Omm by Qappy founder, Irina Iovita explores the benefits of personalised meditation
Have you tried meditation? It seems a lot of people are giving it a go these days. A decade ago meditating was a niche hobby but more recently, meditations apps are becoming quite popular in the west, especially as we all try to find a bit of peace and quiet in this loud and stressful world, which seems to be getting more stressful with the pandemic.
Over 165m people downloaded meditation apps in 2020. Maybe you were one of them? But did you stick with it and managed to form a habit? Chances are you didn’t. Forming habits is hard and busy lives get in the way especially when we’re trying to learn things that are ‘good for us’ rather than fun and engaging.
I’ve been flirting with meditation for over a decade. It started back in my consulting days when I was always travelling and finding it difficult to de-stress and sleep properly. So I downloaded Headspace and started with the standard body scan meditations. They were nice though generic. They helped me sleep and most nights I’d doze off half way through the track. Over time I went to meditation retreats and learnt more about the practice from experts and former Buddhists monks. Meditation became a staple that saw me through difficult times. As I experienced different styles I realised I have very specific preferences. I like relaxing forest background sounds, 10–20 minute tracks, a calm voice and visual anchors, rich descriptions and detailed visualisations. Having struggled with health anxiety, I found body scans to be anxiety-inducing rather than relaxing so this removed 90% of generic tracks out there.
Frustrated with not being able to find the perfect track that could motivate me to meditate every day despite trying lots of apps, I decided to record my own tracks. And then I started speaking to friends, family and Qappy users and quickly discovered most people find generic meditation tracks boring and repetitive. Even worse, it often feels like a chore so they give up on meditation before seeing the scientifically-proven results*.
It’s not surprising we want more personalisation. We’re all different people after all. I’ve come to realise meditation is like music — there are lots of different genres and you just need to find your favourite one. And this is how we came up with the idea for an app that lets you choose your preferences and build the perfect track for you.
It’s simple. You choose what you want (e.g. pace of voice, intro/outro reflections, background) and the Qappy algorithm creates a custom-made track for you. Over time, the track improves based on your direct feedback, heart rate and performance in similar users. So your personalised experience can remain engaging and grow with you every day.
In the meantime, if you want to register your interest or share any ideas you can reach us at www.omm-app.com.
*Sedlmeier, Eberth, Schwarz, Zimmermann et al, 2012; Chiesa, Serretti, 2009; Fox, Nijeboer, Dixon, Floman et al, 2014
