Thecanvas brings out his innermost thoughts in myriad colours. But before the physical act of creating, the artwork takes shape in his mind during his early morning meditations. Thats not entirely unexpected though as the artist is a spiritualist who ventured into knowing the unknown while still in his teens. At 56, both his art and spiritualism have matured.

Meet Neeraj Goswami, artist and resident of IP Extension in East Delhi. His solo show, Meditative Moorings, by Sanchit Art is currently on at DLF South Court Mall, Saket (till December 31). For me, painting and meditation are the same thing. I depict the bliss I achieve while meditating on canvas so that viewers can experience these positive vibrations as well. Goswami lost his father when he was in class 10, after which the family faced a lot of hardship and strife.

Since he was good at art, he started contributing to the family income by taking up commercial art works, like designing book covers, charts, etc. The loss of my dad was a jolt to my inner core. I used to be very disturbed, had anxiety issues, was always stressed and tensed. Then, on the advice of a relative, I joined Shri Poornanand Ajapa Yog Sansthan, and began attending their meditation classes.

It completely changed my life. After finshing school from Summer Fields School (Kailash Colony), Goswami joined the College of Art (Delhi University) and studied till PG level, before joining as guest faculty. He taught for 10 years and then quit to pursue art full-time. Goswamis palette consists of rich blues and gold. He works with oil, tempera, pastels, charcoal but it is oil that he loves dabbling with the most. Since oil dries very slowly, it gives you the option of making changes.

Oil paints have a particular kind of luminosity which lends a beautiful look to the work. He also makes sculptures and murals, but I love painting the most as it transports me to another level. The artist held his first solo in early 1980 while still in school, and has since held a number of shows across India and in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Dubai, Singapore, UK, among others.

He also holds workshops and camps on meditation. I want to share this knowledge so that others can experience the same bliss as I did, he says, adding that meditation is a scientific way of living, not some bunkum. During the lockdown, we did a number of online mediation works in which people from various countries participated. Meditation helps you connect to the inner atman, and all creativity and knowledge comes from there. I feel meditation is very important, especially in times of strife, he adds.

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An artist and a spiritualist - The New Indian Express

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Created by top meditation teachers and neuroscientists, this app helps you stay mindful with open eyes, so you can recharge wherever and whenever you want. It suggests four different mindfulness modes based on your local time of day, and allows you to track your progress with research-backed exercises.

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This week, "Art and Soul" is about the art of well being. Lisa Barry talks withDr. Frank Anderson, a Michigan Medicine physician and professor bringing mindfulness techniques to the Ann Arbor area and medical community.

Listen to the full interview.

There are so many things that happen out in the world that may not make sense to people. Mindfulness and meditation provides another way to make sense of many of the things going on.

Dr. Anderson is an OBGYN physician and also teaches at theU-M Medical SchoolandSchool of Public Health. He is one of the founders of"Open Mindfulness Meditation"that provides weekly (online right now due to the pandemic) group meditations.

He offers suggestionsfor using mindfulness techniques as a way to deal with all the chaos and confusion in the world, including the current pandemic. He says mindfulness techniques allow us to find a place of peace and joy within ourselves. He suggests just becomingaware of your breath--mindfulness of the breath that can help settle and soothe you, and that is your ability to be mindful and can bring relief from what might currently be happening.

Dr. Anderson has been part of"Mindfulness Mondays"at the faculty development center at the University of Michigan Medical School, teaching mindfulness techniques and leading meditations for fellow faculty members. He also was part of a one-day seminar called"Becoming a Mindful Provider/Physician"to equip physicians with more tools to stay centered and emotionally balanced.

Non-commercial, fact based reporting is made possible by your financial support.Make your donation to WEMU todayto keep your community NPR station thriving.

Like 89.1 WEMU onFacebookand follow us onTwitter

Lisa Barry is the host of All Things Considered on WEMU. You can contact Lisa at 734.487.3363, on Twitter@LisaWEMU, or email her atlbarryma@emich.edu

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Art & Soul: The Art Of Well Being - Why Mindfulness Matters - WEMU

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Sitting behind bars facing assault charges, which he denies, and convicted of cocaine possession, Deborah Huttons boyfriend, Bondi meditation guru Andrew Marsh, 50, certainly has plenty of time to reflect on his lot.

Two years ago Marsh had finally conquered his drinking and was a contented and happily married family man with a successful business and wide circle of interesting and influential friends.

Deborah Hutton and Bondi meditation guru Andrew Marsh in May.Credit:Backgrid

But the alarming events of the past few days, which resulted in police taking out an interim AVO for the protection of his estranged wife Holly, have shocked even his most loyal devotees.

Not in the least his beautiful, famous and wealthy girlfriend Hutton, 58, who maintained this week that despite media reports and multiple accounts from friends to the contrary, Marsh had not been living with her.

Apparently he just visited a lot.

Andrew Marsh and Deborah Hutton in India last year after swimming in the Ganges.

But Hutton and Marsh have been coy about their relationship from the start, which in itself is a point of some conjecture given their refusal to say when it actually began.

Schooled in the black arts of image management decades ago by her former boyfriend, the late celebrity agent Harry M. Miller, Hutton has always been wary of media scrutiny of her private life. This week she bunkered down, declining to answer specific questions about her time with Marsh, and confiding in friends she hoped this latest media storm would soon blow over.

On Wednesday she issued a statement to PS: I consider him [Marsh] a very dear friend and in what has been an incredibly challenging year for Andrew, I offered him my full support during the breakdown of his marriage as he had nowhere to go. This is totally out of character for him and Im shocked at what has unfolded over the last few days and hope that Andrew is able to receive the help he clearly needs.

Hutton and Marsh grew noticeably close during a group meditation pilgrimage to India last year, which had been organised by Marshs wife Holly, who remained in Sydney.

Other members of the group told PS this week that Marsh and Huttons connection was so strong Hutton had declared in front of them she and her mediation guru had been lovers in a past life.

Deborah Hutton during a religious ritual in India last year.

But not everyone was impressed, especially those close with Marshs wife back in Sydney. While Hutton herself denied allegations from group members of emotional outbursts in temples, tensions within the group over Hutton and Marsh soon boiled over, with Hutton wanting to quit the pilgrimage early.

I have and always will respect sacred sites and holy places of worship and deny the allegations being made against me, Hutton said in a statement after being asked about a trip to Varanasi and an argument that erupted between Hutton and former Real Housewives of Sydney star Victoria Rees, an old friend of Huttons and another long-term follower of Marshs meditation classes.

While Rees did not dispute the account of what had happened, including Hutton throwing a shoe at her and shouting Walk a mile in my shoes, Rees told PS this week: I really cant talk about it.

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Shortly after returning from India last October, Marsh moved out of the family home. Before long he became a regular feature on Huttons social media feeds at various gatherings hosted in her Bronte home.

They were also photographed holding hands, sipping wine on Huttons balcony and kissing, though following this weeks scandalous headlines, Hutton was only referring to him as a dear friend.

For a while, Hutton and Marsh appeared to be on solid ground. Hutton even organised and paid for a refurbishment of Marshs meditation rooms. Marsh told friends he was hopeful Hutton could help raise his profile given her media savvy.

But friends of Marsh say he recently moved out of Huttons home and had been sleeping in his car for the past few weeks leading up to Mondays events.

Waverley Local Court heard on Tuesday there was a very strong prosecution case against Marsh, who allegedly entered a home in Sydney on Monday morning scaring the two occupants and putting one victim in a choke-hold; she states to police this makes her think she is going to die.

Marshs court papers listed Huttons Bronte home as his address. However, the prosecution told Magistrate Jacqueline Trad he was homeless and sleeping in his car.

Marsh pleaded not guilty to two counts of common assault and one count of intentionally choking a person.

The matter is due back in court in January.

Things have gone from bad to worse for former high-flying barrister Charles Waterstreet, who says he intends to appeal an NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal ruling that found he must pay his former landlord Con Kalpakidis $4512 after moving out of his executive apartment on William Street. It had been Waterstreets home for a decade.

Charles Waterstreet in Darlinghurst last month.Credit:Janie Barrett

Banned from practising last year, Waterstreet, who is recovering from a double hip replacement in November and says he is dependent on Meals On Wheels and home-carers to bathe him and clean his Darlinghurst bed-sit, told PS he had no idea the tribunal hearing was happening on December 9.

They sent the notices to an email address I have never used, he said.

However in her findings Tribunal Member Deborah Ziegler said a notice of the hearing had been duly served on Waterstreets last known address for service. The tribunal also made several attempts to contact Waterstreet by telephone at the commencement of the hearing but received no response and the matter was dealt with in his absence.

Back in 2012 Texan billionaire Jim Clark, husband of Aussie glamazon Kristy Hinze, said after 28 years of owning boats, Im over it, then proceeded to put his two prized tinnies the sailing yachts Hanuman and Athena on the market for a combined $113 million.

Billionaire Jim Clark and wife Kristy have a new boat, Atlantide.

Turns out he wasnt that over it, as it has now emerged he and Kristy have purchased a new boat, a slightly downsized 90-year old vessel called Atlantide, which had been recruited to Operation Dynamo in World War II to help evacuate English and Allied troops from Dunkirk. Given Athena alone was worth $100 million, the new tub is a comparative bargain at just over $7.2 million.

James Packer went to great lengths a few years ago to assure me that his then fiancee Mariah Carey was an incredibly smart woman.

While their relationship did not last the distance, Careys business smarts certainly have, and this year she can thank the City of Sydneys ratepayers for helping out her bottom line just that little bit more.

The Christmas tree in Martin Place.Credit:Getty Images

Careys All I Want For Christmas is the finale track played on high rotation each night for this years fabulous towering disco Christmas tree at Martin Place. And each time it plays - every 15 minutes from sunset to midnight - Carey pockets a royalty fee.

Last December The Economist estimated Carey had earned more than $US60 million from that one song since its release in 1994, thanks to it being constantly played on radio, marketing campaigns, movie soundtracks, music streaming services and in TV specials.

Speaking of which, Careys Magical Christmas Special now playing on the Apple TV service is quite a spectacle. Forgiving her miming skills (those quivering glossy lips were not terribly convincing), its the collection of gowns she (almost) wears that is definitely worth watching for.

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From her little drummer girl get-up to the human snowflake number, complete with fishtail bottom, and giant hair flicks sprayed into position seemingly mid-blizzard, La Carey also does a brilliant impersonation of a singing glazed ham, given her penchant for dangerously plunging neck-lines.

For a slightly more traditional way to mark this holy holiday, top marks this year should go to the light show at St Marys Cathedral, which in PSs opinion are the best yet and enhance the dignity of the architectural splendour that towers over Hyde Park, rather than those cheesy kids cartoons of previous years, which have gone by the wayside along with the hot dog stands. Go see it before it finishes on Christmas night.

Andrew Hornery is a senior journalist and Private Sydney columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald.

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Boyfriend or dear friend? The inside story on Deborah Huttons relationship with Andrew Marsh - Sydney Morning Herald

Calm app that was named as iPhone app of the year in 2019 by Apple inc. is an online meditation application that was co-founded by Michael Acton Smith and Alex Tew in the year 2012. In 2019 Calm joined the billion-dollar club by being valued at $1 Billion by raising $116 million. The app features meditation tools as well as sleep aids. The top investors in the company are Creative Artists Agency, Sound Ventures owned by Ashton Kutcher, and Venture Partners.

The app is free for the first 7 days and then asks for a medium ranged subscription price. It has a Calm Blog that offers tips related to meditation and wellbeing. The most popular feature of the app is the Daily Calm where thousands of people from all around the world come together and start their days with a 10-minutes session with different themes and topics every day. It has a collection of more than 100 Sleep Stories that helps people sleep at night peacefully. The genres for the sleep stories vary from childrens tales, scientific articles, literature, essays, and more. The app also has a collection of Sleep Music which is soothing.

About the founders

Michael Acton Smith

Currently residing in San Francisco, California, The US he graduated from the University of Birmingham in the year 1996. Before co-founding Calm, he was the CEO of Firebox.com for 6 years which he also founded, and he was the founder, Creative Director, and Chairman of Mind Candy for 16 years.

Alex Tew

Alex currently resides in San Francisco, California, The US. Before co-founding Calm, he founded Million Dollar Homepage, was the founder and CEO of Pixelotto for 1 year, Co-founder and CEO of PopJam for 3 years, and Project Manager at Monkey Inferno for 11 months.

How Calm came into being

The app at this stage has an excruciatingly high amount of positive reviews on both the App Store and Play Store. Michael who founded Mind Candy was focused on online gaming. After its release in the year 2003, the venture raised $10 million in funding. After Moshi Monsters, a game made for kids, upsurged and then down surged as mobile phones and tablets became common, Michael thought it was the end of the world for him. He suffered from constant headaches, insomnia, and exhaustion. He was dealing with self-worth issues and took the failure of Moshi Monsters entirely upon himself.

Acton and Alex met each other on a boat for the first time. Alex Tew needed to raise money for college and to do so he created a website called million dollar homepage and sold each pixel on the website for $1 for advertisement. Genius. Aston knew about Alex from all the news articles floating around about him and they eventually ended up friends and then housemates.

Alex Tew introduced Aston to the world of meditation and they shared a taste for business ideas, neuroscience, and philosophy. They purchased calm.com in the year 2012 so that they can create products that help people relax. They put in ideas like relaxing sound effects and soothing videos on the table but they knew something was missing. As Moshi Monsters revenue fell, Acton took a solo trip to the Australian Alps to collect his thoughts. Acton practiced meditation and that is when it clicked. Acton came to an agreement with the fact that meditation need not be an elaborate event as it was merely about neuroscience. He realized how much it can benefit people and be relevant to everybody.

Acton and Tew found a group of developers and started to work on the Calm app. The early years and journey were long, they didnt do very well in the early years and a lot of investors abstained from investing in the company. This shook their firm ground and forced them to question if they were on the right track until Venture capitalists decided to back their decisions. After spending from their own pockets and finally making the business profitable, the app broke out in 2016 as people started taking mental health more seriously.

The company that worked in a one-bedroom apartment has now expanded and has grown to 40 employees and they start their day by meditating for 10 minutes. Acton beautifully said that this is the closest he has come to find an instruction manual of the human brain.

Calm Team

Calms business model

Calm was initially labeled as a tool for Developers in the Silicon Valley who were hyperactive. It had relaxation classes from Maggie Richards, who is a meditation teacher from the UK, in its initial days. It eventually expanded and started including classes that were specifically designed for work performance, stress, and poor sleeping. Calm offers introductory lessons for free and then has a concept of a monthly subscription for accessing the entire archive. Calm struggled and had to cut off staff in the early years. 2018 was the year when the meditation app started making serious money. The app even received a certain amount of backlash for monetizing meditation.

Calm introduced Sleep Stories and drew in celebrities like Harry Styles, Matthew McConaughey, Lebron James, and Stephen Fry to narrate fictional or original stories. Calm also announced a workplace service similar to its competing app Headspace. Calm has also started publishing stories in languages like German, French, and Spanish. In the year 2013, Calm garnered revenue of $0.1 million.

Calms Valuation

Calm in the year 2018 had a valuation of $250 million and in 2019 it shot up to $1 billion making it enter the unicorn club. Calm has 0.03 million paid subscribers in 2013 and it subsequently increased to 0.75 in2017, 1 million in 2018, and 2 million in 2019. The Calm app had a total of 0.2 million downloads in 2014 on the application stores like App Store and Play store, which increased to 35 million in 2018, 40 million in 2019, and 60 million in 2020.

Calms future goals

Headspace that rolled out in 2018 became the leader of the mediation applications but Calm managed to fight its way to the top. There is a lot of competition in the meditation and wellness business. So calms next strategy is simple: multiplying down on building a select library of content voiced by famous people and striking new sorts of organizations to carry this substance to millions of additional users in the disconnected and offline world. To set themselves apart they are focusing on increasing the celebrity content. Calm marked a selective three-year deal with b-ball genius LeBron James, who will be highlighted in a forthcoming arrangement of 10-minute inspirational wisdom sessions on subjects including overseeing feelings and looking after equilibrium, as per the organization in the month of December.

Calm struck an association and procured a minority stake in XpresSpa which is a spa lounge that expands its business to 52 locations across 25 air terminals, giving Calm endorsers a free 10-minute back rub and a spot to purchase Calm-marked products. Calms content can already be streamed on America Airlines flights and from January 2020, it will also be available inside Novotel hotel across 60 countries.

Calms Competitors in the Market

Headspace is hands down one of the best meditation applications out there in the market. It has more than 60 million members after its release in the year 2010 and is used across 190 countries. It offers a 10-part basics course which is free and helps the individual to get into the practice of meditating regularly. The application offers different techniques like body scanning noting, etc. that an individual can practice even outside meditation. The co-founder Andy Puddicome who narrates these meditations is probably one of the reasons why it garners so many users. He has a very soothing, warm, and assuring voice. There are also mini and focused meditations that are suitable for situations like when you are anxious, flustered, stressed, etc.

This app helps users chill and relax using natures relaxing sounds. It has different sounds that help people differently along with guided meditations. Portals audio can also be mixed with other apps so that you continue relaxing while listening to a podcast or reading your favorite book.

The app offers meditation as short as five minutes and is focused on reducing stress and calming the mind. The app offers personalization as it asks the users to choose topics that are interesting to them. The application is absolutely easy to use, modern and clean, and has a lot of free content.

The most unique feature of this application is that asks how you are feeling before you start meditating both physically and mentally. This information is then used to recommend yoga or meditation to the user.

The guided reflections are definitely no-nonsense, which we discovered unbelievably invigorating. Just as being asked how frequently youve contemplated previously, why you need to reflect and how youve been feeling recently, you can likewise set suggestions to guarantee you never miss a meeting. Pay the membership and youll get more than 500 guided contemplations just as various bundles, from the nuts and bolts to programs focused on execution, and connections.

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Calm: Taking Mindfulness to the next level - Techstory

What if I told you that if you commit to meditate 5-10 minutes a day on most days youll feel calmer, more focused and happier? Can I guarantee it? No. Almost, though. For the vast majority of people who try it, the practice of meditation works. Meditation requires no equipment and its free to all.

But what is it? Think of it like fitness training, but for the mind. Just as there are many different sports we can use to train our bodies, there are also multiple styles of meditation. Try one for a couple of weeks and youll likely experience what Dr. Herbert Benson, a Harvard researcher in the 1970s, identified as the relaxation response, which he said is an opposite, involuntary response that causes a reduction in the activity of the sympathetic nervous system.

When the relaxation response is triggered, people notice short-term benefits, including improved circulation, less anxiety and stress, lower blood pressure and blood cortisol levels, increased feelings of well-being and we might even perspire less. People also report feeling peace and order, serenity, gratitude and even bliss!

You can learn to meditate on your own, download a meditation app such as Calm or Headspace, or find guided meditations online at sites such as YouTube.

The easiest thing to do is to find a comfortable spot and give it a try.

According to Psychology Today: archaeologists discovered evidence of meditation in wall art in the Indus Valley, now Pakistan and India, dating from approximately 5,000 to 3,500 BCE. The images depict people sitting in what many of us would recognize as meditation postures. In other words, the figures sat on the ground with crossed legs, hands resting on their knees, and their eyes slightly narrowed but not completely closed. There are also descriptions of meditation techniques found in Indian scriptures dating back around 3,000 years ago.

There are many types of meditation. Here are a few to try:

Moving Meditation uses rhythmic physical movements to focus and calm the mind. This could be walking, yoga, running or even folding laundry or vacuuming. Also called Daily Life Practice Meditation, this is a great way to start a meditation practice.

Concentration meditation. You know on TV or in the movies when you see a character meditating and they are repeating a word or phrase over and over, maybe Om? Thats concentration meditation.

For this style, you focus on a single point, which could be the breath, repeating a single word or mantra, staring at a candle flame or counting beads on a mala. A mala is a string of beads, often numbering 108, used for keeping count during meditation. There will be one larger bead, which you hold. Then you slip the smaller beads between your fingers, repeating your mantra, until you come back to the large bead. Refocus your awareness each time you notice your mind wandering. Instead of following random thoughts, let them go. The more you do this, the better youll get at it and the more youll be able to focus.

Meditation for the cultivation of compassion. There is a famous quote by the Dalai Lama that says If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

For this meditation, you begin with yourself because you cant extend compassion to others until you can be compassionate with your own mind. Its like putting your own oxygen mask on first, before you help others with theirs. In subsequent steps, you will send compassion to loved ones, strangers, and even people you dislike. You will wish something called Loving-Kindness on each person, including yourself.

Say each phrase in your mind and imagine breathing warmth and compassion into your heart, then exhaling warmth and compassion toward yourself. Imagine the compassion reaching every part of your body.

Heres the most widely used script to say or think as you do this:

Now that you have wrapped yourself in Loving-Kindness, send it toward a friend or loved one:

This time picture your loved one and send all your love and warmth to that person.

Next, think of someone you dont know very well. Someone you feel pretty neutral about. Send all your wishes for well-being to that person, repeating your script while breathing warmth and compassion.

Now that youre all warmed up, its time to direct Loving-Kindness toward someone you are in conflict with or whom you dislike. Your wish is that they might also be filled with Loving-Kindness.

Another simple meditation for beginners is this one, as taught by Dharma Master Hwansan Sunim. This technique is called Breath Counting Meditation. Its an ancient practice, initially used by monks to increase their powers of concentration.

If your mind wanders, and it definitely will, dont worry. Just return your focus back to your breath. Just calmly notice what it is you were thinking about or what was distracting you, take a moment and let go of whatever it was you were thinking about. Then gently return your awareness to the breath, being present for each inhalation and exhalation. Try this meditation for two or three minutes to start, and then try it for longer.

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Meditation 101: How to do it and why it makes us feel better - Integris

Millions of people tuning in to CNNs election night coverage were treated to a special bit of irony. The networks Key Race Alertsthe bright red, panic-inducing way that CNN introduces resultswere sponsored by wellness app Calm. It was a savvy move for the eight-year-old company, which isnt alone in its quest to build the perfect app for chilling out.

Founded in 2012 by entrepreneurs Michael Acton Smith and Alex Tew, Calm today has a $1 billion valuation and a mission to help the world meditate, relax, and maybe even get some sleep. The app was named Apples 2017 App of the Year, and by 2019 it had more than 80 million downloads and $92 million in revenue, the latter according to an estimate from app analysis firm Sensor Tower.

But it wasnt until 2020a year defined by the coronavirus pandemic, economic upheaval, racial injustice, and a high-stakes US electionthat Calms bedtime stories and mindfulness sessions propelled the tech unicorn to new heights.

In April, as Covid-19 forced lockdowns around the world, first-time downloads of Calm jumped to 1.6 million, up 36% from a comparatively uneventful January. In May, a new deal with Kaiser Permanente made the app, which costs $69.99 for an annual subscription, free to the health insurance companys 12.4 million membersa move intended to help people cope with the uncertainty, stress, and sometimes fear brought on by COVID-19, a psychiatrist at Kaiser said in a press release.

Calm has also benefited from employers looking to expand the suite of digital mental-health services offered to stressed-out staff. Alex Will, Calms chief strategy officer, told CNBC in October that more than 20 of its 140 staffers are now focused on corporate sales, noting, So many organizations have recognized that mental health is a must-have for employees rather than a nice-to-have.

Most recently, Calms election-night deal with CNNincluding a 30-second ad during which Calm played the sound of rain hitting leaveswas a social-media hit, resulting in more than 9,700 mentions on election day, compared with 500 mentions on an average day the week before.

The company may be looking to capitalize on all this momentum by raising another $150 million at a $2.2 million valuation, Bloomberg reported in October. But in the increasingly crowded and competitive meditation app space, Calm cant afford to breathe easy.

$143 million: Funding raised by Calm so far.

2 million: Calms paid subscribers in 2019.

3.9 million: Calm downloads in April 2020.

30-35: The median age of Calm users.

10: Minutes it takes to listen to Calms most popular feature, the meditation The Daily Calm.

6: The number of languages Calm is available in (English, Spanish, German, French, Korean, and Portuguese).

Celebrities are a big part of Calms strategy. LeBron James offers sessions on topics like managing emotions and a champions mindset, while the apps streaming feature offers exclusive music from Moby, Ellie Goulding, and Sigur Rs. Celebs reading bedtime stories include Matthew McConaughey, Harry Styles, Laura Dern, Kelly Rowland, and Scottie Pippen. (Styles, whose story Dream with Me some reviewers find more sexy than soothing, is also an investor.)

Co-founder Smith has said Calm would love to win some Emmys and Oscars. This year the app made its television debut with a 10-episode HBO Max series called A World of Calm. Created with production company Nutopia, the series features narrators like Lucy Liu describing a turtles journey through a coral reef. The Hollywood Reporter described it as a distracting analgesic for contemporary agita and also a very, very, very expensive screensaver.

Theres no clear pattern by which the masters of Calm pair celebrities with tranquilizing topics. But spend enough time thinking about it, and the combinations start to seem inherently complementaryeven inevitable. Who else but lovable grump Nick Offerman could do justice to the bedtime story The Big Bad Wolf Learns Anger Management? What would Star Trek: The Next Generation alum LeVar Burton describe if not a Journey to the Stars? See if you can tap into your celebrity intuition to guess which star narrates which World of Calm episode (answers at the end of the article).

Calms biggest competitor is Headspace, a meditation app co-founded in 2010 by former Buddhist monk Andy Puddicombe and former marketing executive Richard Pierson. Headspace has over 65 million users, $215 million in funding, and an estimated valuation of $320 million.

Headspace initially had an edge over Calm: It launched earlier and boasted more initial funding, while Calm struggled to bring in revenue and investor dollars. But starting in 2016, Calm quickly gained ground, expanding its premium content with Sleep Stories and daily meditations, and getting big publicity boosts from celebrity narrators and fans. Funding poured in, and Calm has since pulled ahead in reported revenue and app downloads.

Thats no guarantee Calm will stay on top. Headspace has a thriving corporate client business of its own, with more than 1,300 employers signed on, including Starbucks, Adobe, and Unilever. Its also investing heavily in clinical trials, hoping to prove the efficacy of its app and gain approval from the Food and Drug Administration, which would allow Headspace to be covered by health insurance. The company even debuted its own intentionally unstimulating nature series, Mindful Escapes, on the UKs BBC Four this year.

There are also plenty of smaller players, including 10% Happier (which caters to beginners and skeptics), Insight Timer (which has a library of more than 65,000 free guided meditations), and Simple Habit (which appeared on Shark Tank and bills itself as offering five-minute meditations for busy people). But Calm seems confident about its prospects. As Smith said of Headspace in 2018, were in mindful competition with each other.

Lets see how you did matching celebrities to topics. Kate Winslet: Horses || Keanu Reeves: Woodworking || Nicole Kidman: Birds || Oscar Isaac: Noodles || Idris Elba: Outer Space || Priyanka Chopra Jones: Chocolate || Mahershala Ali: Water

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Meditation app Calm is booming in anxious times - Quartz

I swear, sometimes I'm anxious before I even open my eyes in the morning. Do you ever feel that way? Like you've barely even realized you're awake before the stress and the racing thoughts come crashing in. For me, this makes it even harder to get out of bed; why get up and face my to -o list when I could scroll through Twitter and ignore my problems for another few minutes? Between the stress, the anxiety, and the procrastination, it's not really setting me up for a productive day.

If this all sounds familiar, you might consider adding meditation into your morning routine. This probably isn't the first time you've heard this recommendation, but take it from a former skeptic: a few minutes of meditating really does take a load off your mind in the morning, and the sense of calm and focus can linger throughout the rest of your day. Ahead, explore six calming guided meditations crafted specifically for the morning to help you wake up, get present, and set intentions to make the most of your day. The best part: none of them last longer than 10 minutes. Get comfy, hit play, and sink in.

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Start Your Day Off Right With These Calming 10-Minute Morning Meditations - POPSUGAR

Admin Associate, Shelby Gilson, at the Tarleton Student Counseling Services check in desk ready to help with any student needs.

Tarleton State Universitys Student Counseling Services is hosting weekly guided meditation sessions online, until Dec. 1, 2020.

The weekly guided meditation sessions are intended to help clear the mind and de-stress before finals. They are held every Tuesday from 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., and begin with a brief introduction, that lasts for around five minutes, as more people join the zoom session.

To join the guided meditation students and employees can go to Tarletons calendar and click the register button. The registration asks a few very basic questions including your email address.

[The guided meditation series] is evidenced based and used for increasing relaxation and focus. For a lot of people it also helps decrease anxiety. The first five minutes is an introduction and a debrief about what mindfulness is. Then one of us leads a meditation for the next 15 minutes, the meditation might be a mindful breathing exercise or a full body scan. Then we close out with a debrief, Assistant Director of Student Counseling Services, James Dinh, said. We keep things casual. You dont need to have your camera on or your microphone and you can unmute or talk in chat if you have questions.

The guided meditations were previously held in person, but had to be moved online because of COVID-19.

For this meditation its largely the same as when Ive done it in person. [The biggest change is that in person] I was able to have music or a singing bowl playing in the background, but Ive found that its difficult [to have those present] over video, Dinh said.

The guided meditations are open for anyone who wants to join, not just previous clients of the Counseling Center.

They dont have to be a client to join, any student, staff or faculty can join even though we primarily serve students. Either me or one of my interns will guide the meditation and people who may want added coaching have the option to set up additional meeting times, Dinh said.

The guided meditation sessions allow students to learn techniques for coping with stress and take with them for future use.

A lot of people, especially around finals, have difficulty coping with stress and around the holidays having a space where you can enjoy a moment of fullness and grounding helps a lot. Guided meditation also provides a space where students can practice the skills we teach, Dinh said.

The best places to meditate are in quiet rooms with few distractions.

The techniques we teach are things you can do on your own, its helpful to have a guide [at first] but then you can take a piece of mind to help aid the anxiety in your head or remember to stop and breathe and be present in your body.

Meditation is not limited in the types of clients they accept either. People with Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD or ADD) are also encouraged to attend.

A good number of people who have ADD or ADHD love mindfulness and meditation. Really the idea with mindfulness is to allow our mind to notice our surroundings. People with ADD have almost a superpower that allows them to notice everything. Then theres the skill of noticing your surroundings without judgement and coming back to yourself, Dinh said. If you have ADD give it a try or figure out what your version of mindfulness is. Set aside a space free from distractions you can do this by even physically turning away from distractions.

There are more ways to remove distractions from your life than just practicing mindfulness.

Another way to remove distractions is on your laptop create separate profiles, one purely for school work with no icons to games. Then also have your regular profile so if you want to take a break you have to log out of your work profile and log into your regular one. You can also write things down for easy access and practice going back to what you have written down, Dinh said.

Some people believe that guided meditation can, over extended periods of time, lead to a healthier mind and better long term coping skills.

[Guided meditation] helps people to focus and gain memory retention. There are often claims of people using it to study. Being able to practice mindfulness helps the brains cognitive functions and over time creates neurological changes to help respond better to stress, Dinh said.

Tarletons Student Counseling Services offers more than just guided meditation services, they also provide therapy sessions and services for undiagnosable illnesses. This includes having people in the residence halls to help with any concerns students may have.

We are still providing [all of our] regular services including individual, group and couples therapy sessions. With couples only one member of the couple needs to be a student at Tarleton to be seen. We are not limited to diagnosable disorders, if [a client feels] stressed or if [their] work-life balance is [disproportionate] we take a holistic view to treatment, Dinh said.

The counseling services Tarleton provides cover most services that an external counseling center would and when Tarleton is unable to provide the services needed for a client they reach out to other centers in the community that may be able to help.

We do provide treatment for depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder and we refer clients to the community if need be, Dinh said.

We have survivor advocates, this means that an advocate is assigned to anyone who may need help with situations such as harassment, sexual assault, domestic violence or stalking. Our advocates help you know that you have rights and arent mandatory reporters so [the client] has that choice to report or not.

Read more from the original source:

Mindful meditation to clear the mind for finals - JTAC News