Inspiration can be found all around us in life, but if theres a chance that it coincides with your weekend binge, all the better. If self-improvement is one of your goals for 2021, there is no dearth of inspiration to be found onscreenfrom the therapeutic gratification of before-and-after makeovers to real-life stories that impart hard-learned life lessons. If youve been on the hunt for some motivation to get you kickstarted for the new year, here are the movies and TV shows that will inspire you to be the best version of yourself.

Based on a memoir of the same name, the Will Smith-starrer sees a homeless salesman turn his life around with as little as $21 in his pocket. For those who love stories that champion the underdog, the 2006 biopic offers a feel-good watch with gems of wisdom that now serve as industry gospel, including the world is your oyster, it is up to you to find your pearls and the cavalry aint coming, you can only depend on yourself.

Streaming on Amazon Prime Video

The coming-of-age movie marks Ayan Mukerjis directorial debut with Ranbir Kapoor in the lead role, with whom he would go on to deliver another blockbuster, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani in 2013. Set against the urban locale of Mumbai, the movie follows the life of an over-privileged graduate who finds that he has to stand on his own feet after being disowned by his father. Help comes in the form of an aspiring writer from Kolkata, portrayed by Konkona Sen Sharma, who helps him find his footing in the real world. The nuanced tale offers a celebration of lifes many joys, both big and smallfrom Sids first successful omelette to his eventual calling as a photographer at a local publication.

Streaming on Netflix

If youve been looking for a reality show that will leave you with a more worthwhile takeaway than the human minds propensity for drama, youll want to queue up Shark Tank for your next weekend binge. Over the course of eleven seasons, the multiple Emmy Award-winning show has been credited with realising over a decade of dreams by allowing homegrown businesses the chance to make a pitch to top investors and secure life-changing investments. Beyond turning everyday people into overnight millionaires, the show offers invaluable discourse for those looking to chase their dreams and turn their passion into a paycheque.

Streaming on Amazon Prime Video

Based loosely on Chetan Bhagats Five Point Someone, the 2009 blockbuster is today known by the box office records it shattered upon its year-end release. Following the lives of three students in a cookie-cutter engineering college, the movie witnesses Aamir Khans Rancho turning the institution on its head with his non-conformist ideals. With side-splitting gags, comedic chases and a moral takeaway that will linger with you long after the end credits have rolled, the movie makes for a fun weekend watchregardless of how many times youve seen it already.

Streaming on Amazon Prime Video

The bromance continues with Zoya Akhtars directorial, featuring Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar and Abhay Deol in prominent roles. What starts out as a routine bachelor trip quickly evolves into a life-changing road trip for each of the three leads, who discover the courage to face personal dilemmas and blindspots, all while trying their hand at never-tried-before adventure sports. Set against the idyllic backdrop of the Spanish countryside, the movie serves as a treat for the sights as well as the soul.

Streaming on Amazon Prime Video

There is no age limit prescribed for learning and self-development, and Gauri Shindes 2012 directorial espouses the same through her signature lens of emotional coherence and nuance. Starring the legendary actor Sridevi as an archetypal housewife, the movie sees her grappling with her inability to speak English on a trip to New York. That she chooses to conquer her fish-out-of-water circumstances by attending English classes on the sly serves as a testament to her willpower, and her desire for self-improvement ultimately helps her reassert her value in the family.

Streaming on JioCinema

It would be easy to describe Queer Eye as a makeover show, but it would also be a restrictive interpretation of the Netflix phenomenon. Yes, there are makeovers involved, but the show delves beyond the ordinary to underscore sartorial advice with social commentary by the Fab Five, featuring grooming consultant Jonathan Van Ness, fashion designer Tan France, food and wine savant Antoni Porowski, interior designer Bobby Berk and cultural guru Karamo Brown.

Streaming on Netflix

Originally released on January 1 in 2019, Tidying Up With Marie Kondo continues to slot in neatly with the January mood for fresh starts and purging junk. Headlined by tidying expert Marie Kondo, the show, however, offers more than just home makeovers for before-and-after viewing pleasure. By enabling people to let go of the clutter in their lives, the Japanese expert sheds light on our empathy for the things that we surround ourselves with and eventually, helps clients usher in the transformative power of new beginnings.

Streaming on Netflix

Given the cult success of the mindfulness platform, it seems to have been only a matter of time before it made its way to our TV screens. Together with Netflix, Headspace is demystifying the practice of meditation and mindfulness through guided exercises and videos aimed at helping you feel healthier and happier. If youve been on the hunt for some solace in the unpredictable times we live in, ten days of the practice is claimed to increase happiness by 16 per cent.

Streaming on Netflix

9 apps to help you achieve your self-improvement goals in 2021

Why not making resolutions should be your first act of self-care in 2019

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9 shows and movies that will inspire you to be better, streaming on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and JioCinema - VOGUE India

JANUARY 22, 2021

AT THE BEGINNING of her 2013 memoir, Joanna Harcourt-Smith jokingly remarks that she had always fantasized about sleeping with three men: JFK, Jimi Hendrix, and Timothy Leary. By 1970, the first two were dead, so she gravitated toward the latter. While her joke appears to be cocktail party banter, Harcourt-Smith, a Franco-Swiss socialite-turned-author, is a fantastically strong-willed woman able to bend reality to her wishes. Errol Morriss new film, My Psychedelic Love Story, boldly chronicles Harcourt-Smiths troubled childhood and her intensely fraught romance with psychologist and psychedelic drug advocate Timothy Leary in the true decade of excess: the 1970s. The film is centered around Harcourt-Smiths whirlwind romance with Leary, which culminates with Learys capture and imprisonment in Afghanistan in 1973. The film also documents Harcourt-Smiths three-and-a-half-year campaign to free Leary of a 25-year prison sentence.

The narrative arc of Morriss new documentary resembles the chaotic trajectory of an intense LSD trip: ecstatic highs and Dantean lows with a miraculous release from bondage at the very end. And like all mind-bending LSD trips, My Psychedelic Love Story asks the crucial question when its finally over: What the hell just happened? Harcourt-Smith has not been able to satisfactorily answer that question some 45 years later. At the beginning of My Psychedelic Love Story, Joanna speculates that she might have been manipulated by CIA operatives seeking to ensnare Leary in a trap. The countercultural icon was, after all, wanted by the Nixon administration, the FBI, and the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD). Although My Psychedelic Love Story asks more questions than it can answer, it still ends up being an enormously satisfying cinematic experience.

Like many of Morriss films, My Psychedelic Love Story defies generic categorization; its a love story wrapped in an espionage novel, with LSD constantly blurring the viewers sense of historical truth and reality. What it is, undoubtedly, is a Morris picture. It further evokes his 2010 film Tabloid, which also dealt with an obsessive love story and centered on a charismatically unhinged protagonist. And it can also be treated as a quirky companion piece to his miniseries Wormwood (2017), a chronicle of the CIA mind-control program known as MKUltra that went terribly wrong when a CIA chemist was dosed unknowingly and committed suicide. However, in Morriss six-part docudrama, the alleged suicide is revealed to be a murder that has been covered up by the government authorities. Like Wormwood, My Psychedelic Love Story is a probing psychoanalytic journey into its subjects dislocated psyche, attempting to lay bare the political and psychological forces that shaped Harcourt-Smiths chaotic life in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Lastly, My Psychedelic Love Story also evokes The Thin Blue Line (1988) and Standard Operating Procedure (2008) in the sense that it examines how prison authorities are apt to use torture and manipulation to make subjects confess and tell the stories that they want to hear.

My Psychedelic Love Story is also an innovative film that attempts to transform the talking-heads format that is ubiquitous in documentary filmmaking. It begins with a lone talking head, Harcourt-Smith, pressing the button on a reel-to-reel tape player that plays the voice of Timothy Leary from Vacaville prison in 1974. The opening scene can be considered an homage to the old-fashioned talking-heads approach to documentary filmmaking, since Morriss protean film slowly transforms before the viewers eyes as Harcourt-Smith narrates her tale. Morris and graphics artist Jeremy Landman punctuate Harcourt-Smiths dialogue with symbolic objects handcuffs, cars, revolvers, taxis, martini glasses placed on colorful LSD blotter paper, ominous tarot card images, and color-drenched newspaper headlines that move across the screen in kaleidoscopic slow motion. Although most filmmakers simulate psychedelic experiences by showing rapid sensory-overload sequences, My Psychedelic Love Story slows it down and features a series of striking images that convey the internal life of Harcourt-Smith during her encounters with Leary in the winter of 1972. With help from his creative team (editor Steven Hathaway and music director Paul Leonard-Morgan), Morris has created a mise-en-scne that hypnotizes the viewer with visual and aural cues (the sounds of a Zippo lighter or a gun clicking). The end result is a cinematic style that is bewitching, but also germane to the story that Morris wants to tell; My Psychedelic Love Story is, after all, a grandiose tale about the alteration of consciousness.

The narrative of My Psychedelic Love Story is concerned with unraveling Harcourt-Smiths past and her complicated family history. She was the daughter of Cecyl Harcourt-Smith, a silver-haired Etonian aristocrat who was a commander in the Royal Navy. Her mother, Marisya Ulam, was an attractive and domineering Jewish heiress whose family left Poland and settled in Paris in the 1930s. Marisya and her family eventually settled in Switzerland to escape from the Nazis, but many of her relatives in Poland were not so fortunate. Cecyls marriage to Marisya was brief, and he was never actually present in Joannas life. Although Joanna grew up in extreme wealth, her childhood was an unhappy one. In her 2013 memoir, Tripping the Bardo with Timothy Leary, Joanna Harcourt-Smith described her mother as a woman who spoke seven languages and in her rage would effortlessly slide from one language to another for words with which to abuse me. Sometimes, even seven languages did not seem to suffice. But perhaps the most disturbing episode of her youth was being molested by the family chauffeur at the age of 11. According to Harcourt-Smith, when she described the experience to her mother, she replied, Lies wont get you what you want, Joanna, and then, good servants are hard to find. These experiences pushed her to search for a father figure who could heal her trauma.

The paths of Harcourt-Smith and Leary crossed when the ex-Harvard psychologist was living in exile in Switzerland in 1972. After his successful escape from the California Mens Colony in San Luis Obispo in September 1972, Leary was living incognito in a modest Swiss chalet. Harcourt-Smith first learned about his whereabouts from her former lover Michel Hauchard, an affluent Swiss arms dealer with CIA connections. The CIA had been closely monitoring Learys movements in Switzerland and was aware that he might flee because his Swiss visa would be expiring in a few months. When Hauchard related the details of Learys prison escape to Harcourt-Smith, she became fascinated with the renegade psychologist; she thought to herself, This is so exciting, I always wanted to be with an outlaw. Her comment reveals her youthful navet and attraction to danger. Little did she know that her association with Leary would turn her life upside down.

Prior to meeting Leary, Harcourt-Smith had a habit of getting pregnant and ending up in marriages that she didnt really want to be in. After two short-lived marriages and giving birth to a daughter and a son, she realized her destiny lied elsewhere. When she learned that Leary was living near Lucerne, she found his phone number in Michel Hauchards leather-bound address book and called him up. When Leary first spoke with her on the phone, he was worried that she might be a CIA plant trying to lure him into a trap. When Harcourt-Smith finally encountered Leary in a Kunsterhalle [art exhibition gallery] in Lucerne, their meeting could be described as love at first sight, or as a case of mutual obsession. When they are alone, Leary remarked, You have come to free me and bring me back to America. Although she did not know exactly what he was talking about, she would soon find out.

Although Leary and Harcourt-Smith took a lot of LSD together, she is not a drug-addled interview subject. Her emotional memories of her love affair with Leary are indelibly etched into her brain. Her description of her first sexual experience with Leary is particularly vivid: when the two lovers are tripping, Harcourt-Smith begins to undress, and before they make love, Leary places bracelets, necklaces, and various pieces of Indian jewelry all over her naked body and declares, You are Lakshmi [the Hindu goddess who nurtures all life]. Then the psychologist shows her a Life Magazine article from 1972 that contains pictures of the human brain. As Leary and Harcourt-Smith marvel at the black-and-white photographs of the brain, Leary points to the photographs and explains, That is where I am going to make love to you. This is the first of many lovemaking sessions that lead Harcourt-Smith to declare that they were truly bonded.

All in all, LSD bonding sessions would continue for some 49 days as Leary and Harcourt-Smith crisscrossed Switzerland and Austria in Learys canary yellow Porsche that was purchased with advanced royalties from his soon-to-be-published book, Confessions of a Hope Fiend. Although their relationship certainly could be described as drug-induced escapism, Leary was always aware that the BNDD was monitoring his movements and that he would probably be caught eventually. What is perhaps most striking about My Psychedelic Love Story is the films uncanny ability to recreate Harcourt-Smiths memories of LSD trips and the highs of self-destructive romance so evocatively.

The second part of My Psychedelic Love Story deals with coming down from the drugs and the sex and experiencing the ultimate bummer: Learys being captured in Kabul by Nixons BNDD. Prior to capturing Leary, Nixon had famously described the ex-Harvard professor as the most dangerous man in America. Harcourt-Smiths narrative suggests that Nixons capture of Leary in Kabul was timed to coincide with the presidents second inauguration celebration in January 1973. The public defeat of Leary, an LSD proselytizer and a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War, had great propagandistic value for Nixons Law and Order platform. As Leary is put on trial and imprisoned in 1973, Joanna begins to act as Learys advocate for his release. This is the point in the film where she shows her grit and determination.

Harcourt-Smith embarks on a Kafkaesque journey into American politics and the nations legal system, in which she learns that the Nixon administration is using the Leary trial to secure additional funding for a new government body: the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). Harcourt-Smith also learns that the ex-Harvard psychologist is regarded as an ideological trafficker and is placed in solitary confinement for four and a half months, given weekly injections of antipsychotic drugs without his consent. According to Robert Greenfields biography of Leary, on one occasion that Harcourt-Smith visits Leary in prison, she notices that Learys mane of hair has been shaved off and that the prison barber has left encrusted blood on his skull. When she realizes that Leary may lose his mind from forced Thorazine injections, she urges the countercultural icon to become a government informant. (Given the amount of torture he endured in 1973 and 1974, its a wonder that Leary held out as long as he did.)

When Leary becomes an informant, My Psychedelic Love Story becomes a meditation on the malleability of the human will under extreme duress and imprisonment. Morris highlights an evocative moment from Harcourt-Smiths childhood when she was pressured to testify against the familys gardener. Although she knew that the gardener had not touched [her] pee pee, the police used pressure to make her tell them what they wanted to hear. At this point, My Psychedelic Love Story suggests that Skinnerian-minded authorities can elicit a confession by exerting psychological pressure on the subject. Learys decision to become a narc is predicated on the fact that he would otherwise spend the rest of his adult life in prison; for the most part, Leary gave the DEA and the FBI information that they already had. Leary, after all, had been living in Europe for nearly three years, so whatever information that he had about the Weather Underground was outdated. [1]

The film ends with Learys release from prison in April 1976 and the demise of Leary and Harcourt-Smiths relationship. Although the couple is reunited and renamed James and Nora Joyce when placed in the Witness Protection Program in New Mexico, their relationship quickly disintegrates into alcoholic fights and nasty recriminations. After one particularly awful fight, as Harcourt-Smith remembers it, Leary drove away from their A-frame house in New Mexico in a used Ford Pinto and never came back. There is no happy ending in My Psychedelic Love Story. Rather, the narrative of the film is Harcourt-Smiths quest to heal her pulverized psyche and find out who she really is. Although Harcourt-Smiths relationship with Leary could be described as an open wound, the film makes it clear that Harcourt-Smith never regretted her affair with Leary; however, she was profoundly saddened when their relationship did not continue once Leary was released from prison.

Morriss film is especially powerful because it exposes the insanity of the war on drugs by documenting its casualties. I wish I could say that the subject matter of My Psychedelic Love Story is ancient history, but Americans are still living under Nixons Controlled Substances Act (1970), a federal law that considers cannabis, LSD, and magic mushrooms to be dangerous drugs with no accepted medical use. Although many states continue to legalize and decriminalize cannabis, the CSA is still often used by law enforcement to harass and subjugate people of color and psychedelic healers, especially in states where cannabis is still illegal. The fact that Leary was given a 25-year sentence for possessing a minuscule amount of cannabis will undoubtedly come as a surprise to many young people. [2] That said, My Psychedelic Love Story is ultimately not about Timothy Leary and his imprisonment. Its a film about a woman who survived and has been trying to piece together her story and figure out what really happened to her.

For many decades, Harcourt-Smith had a bad reputation in psychedelic circles. In the 1970s, many suspected that she was a CIA agent and frequently greeted her with misogynistic abuse. In her post-Leary years, she became sober and eventually wrote her engaging autobiography. She gave up alcohol and other addictive drugs, but she continued to be an advocate for psychedelics and their healing potential. Harcourt-Smiths story is an important one because historians of psychedelic culture have too often focused on the tales of larger-than-life men Aldous Huxley, Alan Watts, Ken Kesey, Hunter S. Thompson, and, of course, Leary. To more fully understand the era, we need to talk more about the psychedelic heroines who lived equally extraordinary lives. For many decades, Harcourt-Smiths story has been relegated to the margins of psychedelic history. Few people in the publishing industry took her story seriously, and all the major publishing houses rejected her memoir. The rejection letters that Harcourt-Smith received tacitly suggested that psychedelic narratives about women were somehow less important and less relevant than narratives about men. Morriss film makes it clear that she is not merely a minor player in psychedelic history. Her self-published memoir and My Psychedelic Love Story speak to many people because they offer powerful narratives of redemption; she survived the wreckage of the 1970s and converted to Buddhism. In the last two decades of her life, she became a prolific podcaster, an activist for psychedelic healing, and a passionate critic of our nations inhumane drug policies. [3]

The last frame of the film reveals that Harcourt-Smith passed away on October 12, 2020, while surrounded by her husband, children, and grandchildren. Harcourt-Smith, who was 74 at the time of her death, learned that she had developed Stage IV breast cancer when My Psychedelic Love Story was being put together and edited. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020, it looked like the film would probably not be completed in time for Harcourt-Smith to see it. I recently contacted Harcourt-Smiths husband, Jos Luis Soler, and her daughter, Lara Tambacopoulou, to see if Joanna had a chance to see the film before she died; both told me that Joanna was able to see the completed film just three weeks before she died. They reported that she adored the film and watched it many times. She was at peace because she died knowing that her story was finally being told.

James Penner is the editor ofTimothy Leary: The Harvard Years(2014) and the author ofPinks, Pansies, and Punks: The Rhetoric of Masculinity in American Literary Culture(2011).

[1] The leaders of the WU who facilitated Learys escape from the California Mens Colony were never actually caught by the FBI.

[2] In 1970, Leary was given a 10-year sentence for possessing a few grams of marijuana. In 1973, he was given a 25-year sentence for marijuana possession and for escaping from the California Mens Colony in San Luis Obispo. Since Leary was 52 when he was convicted, he would be 77 when released, according to John Bryans Whatever Happened to Timothy Leary? (1980).

[3] At the time of her death, Harcourt-Smith and her partner Jos Luis Gmez Soler had interviewed over 400 subjects for their podcast, Future Primitive (see https://futureprimitive.org/).

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The Anatomy of the LSD Romance in the 1970s: On Errol Morris's My Psychedelic Love Story - Los Angeles Review of Books - lareviewofbooks

Since we could all use a little help relaxing right now, we rounded up five of our favorite meditation apps that are on sale right now for up to 80% off!

Welzen Meditation App: Lifetime Subscription, on sale for $29.99 (80% off)

Rated 4.4/5 stars on the Google Play Store, Welzen is a mindfulness meditation app that can be used anywhere, anytime. Depending on your schedule, you can choose between 5, 10, 15, or 20-minute sessions, making it a great fit for anyone who prioritizes flexibility.

Relax Melodies Meditation App: Lifetime Subscription, on sale for $79.99 (68% off)

Recommended by leading doctors, this app uses a combination of soothing sounds, bedtime stories, breathing techniques, and guided meditations to help you relax and get to sleep. Reviewers love that the app allows you to fully customize your experience in order to better meet your needs and goals. Plus, with a 4.6/5-star rating on the Google Play Store, as well as a 4.5/5-star rating on the Apple App Store, you can feel confident that this app does exactly what it claims.

Unplug Meditation App: 1-Yr Subscription, on sale for $39 (43% off)

Rated 4.9/5-stars on the Apple App Store, a year-long subscription to the Unplug provides you with more than 700 expert-led meditation sessions, including guided imagery, sound baths, hypnosis, and breathwork. Not only will you be able to connect with thousands of individuals just like you in their online community, but you will also have access to the apps gratitude journal, progress tracker, and timer.

Rootd Anxiety & Meditation App: 1-Yr Subscription, on sale for $25.99 (56% off)

As featured on Cosmopolitan, Healthline, Bustle, and CNET, this therapist-approved app aims to help individuals manage anxiety and panic attacks. You will have unlimited access to deep breathing tools, meditation sessions, soothing nature sounds, and unique lessons on how to better understand the way you are feeling. Rootd is rated 4.6/5-stars on the Apple Play Store, as well as 4.7/5-stars on the Google Play Store.

Omvana Meditation App: 1-Yr Subscription, on sale for $39.99 (33% off)

With a 1-year subscription to the Omvana Meditation App, you will score unlimited access to a massive library of guided meditation, classes, and lessons taught by the worlds best personal growth teachers. You can even create your own unique meditation experience by mixing your favorite tracks. Healthline listed it in their roundup of Best Meditation Apps of 2019 and it is rated 4.7/5-stars on the Apple App Store and 4.8/5-stars on the Google Play Store.

Prices subject to change.

Original post:

Make it through 2021 with one of these top-rated meditation apps - New York Post

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Mindfulness apps are booming as stressed-out people tune in for help coping with a turbulent world. Heres the TLDR to our guide on the business of mindfulness..

1 Meet the companies selling peace of mind.

2 Theyre competing for new and existing subscribers with a bevy of content.

3 More workplaces are offering mindfulness as an employee benefit,

4 while automakers want your car to be your happy place.

5 There is money in mindfulness, but it could also make people, and the world, better.

Though more than 2,500 meditation apps have launched since 2015, theyre all a little different, particularly in how they appeal to consumers. Some, like Calm, have star-studded content; others, like Headspace, say theyre all about health. Some are increasingly creeping beyond the specifics of meditation and becoming health or wellness brands. Headspace CEO CeCe Morken says the companys main purpose is to help people to achieve better health; mindfulness is the how.

Either way, theres a lot of money to be made in the mindfulness business these days. In the first 11 months of 2020, Calm brought in $99.4 million in revenue with a little over 28 million installs, according to estimates from Sensor Tower. Headspace, the second-biggest meditation app by revenue, generated an estimated $64.5 million on nearly 11 million installs.

Morning and evening meditations; workouts and stretches; stories and music to help people fall asleep or to perform at work; soundscapes and celebrity-narrated bedtime stories; recent expansions into TV shows and booksif apps like Headspace and Calm want to justify their customers subscriptions while tapping into new markets and demographics, they have to keep coming up with new content, too.

Theres something ironic about racing to remain competitive with a product that is meant to be about slowing down. But theres no question thats happeningthe two apps have been in what Calm co-founder Michael Acton Smith calls mindful competition with one another for nearly a decade.

In 2018, 52% of employers in the US offered some form of mindfulness training to workers. And though these apps really do help people feel better, theres a risk that companies will rely on them as a way to anesthetize people to the stresses of work. Mindfulness training is no substitute for flexible hours or a realistic workload. That said, if companies offer mindfulness training as well as other robust forms of support for workersas some such as Starbucks have started doingthere can be real benefits, perhaps helping employees become more comfortable in talking about their mental health and even improving their performance.

Imagine your car as a sanctuary. Can you shed the noise and stresses associated with driving?What may sound like a far-fetched fantasy instead encapsulates the pursuit of many car companies today. Beyond comfort and safety, manufacturers are racing to find ways to improve the overall physical and mental health of drivers and passengers.

Lincoln is one company integrating mindfulness into its design. Kamal Curic, Lincolns design director, says newer models have features that are expressions of quiet flight, a principle the company adopted in 2014 as a counterpoint to the aggressive, performance-driven themes that have defined the automotive industry for decades. Were challenging the entire company to think in terms of four guiding pillarsbeauty, gliding, human, and crafted sanctuary, he explains. The aspiration, Curic says, is to create an ultra relaxing, spa-like environment.

Research has shown that meditation helps alleviate mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. And with its Buddhist roots, it also promises spiritual fulfillment to a growing population of secular Americans.

Could individual engagement with mindfulness meditation add up to a broader social impact? While some people will use it to further indulge their self-centered tendencies, others may leverage their thinking about the interconnectedness of all things into demanding social change.

Read the full field guide.

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Covid-19 accelerated the worlds embrace of meditation apps - Quartz

A national survey of more than 26,000 U.S. adults conducted by the Centers for Disease Control found that the use of meditation increased more than threefold between 2012 and 2017, from 4.2 percent to 14.2 percent, making it the second most used complementary health technique after yoga.

Now, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress symptoms in the general population are on the rise globally. So its no surprise that meditation apps like Calm and Headspace which offer a brief respite from chaotic news feeds have seen subscriptions soar since the beginning of the pandemic.

While you can practice unguided, silent meditation on your own without any technology, many people find it helpful to have a facilitator to guide them, especially as a beginner.

Meditation is a mind and body practice that has a long history of use for increasing calmness and physical relaxation, improving psychological balance, coping with illness, and enhancing overall health and well-being, according to the National Institutes of Health.

During a guided meditation, a narrator walks you through a series of steps. These might include getting into a comfortable posture, breathing exercises, mental imagery, and focusing your attention on the sensations in your body.

These techniques help cultivate mindfulness, or the ability to focus on the present moment and allow your thoughts to come and go without judgment.

While meditation shouldnt be used to replace medical care, studies have shown that mindfulness-based interventions have a host of physical and psychological benefits.

It can reduce symptoms of chronic pain, improve sleep, prevent mind wandering, and alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety.

With hundreds of options to choose from, here are 10 of the best apps and websites to learn meditation on any budget.

Insight Timer offers more than 70,000 free guided meditations, daily live events, and soothing sessions hosted by celebs like Gisele Bndchen and Russell Brand.

The apps Circles feature is a great way to connect with others you can chat and meditate live with groups of friends, colleagues, or strangers. You can also find curated playlists with themes like releasing guilt, practicing compassion, and anxiety relief.

Researchers at the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center developed the free UCLA Mindful app and website on the principle of radical accessibility of mindfulness practices.

You can stream or download basic meditations in English and Spanish, and access special wellness meditations that were developed for people with challenging health conditions. They also host a weekly podcast, free online live events, and paid courses for those who want to do a deeper dive into mindfulness.

This website features a broad selection of mindfulness exercises, including more than 2,000 free meditations, worksheets, videos, and e-books. Resources range from short meditations to more in-depth online courses like the 28-day mindfulness challenge or 10-day Vipassana course.

Smiling Mind develops evidence-based meditation and mindfulness exercises for both kids and adults, with the goal of alleviating stress and improving focus at work and in the classroom.

The University of California, San Diego, hosts free live events and guided mediation sessions ranging from 20 minutes to an hour. If you cant join a live session via Zoom, check out their vast collection of recordings on Soundcloud. Topics range from Taking a Breath to Reduce Anxiety to Giving and Receiving Compassion.

Headspace is well known for its expansive library of guided meditations and natural soundscapes, but its Move Mode makes it a standout among the rest.

Get your blood flowing with workouts and mental fitness exercises inspired by professional athletes. Sessions are led by expert trainers, including Olympians Kim Glass and Leon Taylor.

Developed by world-renowned mindfulness experts, the Chopra website and app offer self-paced programs designed to fit any schedule. Members have access to self-care tools and nearly 500 meditations ranging from 5 to 30 minutes.

You can also take your meditation to the next level and sign up for masterclasses that cater to your personal health goals, like a mantra-based meditation course taught by the legendary Deepak Chopra.

A third of U.S. adults report not getting enough sleep, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Calm is a favorite among the sleep-deprived crowd.

Drift off with a selection of sleep stories narrated by a star-studded cast, including Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, and Priyanka Chopra. In addition to sleep, the app offers a wide range of specialized meditations designed to soothe anxiety, alleviate stress, and stretch your body.

If youre looking for a subscription with variety, Yogi Approved can help you find your om at home with hundreds of HD yoga, fitness, and meditation videos ranging from beginner to advanced levels.

New programs are added weekly, and you can access classes on the website, through the app, or download and watch them offline.

The principles of Vedic meditation are based on sacred religious texts that date back thousands of years, and the creators of Sattva drew from these ancient roots to create their library.

Members have access to a comprehensive collection of guided meditations, ancient chants, mudras, and mantras delivered by Sanskrit scholars.

Original post:

10 Best Places for Guided Meditation Online in 2021 - Healthline

If youre looking for a way to feel more centered these days, one of the best things you can do is to take up a mindfulness practiceand theres a plethora of apps eager to help in exchange for your downloads and dollars.

More than 2,500 meditation apps have launched since 2015, so its easy to feel overwhelmed by the choices. But its important to figure out which app will suit your needs and tastes, since were much more likely to keep up habits that we enjoy. And when it comes to meditating, consistency is key. Research shows that the more consistently a person meditates, the greater impact this training can have on physically changing your brain for the better, says Annika Rose, a researcher on mindfulness and well-being and author of a book on mindfulness.

Rose says that the right meditation app can make a big difference in our lives. As co-author of a 2014 paper published in the Journal of Happiness Studies, she helped lead a study that ran a randomized controlled trial on 121 people, in which one group was assigned to use the meditation app Headspace for 10 days, while the control group used a list-making app. The results: Those learning mindfulness meditation techniques were significantly happier and had higher well-being levels compared to the control intervention group, Rose says.

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What meditation app is best for you? - Quartz

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Students of history know that there's no such thing as a "quiet period." Keeping calm, focus, and patience can be a challenge even outside the sweep of interesting times. Meditation has been found to have a range of mental health benefits, including:

It's often a useful method, whether you're working on a broader strategy or just need tools to take a break throughout the day. Yet finding time to meditate and effective guidance to do so can be a challenge. These five apps can help you make a change by putting mindfulness tools in your pocket and fitting your practice into your schedule.

With guided meditations ranging from micro-breaks for the workday to full series focused on specific goals, Welzen is excellent for building a practice. It's also available offline and has a section for kids to launch their own practice.

Focused on better sleep, Relax Melodies offers music, soundscapes, sound baths, guided meditations, breathing exercises, and more to both help you sleep and achieve deeper and more restful slumber. You can mix and match as well to create your own custom soundscape.

Unplug is a virtual studio, built to allow you to drop in at any time and use one of the growing libraries of guided meditations. There are more than 700 videos instructed by a staff of experts with a range of approaches, so you can choose what suits you best.

Rootd aims to be "anxiety and panic attack relief in your pocket." Female-founded, the app uses advice and exercises from experts to give you a suite of tools to manage and reduce anxiety and panic. It's especially useful in situations where you can't reach a counselor or use other tools to manage anxiety.

Focused on improving performance, Omvana offers both a broad library of meditation tracks and a unique tool that lets you combine any two tracks to achieve specific goals or simply customize to your liking.

Prices subject to change.

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Focus on mental wellness in 2021 with these five meditation apps | TheHill - The Hill

The plane had hit turbulencethe rollicking kind that makes some people cry out, while others grip their armrests tightly, and mutter a prayer to the power of their choice.

But the woman seated in front of Gregory Grieve on that rocky flight from New York to North Carolina appeared perfectly calm. She had her headphones on, and she was sitting there blissful, as happy as can be, Grieve recalls. The secret to her serenity? She was listening to Buddhify, a mindfulness meditation app.

This was a telling moment, says Grieve, a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. To him, it encapsulated both the potential and the limitations of our current generation of mindfulness apps, from Buddhify to industry leaders like Headspace and Calm. It kept her from getting stressed out, he says. But it didnt necessarily change the situation or help other people.

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How Headspace and Calm led the boom in meditation apps - Quartz

Join us for a night of contemplation and melody as we dive into the taste of the seasons and our inner and outer worlds in celebration of the birthday of the trees, Tu BShevat. We will gather together, each from our own home, to partake in the symbolic fruits of the beautiful Tu BShevat seder as we honor the spiritual and ecological teachings of this tradition.

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Instructors: Jackson Mercer, musician, composer, Hebrew College rabbinical student and host of Hebrew Colleges Niggun Seminar, andShani Rosenbaum, Hebrew College rabbinical student and host of Hebrew Colleges Niggun Seminar.

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Wednesday, January 27, 2021, 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

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Musical Meditation and Celebration of Tu B'Shevat - jewishboston.com

January 14, 2021

Produced by Brielle Scullark

Senior Director of the NFLPA, Dana Hammonds Shuler, participates in a brief meditation session during Dr. Jason Richardson's presentation at the 2019 NFLPA Joint Conference at the US Grant Hotel on Tuesday, April 2, 2019 in San Diego.

(Christy Radecic/AP Images for NFLPA)

There are elements of mindfulness and meditation that might seem like a fad, but thishas been around for millenia. Headspace was created in 2010 by Andi Putticome and Richard Pierson. It began with a mobile app and online services that teach mindfulness through guided meditation, breathing techniques, animation and storytelling. The idea is to make it easier to incorporate a mindfulness practice into everyday life.

Guests:

Morgan Selzer, Headspace Head of Content forExecutive Producer of Headspace Guide to Meditation

Christopher Menard, Mindfulness Training Director at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Psychology Clinical Assistant Professor at UIUC

Prepared for web by Zainab Qureshi

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Meditation for the Masses | The 21st Show - WILL News - Illinois Public Media