app description

I have a friend who would rather do just about anything besides meditate. She says she tried it once and it made her want to pull all her hair out and run screaming down the hallway. Maybe you can relate. Or maybe you have a short attention span, and the thought of sitting still for more than a few minutes intimidates you. As a brain injury doctor I treat a lot of patients with short attention spans and profound memory impairments. The truth is, meditation isn’t for everyone. Maybe it isn’t for you. That’s why I made this app.



SEVEN PEACEFUL EXERCISES

Even if a daily meditation practice is out of the question, some kind of daily practice, based on an exercise like meditation, is within anyone’s reach, regardless of cognitive or physical ability. Meditation is one way to bring peacefulness to your life, but it isn’t the only way. Peacefulness comes in many flavors. Drawn from neurology and psychiatry, and from the sacred traditions of Asia, seven peaceful exercises form the core of Peaceful Habits. 

. . . breathe mindfully
. . . relax the body
. . . enjoy tea mindfully
. . . hear peaceful music
. . . walk mindfully
. . . be with wild birds
. . . meditate

None of the seven exercises are difficult. In fact, they’re simple on purpose. That’s the point. You’re practicing doing one simple thing. With their emphasis on the practical and the tangible, the exercises are designed to work with, not against, the short attention spans and other cognitive impairments commonly seen after a brain injury. As a result, the exercises are easy to grasp, making them useful for anyone trying to establish a daily peacefulness practice, whether there is a history of brain injury or not. They’re great for children too.

HOW IT WORKS

Select one of the seven exercises from a menu on the main screen. Then select a duration, anything from 1 to 60 minutes. This establishes your daily practice goal for the week. INSTRUCTIONS for the seven exercises are provided. You can schedule a daily REMINDER. When you open up the app, the TIMER is pre-set to the duration of your practice. Of course, it’s up to you to actually do the exercise. This isn’t some kind of magical peacefulness device. When it comes right down to it, peacefulness is something you have to do. Peacefulness must be earned. This app helps you do that. Each time you complete your daily practice, the HABIT TRACKER records your progress. The results are stored and are available for REVIEW.

You can think of the app as a kind of “training wheels” for starting and maintaining a daily peacefulness practice. Who knows? Maybe one day your practice will blossom into a 20-minute meditation practice. Or maybe 1 minute of mindful breathing will be enough. That friend of mine who wanted to pull her hair out and run screaming down the hallway? From Monday to Friday she takes a 5-minute break to enjoy a cup of tea mindfully. On the weekends she takes a 15-minute walk. You have to find your own rhythm. 

Habits have the best chance of taking root when there’s a juicy REWARD involved, and here the reward is a three-second animation. After you’ve completed your daily practice, a gray cartoon face on the habit tracker floats over and checks off the daily circle next to it. As it floats sideways it brightens from gray to yellow, and its expression curves upward into a smile. It’s really cute, especially at the end when the smile pops peacefully into place and a bright, sparkling chime sounds. It literally brings a smile to your face. OK, I lied. Maybe it is a magic peacefulness device.