The App That Made My Mom Meditate
This might help to change your mind too!
Let me tell you how my mom started meditation.
She always had some minor pains that were not medically diagnosable. She was not only reluctant but also resistant to my suggestions of meditation, seeing meditation as a pushed trend and promoted irrationally as if it is magic for everything.
Probably you have seen many wisdom and research findings of how mindfulness and meditation practice is the number one thing that successful and happy people share in common. Yet, it is hard to start for many. I know. Same with my mom. Plus, she was old-schooled in many ways, especially in terms of remote practices. She prefers what is traditional.
She hates the public portrayal of meditation with fancy preparations, superficially sacred spaces that are unattainable in daily hassles, and the so-called “have to”s, “must”s, rules of meditating. For her, these were not relaxing but even more stress-producing and guilt-inducing. So she was rejecting meditating at all since it was not liberating but pressurizing to her. She can talk about how silly she’d feel when trying to sit on a “meditation pillow”, which was nothing more than a regular pillow for her. She says, “it is just a more expensive and exaggerated one. I cannot understand why people are going crazy to be financially and emotionally abused by such a capitalist movement with a spiritualistic cover story.”
As a psychologist working on well-being, I was passionate to tell her the science behind mindfulness and meditation. No matter how patiently I was discussing with her, and trying to be encouraging; she was agreeing yet unwilling to sit for practice. Set aside all the free contents and different apps available, she was even unwilling to watch her own daughter’s video with Meditopia because, god forbid, it could be mediation related!
Finally, she admitted to me that she watched my video and gave Meditopia a try, which is a comprehensive mental health coaching product. She also admitted to me that, previously following our discussions she secretly tried some other things online and had a bad experience. Amazingly enough, after she tried her first Meditopia session, she fell in love. For her, it was welcoming, creating space for whatever feeling can come, and not pushing to do things in a certain way.
Now she is doing it daily for the last one week, realized she is well managing her pains. Of course, she does not have those fancy pillows. She is just doing whatever and wherever is comfortable to her. She said she canceled some of her upcoming doctor appointments (what she is going to complain about when she does not have those pains anymore?).
This is an excellent example of leveraging human wellness and experience through business. I wrote to the head of business development and brand, and also the voice of Meditopia, dear Christine Taylor, just to give a personal thanks for creating such a wonderful product. No matter what kind of a collaboration we did with Meditopia, I was also a consumer, and I think a thoughtful, considerate, and good business deserves to know about their impact on their consumers.
To be honest, I was an easy one. My mom was not! Yet, Meditopia made it. Yes she is meditating, and yes with a technology-based remote practice.
Yesterday, she told me that she will download the app for my dad as well. One wall is dismantled and why not another!
FYI: Christine, the head of business development gave me a special link to share with you so that you can download the app and get 30 days free premium when normally it is 7 days free. Sign up for the app and do NOT click on the 7-day free trial but instead continue on to the premium account.
If you feel my mom’s experience does also speak for you, give it a try, and let me know.