Like many stressed out New Yorkers, I’m on a desperate and ongoing quest to silence the voice in my head.
It has a lot to say.
I need to work harder, I need to do laundry tonight, I need to be more polite, I can’t forget to bring my lunch to work tomorrow, when does the next ‘Avengers’ movie come out? Remember to say hi to the doorman next time you’re being rude, what do my coworkers think of me? I hope it’s warm out later because I forgot to bring a jacket …
You get the idea.
Life is full of stress, and very often, the source of that stress is our own minds endlessly taunting us. But after all these years, how do you stop it?
You probably can’t, but you can certainly manage it. And when you do, your life can change in lots of little, wonderful ways.
I’ve started meditating on my own each day now. But it didn’t start that way. It started with a simple iPhone app called “Buddhify.” It uses guided meditations tailored to whatever situation or location you’re in. I still use it often even while meditating on my own.
This app is completely awesome. And the key is in its compassionate delivery.
Think of it as on demand meditations for every part of your day. I love it.
Here’s the extremely simple way it works:
Let’s say you’re on a train on the way to work, and you want to clear your mind to prepare for the day. You put on your headphones, open the app, and see this handy wheel:
Each of these little slivers of the pie represent the part of your day or event you need the meditation for. For example, you could select “feeling stressed,” “walking in the city,” “work break,” “difficult emotions,” or in our current example, “travelling.”
Once you click a category, you’ll get four or five options of different meditations you can do and their title. It also tells you how long they are. Some are four minutes, some are 15, some are in between. There’s a great range here depending on how much time you want to spend on the meditation.
After that you see this:
Then it’s all about sitting back, relaxing, and pressing play.
I really love this app. The people that lead the meditations are fantastic — each voice is compassionate, modern, and even a little amusing at times in all the right ways. I’ve used Buddhify on the train, walking in the street, and just sitting cross legged on my living room carpet.
One of my favourite meditations is a 7-minute guided walk down the street. It’s called “Zap.” The wonderful voice leading the meditation leads you through a fun exercise in what’s called loving kindness meditation.
You simply walk down the street, and as you see people, you “zap” them with kind words (“may you be well, may you be happy”). Maybe it sounds silly, maybe it sounds stupid, maybe you think you don’t need it.
All I can say is that I’ve found it’s the moments in my life when I’ve dared to try something new and out of my comfort zone that I’ve really grown.
It’s only a couple bucks and is available on both Android and iOS. I can’t recommend it enough. Buddhify will revolutionise your day if you let it.
Here’s the official video: