App Overview-HeadSpace

Headspace was co-founded by Andy Puddicomber and Richard Pierson back in 2010 and it all began when Andy met Richard who needed help dealing with stress. Since Andy has spent 10 years of his life being a monk in Indian Himalayas, he was/is an expert meditation guide. 

Headspace was officially launched as an event company but attendees wanted to take back what they learned during the sessions and that's when they decided to launch an application where Andy's teaching can be accessed by people who attended his sessions. That idea has now reached over 65 million users in 190 countries making Headspace one of the best apps for meditation and mental training. Headspace is advancing in the field of mindfulness and mental health through clinically-validated research that helps them provide better results.

The headspace app has a clean, user-friendly, and polished style. There are so many lessons and features that makes sure you always have something great to learn/explore. The application helps you keep track of the time you have spent on the app along with the progress you make on their courses. 

The Best Way to Get Started With HeadSpace

Headspace app recommends that you start with the "Basics" course of mediation. You should schedule a time slot for every day so that the app can send you a reminder to meditate. Every lesson is broken down into three short sessions of 3-10 minutes each. With these broken down lessons you get time to introspect and properly understand the concepts of mindfulness. 

The habit of meditating every day is much more important than getting it right the first time as the more time you dedicate the better you get at it. That is exactly what the app is designed to do. The basic courses are a great place to learn the fundamentals of meditation for example "It's not about shutting down your thoughts rather accept and be aware of the thoughts that give you a whole new perspective about life".

Practical Tips for Beginners

Right time, Right Place

It takes time to cultivate a habit, so it is important to honor your routine. Same place, Same Time will help you build the habit

What to wear

You can wear whatever you want as long as you feel comfortable and relaxed in what you are wearing.

How to sit

You can sit on the floor, bench, chain, or anything else that works for you. Unless you can do so, forget the stereotypical images of sitting cross-legged by a tree.

Duration

The duration of meditation completely depends on your life circumstances, preferences, and time available. It is recommended that you start with at least 10-20 minute sessions.

Overview of HeadSpace Content

Headspace has 4 main categories in which they have divided their content and they are:

Meditation

There are different types of meditations and different types of approaches to these meditation techniques. You can divide them into two very basic categories, calming meditation(1) and insight meditation(2). 

When you divulge yourself in calming meditation you concentrate objects, your breaths, your body, a mantra, visualization, or even sensations in your body. It results in a quieter and more peaceful mind. And when you divulge in insight meditation you focus yourself on transforming your mind to develop qualities like compassion and wisdom. 

Headspace combines both the form of meditation techniques. While meditation techniques have been developed by specific spiritual disciplines, Headspace uses them in non-religious ways. 

Sleep

Sleep is designed by Headspace to offer a calm, soothing bedtime experience that results in healthy and restful sleep. Sleep by Headspace offers:

Wind Downs- Breathing and Meditation to prepare your mind to sleep

Sleep Music- The calming music tracks will drift you off to a good night's sleep

Nighttime SOS- Guided exercises for when you wake up in the middle of the night

Sleep Casts- Nightime stories with different topics and narrated in a range of voices

Sleep Radio- Non-Stop 8-hour mix of calm and relaxing music 

Move Mode

Move body is an expert-guided mind-body fitness experience. Move Mode is created by Headspace to help its users strengthen their minds and bodies together. By combining the physical and cognitive exercises Headspace is teaching mindful anchors of intention, breathing, timing, recovery, and form. Different sections of Move Mode are:

Mindful Fitness: Cardio and low-to-medium impact exercises that help your heart pumping

Expert Trainers: Get coaching from expert trainers like Olympians Kims Glass and Leon Tylor

Rest Day Medications: Recovery with exercises for the mind.

Wake Up

Wake Up is the new daily content that is designed to help members to start their days with mindfulness and to inhibit users from taking healthier actions throughout the day. Wake Up also promotes users to focus on five key elements of mindful life: meditation, sleeping, moving, eating, and playing. Wake Up will be a three to five-minute-long episode where new episodes are released every day for the users to indulge themselves in new topics every day. The Wake-Up content is categorized into three categories:

Get Inspired: Real and uplifting stories of incredible people from across the globe

Get Happy: Short videos that will make you smile and give you a happy start

Get Mindful: Insights from experts on eating, sleep, fitness, and more.

Features of Free App Vs Features of Premium App

Free Version of the App

The free version of the app will only include introductory parts giving you a feel of how the app can help you. With the free version of the app you will get access to:

• First 10 sessions of Basics
• 3 Sessions of Everyday Headspace
• Falling back to Sleep Wind Down

Given the ongoing pandemic of Covid-19, Headspace has made a specific section that helps you deal with the ongoing situation. Headspace has decided to make this section "Weathering the Storm" available for everyone which includes topics like "Panicking SOS session", "Feeling Overwhelmed SOS session" and so on.

The free Headspace trial will not expire after a certain time which means you will access all the free content from day 1 till you have the app on your phone. 

Headspace Plus

With Headspace Plus, you will get access to the entire library of Headspace content. This library includes hundreds of meditations, mindfulness exercises and animations to guide you in building your practice. With Headspace Plus you get access to:

• Dozens of one-off exercises that are built to promote mindfulness throughout the day
• Sleep by Headspace, the section which is designed to help you with a good night's sleep
• Animated stories from the past which are the tools used by ancient teachers to teach their students some very basic yet powerful concepts of mindfulness
• Over 40 courses of meditations that are designed for specific topics like stress and sleep
• Short meditation guide that you can do any time of the day 

What do we Think About HeadSpace

Headspace is that app where you find an expert meditator working his way up in the business world and creating an app that is now helping more than 65 million people across the globe. There are various techniques and ways to do meditation. There is something to take from all the ways and all the techniques. To create a perfect recipe, you need to have a perspective of a meditator and wisdom. That's where Headspace has a head start and is better than others, expert's concept. Apart from that, Headspace is covering some of the most fundamental areas of mental health, physical health, and meditation by covering important areas like sleep, eating, mindfulness, and exercise which makes it a great platform for overall well-being.