An out of focus picture of a girl with a top knot, sitting cross-legged, on a wooden deck, high up in the trees. You're seeing her from the back, the sun is just over her head and shining in your eyes, right through the leaves of a palm tree in front of her. I want to go to there!
“There’s no place like Ommmm…”

So my friend (massage therapist, healer, author and invaluable sounding board), Tia Ma recommended this, (the best meditation app in the universe), to me and I want to share it with you. It’s called “Insight Timer”. As of this writing, it’s free, and they brag on keeping it that way, but I would pay a lot for it if it wasn’t, it’s that good. So much cool I made a bullet list:

  1. It has thousands of different guided meditations, with more being uploaded by people around the world every day! (There are also classes you can take on a myriad of subjects. They cost a few bucks each. I haven’t tried any of them yet. Gimme your opinion if you do?)
  2. When you’re done with a session it shows you how many thousands of people you just meditated with around the world. I thought that was a nifty touch. It also shows you who else has been using the app near you. (You can friend and message folks too, so I guess it’s a bit of a social app as well.)
  3. You can make your own preset meditation timers. Easily. I have about 15 for every occasion. Some have Om-ing monks chanting (I LOVE to Om!), some nature sounds, some rain, some the ocean, even a roaring fire! 
  4. They have a bunch of different Tibetan Singing Bowls (When struck, they sound like bells), and you can use whatever ones resonate with you (< Hah! See what I did there?!), in whatever frequency you like. (I put them every minute or two, as it’s a reminder to be present.)
  5. I put a wonderful gong sound at the end of the timer, so I know how much time has passed. But if I’m “In the Zone”, I can keep going, as the timer and sounds continue. When you’re done it tells you how long you went over and above your original time. (My only complaint is it doesn’t count that extra time in your weekly totals tally.)
  6. It has a weekly totals tally, so you can see how much and what type of meditation you did this week. (Want more motivation? Compare that to your weekly FaceBox and Tweeter and InstaHam time…)
  7. You can set your timers for as long or short as you like. I have a 6 minute one for when I’m pressed for time, a 10, a 15, a 20, and a 30. With different sounds and bells. Meditations for all occasions! I like to wake up and do a 6 (or 10, or 15) before my feet even hit the ground. (A “Pre-Grounding Grounding”, if you will.) I love the 6, because who can’t take 6 minutes out of their busy lives for their own health and well being? (Or 5? Or 3?) Sometimes I get somewhere a few minutes early, and rather than check my messages, or get online, or listen to a podcast, I’ll throw on “Insight Timer” and get my Zen sitting in my car.
6 stones, precariously balanced on each other on the beach, with the ocean - fuzzy and out of focus - behind it.
I am striving for balance. I want to be like these guys.

Join The Circus!

I have been Om-ing for almost 20 years now. Not religiously, but having always been fascinated with sound and how vibration effects the body and the mind*, I find it all incredibly interesting. I find it really helps my Self Care. For the last few months I’ve Om-ed every day. Not only is it grounding and centering (things I desperately need), but it relaxes muscles in my throat that I can’t get to any other way. And it is the perfect warm-up for a singer like myself that jumps around over almost two and a half octaves every show.

I hope you find this app useful. I will continue to post about any Tech that makes my life better. Hope they make yours better, too. (Please, in the comments only post about truly life-changing apps you actually use, I hate spam and will delete anything that makes me feel like I’m your own personal billboard.) 

Gotta go Om.

Signed, sealed, delivered

* Reading an interesting book by Karel and Heda Jindrak. It’s called, “Sing, Clean Your Brain, and Stay Sound and Sane.” Its about how vocalizing (talking, singing, Om-ing), actually helps to purify your cerebrospinal fluid! Maybe singing is what helped humans get their act together, evolutionarily speaking, and think. It’s hard to find (I got a copy through the Inter-Library Loan thingie at my local library), and it’s a dry read (It started out as a research paper, I believe), but the concept is phenomenal!