The Problem With Headspace, Calm, and All Those Meditation Apps

The Problem With Headspace, Calm, and All Those Meditation Apps // Meditation has become a multi-billion dollar industry in the U.S., but how well do some of the most popular meditation apps actually work? It depends who you ask. If you're serious about learning meditation or stepping up your practice, watch this video. We'll be discussing five problematic trends with most meditation apps on the market - PLUS, an app that I think is an exception to the rule.

Time Stamps:
0:00 - Intro (what was going to be a calm or headspace app review)
1:48 - #1: Too much focus on self-improvement
3:27 - #2: Promotion of spiritual materialism
4:49 - #3: Venture-backed (means different incentives)
7:08 - #4: Unethical practices in the name of growth
8:54 - #5: Lack of training for insight
10:50 - The only app I would recommend: Waking Up with Sam Harris
14:03 - Closing thoughts

WAKING UP:
(the only meditation app I would recommend)

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Again, this video is not sponsored.
#meditationapps#calm#headspace#wakingup#mindfulness#meditation#samharris#headspacereview#wakingupapp

[JulianneKeu]

I meant to say “$119.99” not “$1999.99” 🤣 got a little tongue-tied and could only film 1 take of this video. Hope you understand :P

[hyun]

This is probably one of the best trauma-informed channels I've watched where things were explained concisely, comprehensively, and with compassion.

[TheNodles]

Good insight, Julianne. "Spiritual Materialism" has now entered my vocab.

[Sokratian]

I started my meditation journey trough headspace and started the waking up about a year ago . Id wager headspace is easier for beginners and the gamification makes it easier to make a habit of practice . To sum it up headspace is easier to get into but it gets stale after a while, meanwhile waking up demands a bit more of the user but its also more rewarding .

[nigelstafford]

100% was hoping you would say Waking Up, the only app I subscribed to after trying many

[MonzonMedia]

Agree 100%, mediation should be something that is part of you and who you are and not triggered or scheduled around an app. Yes there are some useful ones but there should be a point where you should be able to reach that state on your own. So many answers are already within us but we are "trained" to look outward for solutions.

[xyrenx]

Got an advertisement for calm at the beginning of this video and the end of it. You can tell that venture capitaling is doing it’s work lol

[davidrush]

I started off with Calm 18 months ago, picked up Waking Up 9 months ago. I find it far superior. Other apps trying to target a specific problem with meditations centred mainly around observing the breath with a different voice over plot just didn't get me to a point of achieving anything. Waking Up with its main non dualistic approach and recognising that everything that happens is an appearance in consciousness covers all conditions with one practice type. I feel I have made great progress with it.

[NamasenITN]

To my personal taste, this video started fine but ended with a biased promotional message. That altered my perspective on the value of the first part and put me off.

[ailurii]

I personally love Headspace, but I do honestly understand all of these reasons for not liking it.

[dmaq]

I just found your channel about two weeks ago. As I am researching microdosing. And also had a massive spiritual awakening in 2018 I’m finding your channel to be the most helpful. In June I began researching and I just began my protocol about a week ago. Thank you so much for creating all this content. I’m truly grateful.

[cmac]

question: is Waking Up paying an Affiliate Fee?

[aha]

To me personally, what works is listening to videos like this, doing some breathing and some yoga during the day, and taking an occasional ayahuasca or mushroom trip. (Not more often than once in a month and a half, maybe two months).

[iainweein]

this video was amazng! not checked in on this channel in years forgot how good the content is!

[Layka-bebz]

I used meditation apps years ago and have been practicing on my own since then. I recently looked back at the apps as I'm looking for a tool to help someone who is interested in starting meditation but after practicing on my own for this time I was struck by how obviously the apps were designed to extract money by selling spiritualism. That is one of the unfortunate side effects of capitalism is that there is that constant pull to reduce every good thing into a product to be bought and sold.

[esotericeveryday]

Hi Julianne, as a creator of my own mindfulness app I appreciate your assessment of main stream meditation apps. Thanks keep up the good the work.

[amandaglowgetter]

So many of your critiques really resonated with me. I've lived with depression for years, and tried one of those mainstream meditation apps. it didn't work for me, and that reinforced the negative thoughts that I was just fundamentally too "broken" to be fixed by this supposedly effective method. I'm coming at mindfulness in a way that works better for me. I'll definitely be checking out Waking Up.

[Mikodemuz]

Calm has helped me alot. And if meditation is guided, it is still meditation.

[jsilva]

What kind of meditations do you recommend?

[KCIsMe]

Sam's book waking up is what got me into meditation and I'm a big fan of the app as well. And although I haven't used it for about a year. I feel like I learned a lot from it.