{"id":624,"date":"2016-06-06T19:23:23","date_gmt":"2016-06-06T18:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/?p=624"},"modified":"2016-06-06T23:01:57","modified_gmt":"2016-06-06T22:01:57","slug":"review-headspace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/review-headspace\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Headspace"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mindfulness is all the rage right now. Well, I suppose ‘rage’ isn’t the right word. Mindfulness is all the calm right now. (Eugh, I’d delete that sentence if it wasn’t the best opening I could come up with).<\/p>\n

From colouring books to origami<\/a>, it seems like everybody wants in on it.<\/p>\n

And I’m a pretty big advocate myself. I first heard about it in a counselling session for anxiety\/depression, where I was told it’s being increasingly prescribed as a treatment option by the NHS. At first I was sceptical. If all my years of philosophy had taught me anything, it was that you can’t think your way out of problems. But I gave it a go, and it worked. But how?<\/p>\n

There’s a great section in Infinite Jest where one of the characters is going through Alcoholics Anonymous, and reflecting on the mantras they use to help people through recovery. Chief of these is the simple refrain: “keep coming back.” Even if it doesn’t seem to be working, the very act of returning again and again seems to have some therapeutic value. And so it seems to be with mindfulness.\u00a0It’s a bit like a magic trick. I’m not sure how it works, I’m just sure it does work. But you have to stick it out.<\/p>\n

But what\u00a0is<\/em> mindfulness, anyway? The best definition I can jumble together is that it’s the practice of having a ‘conscious experience’ of your life. Like imagine you’re sitting on a bus or something. Maybe you’re thinking about where you’re going, who you’re seeing. Boom, that’s an open door for anxiety (are the people on the bus looking at me? \/ am i going to be late? \/ what if the bus breaks down? \/ what if i miss my stop?).<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>Imagine instead that you simply do a mental inventory of what you’re actually experiencing:\u00a0I’m sitting on a bus, this seat is uncomfortable, that man over there smells bad, there’s a nice view out the window<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Sounds lame, right? But it’s actually a very grounding experience. Extended further, you can start looking even further inward to catalogue your own thoughts.\u00a0There’s a worry, there’s some anxiety, there’s a pain in my foot<\/em>. It’s not really about judging these thoughts, or trying to overcome them. It’s just observing. And somehow (it’s really a mystery, to me) they start melting away.<\/p>\n

But you do need to practice. And that’s where apps come in.<\/p>\n

Yes, mindfulness has apps. Lots of them. Chief among them: Headspace.<\/p>\n

\"20150713-Headspace-logo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What does the app do? Well, it gives you little mindfulness sessions. These consist of your mindfulness guide (a chap called Andy, who we’ll get to in a bit) taking you on a little tour of your body and mind. These all follow more or less the same structure:<\/p>\n