Meditation for Busy People
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do less. live more.
Of late, I’ve been using the Headspace app as my gentle wake-up call: I keep my phone and a pair of headphones on my bedside table and, when I finally submit to my alarm clock’s morning ring, I pop in the headphones and open up Headspace. Call me a fan.
To paraphrase Dr. Seuss: More meditation is what everyone, everyone, everyone needs. Well, maybe not everyone, but it certainly works for me. Like many busy people, I suffer from a mental swirl of “To-Do’s” and ruminations about things done and undone, and often the storm in my brain isn’t a particularly happy one. It’s far more often dark clouds of worry than it is sunshine and rainbows. Meditation helps me be more present in the moments of my young family—part of what this blog is all about. I want to make my kids’ growing up years great years, because they’re short—for them and for me—and they’re fundamental. Everything that comes is built on what happens now. There’s a lot to do in a typical day, both at home and at work, but I don’t want to be so busy doing that I forget the enjoying part. Yes, my life could be described as busy, but it could also be described as full. I have a good job, a good husband, lovely kids, a safe and comfortable home, and my health. I have much to be grateful for, and I want to be awake to it all.
When I meditate more often, I feel more focused, less prone to temper, anxiety and overwhelm, and generally feel more positive. But as with many healthy habits, it can be difficult to keep them up. Headspace has helped me do that better, and my morning meditation offers a little time just for me and my thoughts, which in the life of a working parent, is a rare commodity. A few months ago, I noted with surprise that the swirls in my brain were taking on a more positive note—that sometimes, instead of cycling through the to-do’s, I was cycling through the awesomeness—and that is as it should be. It could be coincidence, but I think that more regular meditation has at least a little to do with it.
How Headspace Helps
As with many good habits, there’s preparation required in meditation. What will I meditate on? Who—if I choose to meditate about people—will I choose to meditate about? Will I sit, lie down, or choose some other position? Should I just focus on my breath? Should I do it first thing in the morning or wait until lunchtime? Or maybe the evening after I put the kids to bed?
Headspace is to meditation what having your gym bag stocked and packed in the trunk of your car is to working out. It’s got everything on cue for you. There are themes to choose from, ranging from options like Relationships to Grief, and different time increments ranging from 3 to 20 minutes. Besides these choices, there’s very little decision-making or preparation required on the user’s part. I love the option of having a tiny 3-minute meditation when the day has gotten away from me—or if I’m lucky enough to find time for a second meditation in the day—or choosing a longer one on a leisurely Sunday morning when it’s my turn to sleep in.
Headspace is ideal for novice meditators. Especially in introductory sessions, “Andy,” the voice of Headspace, takes you through the mental steps required, and even reminds you to bring your mind back from the swirl occasionally. As you become more expert, the cues lessen. Currently, I’ve been working on the Relationships pack, which takes you through the basics of Metta meditation (without naming it), and though I’ve been struggling a bit with the visualization piece of it, I do appreciate how the lessens build.
Photo by Tyler Lastovich on Unsplash
Devil in the Details
Headspace is not just meditation. They have multiple recordings for improving sleep, which I’ve used a couple of times after waking up in the middle of the night (old habits die hard) and finding it hard to return to sleep. They also have multiple options for ambient sounds, for studying and the like.
Some may find Andy’s British accent obtrusive or hard to understand, but I find it soothing, and his guidance is very down to earth. He’s also incredibly encouraging, which to me dovetails nicely with some of the precepts of meditation. The mind will wander, and maybe worse things will happen too, and we’ll forgive ourselves and try again.
Headspace also provides affirmation by recording your meditation streaks. So, if you’ve meditated using the app for a certain number of days in a row, you’re occasionally greeted with a congratulatory message containing your streak stats. This is a pretty brilliant maneuver, I think, because who wants to ruin their streak?
You can use a limited number of guided meditations on Headspace for free, pretty much forever, which is pretty awesome. The only snafoos I’ve run into with the app are occasional failed downloads—where episodes cut off in the middle or I have to close and re-load the app to get a particular recording to work. These may be app issues or they may be my phone issues, I’m unsure. My second OCD gripe is Andy’s weird refusal to articulate the sound of the letter X. Is this a monk thing? I don’t know. But sometimes I find my mind wandering onto this topic when Andy tells me I should just “Relak.”
Do you have favorite apps that help you maintain good habits. Tell us about them in the Comments section below.
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