LeBron James and Sean Mendes are using Calm? Headspace is going to cost me a hundred and
forty dollars a year? Can I actually learn meditation from an app? It's 2022 and today
I'm going to review the biggest apps out there. And discuss what would actually be the best for you,
if you want to learn how to meditate. Calm. The true premium content of Calm isn't Shinzen
Young or Tara Barach, it's celebrities. LeBron James, Sean Mendes, Katy Perry, Ariana Grande,
Circles by Post Malone remixed into a relaxing sleep song and Luis Fonsi. What I like about
this app is that when you first open the app you can pick a goal and Calm will use that to give you
better content suggestions. But, what I don't like about this app is that meditation can be
about so much more than any of these suggestions. It can radically transform your inner reality and
outer reality. And if you're the sort of person to download Calm to solve any of these problems,
Calm is probably not the best way for you to solve any of these problems. Daylight, physical activity
and a consistent bedtime are vastly superior considerations that will align you to sleep
science than bedtime stories with Dame Mary Berry. Also $84.99 a year. You get offered a one week trial
and then this app is going to cost you. And without the payment there's nothing you can really do
here. I don't want to pay money to stare at my phone. Calm had me watching my phone to signal
my in and out breath and that's the opposite of the piece I want in my life. The gamification of
apps is a really unnatural characteristic and match for meditation. It feels like calm is more
interested in luring people in to take their money. That explains the welcome referral survey
and the sales tactic 40% off discount code I got sent to my email, when I stored in the checkout.
And the ad for Moshi Kids in the app store. One of the CEOs of Calm is apparently also the founder of
the company that created Moshi Monsters. Honestly, after unlocking the app I was disappointed. Knowing
that these meditations cost money I was really expecting something more. But, I suppose should
meditation instructions even be more? They might be paying a lot of money for their celebrities
and surely making even more back, but it'd be great if meditation which is about examination,
virtue and, living a better life could stay as far away from business as possible. Calm seems to
emphasize the premise that your life is crazy and you need to calm it down. But becoming calm is not
the same as learning mindfulness and meditation. If the app is mainly concerned with making money
it doesn't surprise me that they want to provide false problems and sell alluring and deceptive
solutions. If any meditation provider is going to charge I think they should have to give back
way more than the fee. And I'm even sympathetic to the practicality that spreading ideas might
require the movement of money. Because of the cost of time even pursuing this youtube channel
at times seems questionable. But with Calm I don't think it's worth it. Especially given your other
options. Uninstalled. Headspace. It's fair to say that Headspace has a very coherent aesthetic. I
don't personally like the style of the cartoons that much but it does create a unified package.
In fact, it's fair to say generally that it's the curation and delivery of Headspace's meditation
that is its strength. This time it seems I have to select a goal and I really like that I get a
preview of what's to come by making my choice. But, what I really want to see on one of these lists is
'Insight,' which is the deeper promise of meditation. Like Calm the mindfulness on offer is separated
into categories that cover the many aspects of your life. Sleep, movement, work, some celebrity stuff
again, although it's certainly less emphasized here, focus, and more. Unfortunately diving deep into the
practice also feels less emphasized. Because I think they're more interested in appealing to
everyone. Oh wait, but then again it remains the most expensive app! $139.99 a year, or everything's
locked. It took them longer than Calm to email me, but eventually I'm offered a tantalizing two-week
free trial before they'll automatically bill me. Meditation should be accessible to anyone that's
sort of the whole point of it. Andy Puddicombe goes to Asia to learn meditation for 10 years and
then returns to seemingly very directly convert what he studied into a largely publicized hundred
million dollar business. When I google Headspace I get stuff about Andy. Netflix specials, Jimmy Fallon,
him traveling the world, or again his net worth. The meditation isn't really front and center.
I look for examples of charity but I can't find any. But 100 million dollars
and 10 years of meditation? I'm just not sure if this is the revered conduct of anyone
realised in meditation. Again, for me it's not the question anyone hopes I'd be asking, but it's the
question I'm left with: Is the meditation provider giving more than they're taking? Warning the most
common reoccurring critical review of Calm and Headspace that is there without any company
reply, is something like "I didn't realize I had been charged and I can't get my money back."
I did like that on some of the meditations I can swap out Andy's voice for someone else's.
Uninstalled. Insight Timer. I think I remember when insight timer used to be just a timer. This
time when I opened the app my first question was, "Where's the timer?" But it is there you just have to
find it. In fact, there's so much content on Insight Timer covering all the different landscapes of
meditation that even without the convention of selecting a problem, this app likely has a lot of
mass appeal. A more accurate albeit less marketable name for the app would be something like 'Community
Teachings.' There are so many voices and ways to engage that if you are an app person this might
be a good way for you to be introduced to and play with meditation. For just $99.99 a year you
can subscribe to some premium content and courses. And I believe ordinary teachers can set themselves
up on this platform and get some exposure and a share of the money too, which is really nice.
And even better for you, you don't have to pay. I was listening to Tara Brach and Shinzen Young on
this app for free. There's a chance that you might take a trip down some less conducive path on this
app but, unlike Calm and Headspace you can actually search words like "Enlightenment," and "Non-Duality"
and get some results. There's live events, interaction with teachers, group meditations,
sleep, yoga, healing, and anxiety stuff, mood tracking. If anything Insight Timer has tried to respond to
every need of a meditator. And whilst this may not be necessary for a meditation app to do
I will be leaving it installed. You know, when I googled Insight Timer it was the one app of
all these that actually returned meditations. Which is a bit sad, but certainly a positive
distinction for Insight Timer. The timer itself is good so I'm gonna keep using that. I will admit I'm
also gonna have some guilty pleasure with a brief look into some of the other areas of spirituality
that I don't usually frequent. Waking Up. Where's the meditation? I know it's right in front of me
but still it just doesn't really feel like I should click that button. It's so seamless
that my mind is ready to skip it. It looks like a banner ad. There is one meditation a day and if
I don't choose this session then I'll be searching the rather concise archives amongst conversations
Q and A's and the presentation of starkly different approaches to find something suitable.
But if you do like the daily itself then I think this totally works. Because there's an emphasis
to just do this. And that's what should be being emphasized. Generally it is the focus and
integrity of this app that makes it good. And more specifically, that the practice clearly intends
to go deep. If you like the app's particular presentation style this is the most powerful,
"laser beam learning tool," of a meditation app, on offer. There's a variety of voices
presenting different approaches and they're all concerned with radically transformative practice.
"Selflessness," is unavoidable. Which is a first in our app review. And although this may be an
unheard of, or challenging topic for some, the noise about this as a problem seems to be becoming less.
Plus you've also got my youtube channel to assist with your confusions. And if you're not interested
in this area at all you'd consider Insight Timer instead. There's new content coming out regularly,
it's easy and straightforward to use. This is clearly aiming to be an effective tool without
waning. Personally, Sam Harris's intellectual or vocal approach to guided meditations
isn't my first choice. But, apparently the daily meditation will soon feature other qualified
teachers too. So I'll be leaving this app: Installed. But to be honest, it's the quality of the talks on
this app that makes it hard for me not to have it downloaded. Sam Harris's ideas on Selflessness are
very grounded and modern and stand out for that amongst a problematic discourse. It's $99.99 a year
but money doesn't have to be a barrier if you email them. And 10% of the money Waking Up makes
is going to charity. Maybe it's the integrity to meditation, maybe it's just Sam Harris's thinking,
perhaps both, but whatever it is, this meditation app is clearly going in the right direction.
The only course correction/intervention this app seems to need is a demographic diversification.
When you google Waking Up you mainly get boys on youtube talking about it. Meditation is universal
so it should land universally, or at least in this case, more universally. Conclusion. The internet at
large is unanimous on this one. It's Insight Timer or Waking Up. If you're going to use an app and
all you want to do is dabble in some meditation and you're less interested in "Enlightenment," then
Insight Timer is clearly the best choice. There's zero cost and you're really not missing out on
anything too significant for keeping it that way. The only differences I can discern from Calm
and Headspace from Insight Timer, is that they're a worse tool for meditation and they cost money.
If you're interested in developing a very deep practice then Waking Up is a good tool, however
you might not fall into its more narrow appeal. Of course, you also don't need an app to learn.
Some apps want you to believe that they're an effective way of learning, but I'm not convinced.
I think courses, live teacher interaction, books, as well as detailed videos and talks are a far more
effective way to go. Insight Timer and Waking Up cross into some of these territories well,
but generally speaking I think it's better to think of your meditation app as a tool or
reminder for practice not a teacher. You know, when I was researching these apps there was a day where
I could hear my partner in the room next door listening to a yoga instruction video and I was
in my room listening to a guided meditation, and although we were both practicing it was obvious
to me that being reliant or, using technology like this is not how we want to practice mindfulness.
Apps take you out of the world for a time being, the worst try to keep you on with more tactics
than I mentioned in this video, and they'll send you emails throughout your day calling you back
pretty much as a policy. Meditation should deliver you to your life with love and awareness. So if you
decide to check out any meditation apps here's a continuum you can assess them on. From sore eyes, as
the bad end. To this app makes my meditation less reliant on it, as the standard. This video I made
is less than six minutes and I think it sets you up pretty sufficiently to practice independently.
If you establish a practice that is motivated by curiosity and exploration, practice routinely and
study that which keeps you inspired, I'm not sure how you couldn't become a very good meditator.
Please like this video if you found it helpful. Subscribe if you'd like to know all my advanced
meditation tips and techniques. Leave me a comment about what you think about these apps
and how you use them. And let me know if there's anything else you'd like to hear my thoughts on.