Mental Workout iPhone*
The relationship between spirituality and technology has a spotted history, but the development of useful applications for the iPhone points toward the fruitfulness of the relationship.
The downside to much spirituality is the preachiness associated therewith, which doesn’t coach or facilitate the implementation of the ideals. This preachiness is not limited to Western traditions, such as Christianity, but is equally found in Eastern Traditions, for instance in Hare Krishna and Buddhist Temples I’ve visited.
A facilitated encounter with Godde is a beneficial response to and within a preachy Christianity, but that’s not something you can package into an app. A facilitated meditation is however something that you can package and as such this is an ideal response to preachy Eastern spirituality. Such facilitated meditations are useful tools in the concrete practice and application of mindfulness meditation.
For the most part I like getting out into nature for my meditations, but given that its winter and I often have a busy schedule it is really helpful to meditate at home and have some input that doesn’t rely solely on my own inner self.
There are several iPhone apps designed to help with meditation. For guided meditations I make use of Mental Workout, LLC‘s iPhone apps, voiced by Stephen Bodian (author of Meditation for Dummies):
 Mindfulness Meditation |
 Be Happy Now |
 Open Your Heart
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These applications share the same basic interface, being both elegant and simple.
You get a selection of guided meditations in each of these apps:
Screenshot, Be Happy Now
From which you can select the meditation you want, which presents you with the meditation and the controls.
Screenshot Mindfulness
I only have one gripe with this series of applications. Though you can fast forward and rewind you sometimes skip the meditation and you can’t scrub anywhere along the meditation, like you can with a song or podcast in iTunes. Understandably this is a different app, its just that I expect a similar ability to control where I want to pick up or go to.
In terms of the guided meditations, each application offers the following:
| Mindfulness Meditation | Be Happy Now | Open Your Heart |
| - Deep relaxation | - Mindfulness | - Forgiveness |
| - Mindfulness | - Peaceful lace | - Gratitude |
| - Gratitude | - Lovingkindness | |
| - Compassion | - Mindfulness | |
| - Doing the work | ||
| - Fresh eyes | ||
| - Half smile |
They’re an excellent addition to anyone’s meditation library. This gives you the benefits of meditating in your own space and at your convenience while benefiting from an excellent facilitator.
These apps are well priced, with Mindfulness Meditation and Be Happy Now at $1.99 and Open Your Heart at $2.99.
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* I nabbed the top image from Mental Workout’s website and the rest of the screenshots from iTunes. I’m sure you don’t mind, as I haven’t asked permission to use them, but if you do let me know.
[...] The first Sunday of every month we’ll facilitate a guided meditation session. For this series, from September to December, we’ll draw strongly on Stephen Bodian’s guided meditations found on the iPhone apps by Mental Workout LLC. I’ve reviewed these apps in a previous post. [...]