Headspace is a mindfulness and meditation app for everyday people. The app helps you practice and learn meditation and mindfulness skills by using it a few minutes every day.
Headspace was founded in 2010 by Richard Pierson and Andy Puddicombe. Puddicombe is a former Buddhist monk and the narrator for most of the daily guided mediations. (Note: he did a TED talk that you can find on YouTube.)
I’ve been using Headspace for a few years, and they are always adding new content. When you log in, there are several categories from which to choose. The one I use most is on the home page, Everyday Headspace.
EVERYDAY HEADSPACE. The top of the page will bring you to any “packs” you’re working through (described below), so you can pick up where you left off the last time you logged into the app. There is another section called “Everybody Headspace” where you can join a live group meditation. The group meditation section shows you the time that the next live session will start. You do not hear or interact with anyone else while doing a group meditation; you just join the session at the same time as the others and meditate together (separately). At the bottom of the home page is “Everyday Headspace”. New sessions are offered each day, and each session has a unique theme. For example, today’s session was titled “Problematic Thoughts”. You can choose a session that lasts for 3, 5, 10, 15 or 20 minutes. Then Andy Puddicombe will speak for a few minutes on the day’s topic and guide you through a meditation.
Forgive the blurry photo.
Once you complete your meditation, Headspace will show your stats. These include your total minutes meditated (this rounds up to the nearest thousand after you’ve been doing it a while) and your running streak for number of days meditated in a row. The quote at the bottom of the page was from today’s theme (“problematic thoughts”, mentioned above).
PACKS. Aside from the Everyday Headspace section, you can also choose to work through what Headspace calls a “pack”. A pack is a set of meditations that have a theme. For example, the Basic pack has 10 sessions. Ideally you’d do one session a day (the mediations probably last ten minutes). When you log in, you’ll be prompted to complete the next mediation in your pack, but you can choose to do another meditation instead.
There are three “Basics” packs with ten sessions each. Recently they began offering a “Headspace 365” pack with 365 sessions.
Other packs have themes like health. Examples include “Coping with Cravings”, “Managing Anxiety”, “Sleep”, and “Pain Management”. Each of those include 30 sessions. Packs with a happiness theme include “Patience” (10 sessions, “Self-Esteem” (10 sessions) and “Relationships” (30 sessions). Another category focuses on work and performance issues. Packs include “Productivity” (10 sessions), “Prioritization'“ (10 sessions) and “Creativity” (30 sessions). One of my favorite sections is called “Brave”. It includes packs called “Reframing Loneliness” (10 sessions), “Handling Sadness” (30 sessions) and “Transforming Anger” (10 sessions). The guided meditations in these packs vary by topic. The app will show you the ones you’ve completed, and you have the option to work through them more than once.
BUDDIES. Headspace includes a feature that allows you to connect with friends on the app. Being buddies on Headspace allows you to see your friend’s activity in the app, including the last time they meditated, their total minutes meditated and their “meditation streak” (number of days meditated in a row). Just thought I’d mention that I had a streak of over 800 days going. It was broken when I went on a business trip. I meditated every day, but the app didn’t register my sessions (probably due to the lousy internet connection at the hotel). I didn’t know it at the time, but you can contact Headspace if your streak is broken because your session wasn’t captured. They are able to verify that you meditated and can correct your numbers, if necessary.
SINGLES. There is another section with what Headspace calls “Singles”. Singles are one-off sessions with a theme. For example, the “Food” theme has single sessions for eating without distraction and eating with your senses. If you enjoy walking, you can choose single sessions for walking in the city or adding joy to your walking. There are several sports and competition-related sessions, with themes like cycling and running. Headspace recently added singles with themes like “Living Through Unemployment” (guided meditations for managing anger, adapting to sudden change, managing anxiety, etc.) and “SOS” (meditations to use when you feel burned out, overwhelmed or flustered).
KIDS. Headspace offers Singles for kids age 5 and under. Themes include “Good Morning”, “Paying Attention” and “Sleep Tight”.
There are additional choices in the Animation section of Headspace. I found a section called “Sesame Street x Headspace” this morning that included an animation for kids called “I-Sense with Cookie Monster” and another titled “Grover Can Do It”. I completed the latter, you know, for research purposes*. It was a 3 minute and 15 section animation featuring Grover and Andy Puddicombe.
Less-overwhelmed Grover
In the animation, Grover was overwhelmed by his to-do list, so Andy explained to Grover that it is best to work through that feeling by focusing on completing one thing at a time. You can see in the photo that Grover is happy because he just got dressed and was able to cross one more thing off of his list.
ANIMATIONS. I just mentioned the Animations section, but there is more to it. Headspace has animations to help you understand the basic skills used in the guided meditations. One example is the body scan, which is a skill used in most (if not all) of the everyday mediations. This is a simple mental scan of your body from head to toe, just to see how your body is feeling that day.
I’m not sure how the animations section works right now. When I first started using the app, you would unlock new animations by completing a certain number of sessions. So I don’t know if you’re able to see everything now, or if you still unlock content by completing sessions.
Earlier today I noticed that there are new videos introducing Andy Puddicombe and Eve Lewis (the female voice of Headspace) in the Animations section.
OTHER DETAILS. You can use Headspace by downloading the app or pulling it up in a browser.
Some content (the Basic pack, I think) is available for free. Subscription fees run about $13 a month.. I’m no math whiz, but you can save money with an annual subscription for around $70. Note: it auto-renews.
Due to the pandemic, Headspace is offering its app free for all people who are currently unemployed in the US. If you are interested, go to headspace.com/unemployed I have not used this, but it is my understanding that Headspace relies on the honor system for verification of an individual’s unemployment status.
This is not a sponsored post.
*OK, I admit that I’m a big Sesame Street fan (Grover and Kermit included).
www.headspace.com