The Soothing Voice of Meditation – My Headspace Rejection


Commercializing Calm

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I never aim to offend anyone with my comments so please accept my view’s as mine. I am awkward, I dislike anything that feels forced. I have my beliefs but I don’t go to church as I see it as a type of organized way of doing prayer when I prefer to give thanks in my own way.

I hate when everyone starts reading a book because it’s the bestseller, I dislike mass popularity, I didn’t care to read The Da Vinci Code because of such mainstream attention. If I choose to read something, I like to think it’s my decision.

This is what I feel about Headspace.

It was on day 6 when I saw something that angered me, I scrolled to the bottom of the page and there it was. A counter telling me at this moment in time 17,284 people were using the app to meditate. F**k.

Suddenly, I felt anger. It’s not meditation, it’s just another money-making plot to make a free and precious individual moment, into a mainstream commercial project.

Just because I wanted to fully complete the challenge, I continued with the other 17, 284 people to listen to Andy. It was the first time I had meditated and felt forced to do so. It was the first time I had pressed play for the 10 minutes of breathing exercises and had angry thoughts swirling around my head. And all these angry thoughts were driven from the app that was supposed to bring on the opposite effect.

I sat crossed legged on my bed seething.

After my ten minutes were up I felt worse than before. I thanked myself for finding out this information on the night and not in the morning before work. Then I opened my draw and took out my copy of Open Heart Meditation and listened to the soothing voice of Irmansyah Effendi MSc.

Ok, so I admit there is a slight consumerism element with owning a meditational CD but I feel better listening to the True Source prayer being happily emitted by Irmansyah rather than Andy and his app. With Open Heart Meditation I feel there is something genuine and enlightening. Maybe it stems back to my time Wwoofing and being in such an amazing environment when I was introduced to it, but for me it works, it also helps me sleep and also opened me up to love.

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Ashram Sundays
From my experiences in Ashrams and during my time as a Yogi, I experienced that anything can become a form of meditation. Everyday tasks like cleaning, cooking, colouring, anything that clears your mind and helps you have a moment of peace and reflection.

I am by no means advocating that Headspace is bad. It’s just not for me.

I am also not telling people to go out and start Open Heart Meditation, in a sense it’s mine and it is something very personal that I have decided to share with my dear readers. When I am meditating I require a soothing voice, this is something that has an 'autonomous sensory meridian response' on most of us and we experience a low grade euphoria. It's this voice that send me into my trance.

And I guess Andy Puddicombe's voice is soothing for some. But sorry Andy, Anglo-Saxon voices don't do it for me. 

Meditation has to be something that's yours, you need to find your own path. No one else can tell you what will work for you.

Interested in mindfulness? Watch Andy Puddicombe's Ted Talk 'All  it takes is 10 mindful minutes'


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