Read More 

Companies Encourage employee Meditation For Well-being

 reference from

How to Meditate: A Primer for Beginners (Article) 

How to Meditate 

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