Meditation with Headspace – Why you should give it a go
Before you run for the hills because you really can’t stand ‘any of that new age stuff’, please bear with me. I am actually the last person to get behind things like meditating. I am a sceptic when it comes to most things that aren’t based on some hard scientific evidence (meditation actually really appears to have some measurable benefits), and some years ago I would have straight out refused to even try to meditate. But then I got unwell. Really, really unwell. My body and my psyche were thrown into absolute turmoil. I had anxiety so severe, that I couldn’t sleep or eat. My mind was constantly working, coming up with worst case scenarios, telling me I was dying. At that point my psychotherapist suggested that I should try to meditate. And I refused for a while. But at some point things got so bad, I reluctantly gave it a go. And yes, at first it was hard and it took me a while to learn techniques to calm down my mind. But then it started to work and the relief it brought me was absolute bliss.
This was many years ago and I fell of the meditation bandwagon for a while. Then I became aware of Benedict and saw him mentioning meditation a lot:
“Q: Did you attain your sense of zen?”
“Yeah, meditating and all that, absolutely, being able to be still and focus and you are putting words into my mouth, (laughs) but you are absolutely right, that’s exactly right. There’s an ability to focus and have a real sort of purity of purpose and attention and not be too distracted, and to feel very alive to your environment, to know what you are part of, to understand what is going on in your peripheral vision and behind you as well of what is in front of you, that definitely came from that.”
(When talking about his gap year in Tibet for an interview with FZdotcom)
“Stillness is an essential part of acting, so I already had a certain amount of focus in that beforehand, and I’d always been fascinated by the idea of meditation and what it meant. A still point is a very, very hard place to find, especially among the usual kind of pulped sheep pushed around by the blinking flashing world of modern technology.” (Source)
He studied at a monastery and he meditates: “It was very lonely at times but also inclusive,” he says. “There was this incredible experience of just for the first time properly thinking, ‘Oh my God! There’s so much going on in there.’ ” Cumberbatch still meditates, but “10 minutes every other week, practically. It’s very sporadic. But I do still try.”
(From the THR Interview)
So I guess it goes without saying, that mediation plays at least some role in Cumberbatch’s life. Him talking about meditation got me thinking. I had to realize that my mind had started to spiral out of control again, that I was often desperately unhappy and on edge and that I never really achieved any kind stillness anymore. Just around that time an App called Headspace (iTunes / Android / Amazon / Web) got quite a bit of publicity.
I think even the lovely Emma Watson mentioned it at some point. Headspace offers ten 10 minute meditations for free in its apps and on the website. So I thought “Why the heck not? It’s free.”
Headspace is the brain child of Andy Puddicombe, a former Buddhist monk and all around likable guy (you can watch his TED talk here). He and the lovely, colorful app drew me in immediately. I liked how the meditation was very down to earth and didn’t use any esoteric terms. I found the exercises incredibly relaxing and accessible and soon started to feel a lot calmer. I started to enjoy quiet moments more and learned how to stop my mind from spinning out of control. You can download the app for free and just do the 10 minute exercises over and over again. They are absolutely sufficient to ground you and give you 10 minutes of calm to step back from your hectic life and overactive brain. I think it’s lovely, that you get all that respite and support for free. I personally chose to sign up for longer daily meditation sessions (which I can access anywhere, via app or website) as I really felt like I would benefit from even more and longer meditation. Fancy that. It’s so unlike me but I’ve caught the meditation bug. And it is really keeping me sane.
So why not give Headspace a go? It’s free and we can all use a bit of stillness in these hectic times.
(By the way: this isn’t a sponsored post, I just like this app very very much!)
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