Making a meditation progress app

[Tistepiste]

Hey all,

I am a graduated software and AI engineer, and I recently had this idea in mind.
This morning during my meditation session I couldn't really focus and then suddenly something else came to mind.
What if I make a user friendly app that monitors your progress in meditation?

The only real good app is "Headspace" right now. But that is more of a meditation guide more so than an app tracking your progress.
The idea I have of how the app can look like is as follows:

1- Set you daily meditation time. Will send you a push notification when the time is there to meditate

2- Before the meditation session starts: ask a few simple questions (skippable / non-skippable)
(eg: How are you feeling from 1-5, Thoughts bugging them right now,...)

3- Start of meditation, depending on the journey of the user, will start with 20 min (user can of course change this manually)

4- Questions after meditation: Were there any re-occurring thoughts? How easy was it to meditate? Emotions that came up during meditation? The ability of the user to handle said emotions? Overall rating of the meditation?
These questions should be easy to answer (preferrable just rating from 1-5, or if asked for real feedback, one sentence answers)

This would in turn provide information needed to draw a graph for the user; and track improvements. If time passes, ease would preferrably increase, less intrusive thoughts,...

App could also include different forms of meditation (breathe awareness, do-nothing, candle meditation, etc.) (still have to research on that)

Or possibility for a section to add targeted meditation; say you are facing a difficult episode or some events you can't seem to get over, guide the user to face their fears / doubts, feel the emotion fully and allow them to let go. Basically more of a therapy kind of meditation session with progress.

These are just some random ideas.
Bottom line is, it should be a personal diary of the user and their meditation experience to offer them an objective measurements on the effects of meditation on their life and prefferably would lower the drop-out rate of meditation.

 

What are your thoughts?
 

[Nahm]

@Tistepiste Brilliant. I love the intention of guiding one through expressing. A timeline - graph generator showing the history of the purification would be sweet, and encouraging for many. So many new meditators get discouraged, as if the “meditation” was causing the unwanted emotions. Knowing there’s an emotional ‘process’, a purging, would give reassurance & clarity. Very nice T! 

[Tistepiste]

@Nahm Thanks for the feedback! Ill start working on it, because I will use it myself anyways, might as well share it with others.

[Girzo]

I think it would be great if you could find some masterful meditation teacher or read a lot of books and include accurate maps of progress in insight and concentration practice, so the app contains something more than user input.

You know, something that gives perspective on what is the next stage and what it requires to achive.

Some system to guide people through dark night of the soul would be useful, too.

As to how to implement it, I have no idea.

[Nahm]

@Tistepiste I’ve always thought the best inventions come from, “why doesn’t this exist already???

If you’re looking for a partner in this, I have some ideas I’ve been jotting down for a while. 

[luismatos]

10 hours ago, Tistepiste said:

This morning during my meditation session I couldn't really focus and then suddenly something else came to mind.
What if I make a user friendly app that monitors your progress in meditation?

Hah! You should have dettached yourself from the thought during meditation 

11 hours ago, Tistepiste said:

The only real good app is "Headspace" right now.

I use Insight Timer, it's the best I've found yet.

11 hours ago, Tistepiste said:

What are your thoughts?

I love it. Needs to be something really well designed and crafted for people to use. Best wishes.

[Mulky]

Seems like a pretty cool idea.  

[Bluebird]

@Tistepiste I like this idea a lot. A beautifully designed, and integral meditation app. Not just guided meditations.

A timer, tracker, and reminder.

Guidance, progress plotter (stages of meditation), mini-advice on dealing with hindrances as they arise, etc.

I'm a developer myself and have launched some apps. If you're interested in working with someone on this feel free to PM me as I would love to hear more about this and potentially work with you on it.

The trick will be to not let the scope get out of hand I think, figure out a specific issue that needs to be solved first that isn't on the market and then getting that sorted super well. Then from there, expand!

[Mind Health Coach]

Brilliant!! This is a great step towards making a meditation progress app. This will be very helpful to many people. Because spending a few minutes in meditation can restore your calm and peace.

[peqkno]

@Tistepiste Meditation Assistant?

Here's one with tracker + graph and other features.

It's open source: https://gitlab.com/tslocum/meditationassistant

Available via PlayStore or FDroid.

[Tistepiste]

@peqkno Cool, but this doesn't really track a user's personal progress. Only the days-streak. But nice find!

 

@Bluebird Awesome, thanks for the feedback!! I will make this app using Flutter (will be able to deploy to both Android and iOS devices). Ill hit you up when it gets too complicated, and possibly partner up!

 

@Nahm Thanks Nahm, your feedback / excitement are greatly appreciated. Feel so much love from you always! For sure would love to share some ideas!

 

@Girzo Thanks for the input. It's always a challenge between building a simple start forward app but also want it to be as accurate and helpful as possible.

Edited February 25, 2019 by Tistepiste

[martins name]

check out insight timer.