A square is a circle, a circle is a square. To face this coronavirus health crisis, and the confinement that goes with it, we decided not to look at An Indian in the city (although it wouldn't hurt us), but to immerse ourselves in meditation. Promise of inner peace, calm, serenity, the period seems more favorable than ever to this activity of the mind. Because we will not lie, for ten days, this is not the party. Between the fear of dying, of witnessing the collapse of humanity at each news story and the absurd fear of a shortage of toilet paper, there is no shortage of reasons to undermine your morale.
Also, to face the long coming weeks that await us, meditation does not seem to us to be a too bad choice of life, unlike alcohol. At best, we transform into a monster of wisdom (even if it means becoming boring), at worst, we lose an hour, and we're really not that close. In order to become one with ourselves, we therefore turned to new technologies, because the air of nothing, it jostles at the gate on this side to invite us to domestic travel ... Feedback on our attempts to learn to savor the present moment.
The app battle
Who has never heard of Petit Bambou at the 10 am break in front of the coffee machine? Voted best wellness, health and sport app in 2017, it is the star of meditation apps. It is chargeable (6.99 € / month), but the initiation module is free. Positive point, Christophe André in person has his little program in it, and it is this option, as long as we do, that we decided to test. Basically, for three times ten minutes, the mindfulness star talks to you, telling you what to focus your attention on and how to breathe. The base. If you pay, you can have access to themed content on sleep, anxiety, time, etc. The “end of the world” option is not yet included.
Because we are crazy and the challenge does not scare us, we also tried, AT THE SAME TIME, another meditation app: Zenfie. It too is chargeable (€ 5 / month), but the introductory content is free. The principle of Zenfie is similar to Petit Bambou. The app offers modules to teach you to meditate and guide you in this practice. Different programs are available for subscribers: instant present, detachment, energy ... Same, nothing for the shortage of toilet paper.
Verdict? It's basically the same thing, except that Petit bambou is maybe a little prettier visually (it counts, yes). The little plus of Petit bambou is obviously Christophe André, who explains very clearly the principle of mindfulness. The problem (it's very subjective), Christophe's voice rocks us, impossible to last more than 5 minutes without dozing off ... The voice of Monsieur de Zenfie was much more effective, arriving at making us meditate while keeping us awake . Especially since he repeats things that are not stupid at all and that we can only agree: “Take your time, because you have all your time. We let you meditate on that.
Relaxation rate: 70%. Not bad when you seriously and in the long term want to start meditation.
Videos to stream
Another option is that of online courses, free or not. On the YouTube side, if you type "meditation" in the search bar, it's a festival of kitsch images, waterfalls and songs of little birds. It is therefore time to turn to a safe bet: the Ariane yoga teacher. She is the Martine of yoga on YouTube. It's very simple, it does everything: vinyasa, yin yoga, ashtanga, relaxation, breathing ... Who is behind Ariane? Is she really human? We don't know. The fact remains that, of course, she also does meditation. To change things a bit, we opted for "relaxation to the sound of Tibetan bowls". The session lasts 10 minutes, it's nice the first five, but afterwards you feel like you have tinnitus.
Relaxation rate: 50%. It feels good to know that we can always count on Ariane, and what's more it's free.
In the same genre, yoga studios sometimes offer digital content on their platform. This is the case of the Parisian studio Casayoga which offers a wide variety of online courses on Casayogatv. The subscription costs 17 euros per month, but two weeks of discovery are offered. The platform offers lots of videos of different forms of yoga, but also of meditation and breathing, performed by pros (it's still important). Big crush on "yoga nidra", otherwise called "sleep yoga". Basically, it is a kind of yoga of the mind hyper relaxing, even hypnotizing.
Relaxation rate: 85%. Huge crush on yoga nidra. In the space of 30 minutes you almost forget that you will not be leaving your home before May.
Live Insta
If you're having trouble finding activities right now, download Instagram and the problem is solved. Between cooking, yoga, cross fit lives ... You have enough to fill your days (and to screw up your eyes on the screen of your smartphone). Among this plethora of activities, meditation has its place, especially on the @ lilibarbery account. Ex-journalist and well-being blogger, she offers daily meditation lives. But then be careful, it's crossed out. You can be asked to put yourself in the shoes of an orbiting planet, make houses with your fingers or ask the moon for help at any time. Lili mixes singing, breathing, storytelling, gentle postures, meditation ... It is quite disconcerting and we must admit that we disconnect a lot. Flat, if you are not a mystical chouïa, that is likely to block you.
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Tonight at 6 p.m. (CET) on Instagram for a live broadcast with @simritkaur, an extraordinary singer based in California who is also confined and wants to sing for all of us. We will connect to the element of water with the mantra SAT NARAYAN WAHE GURU HARI NARAYAN SAT NAM. A mantra for peace, between all of us but also to make peace with all the contradictions that we nourish individually. A mantra which lets the sacred emerge in us, which immerses us in a matrix liquid and opens us to the invisible treasure in us. This is one of my favorite mantras, I hope you will come in large numbers. Photo by ma fille ❤️ Amazing singer Simrit Kaur will come and chant with me at 6pm CET french time on Wednesday 25th #livestream on Instagram. Come and join us for a powerful meditation to ask for peace, inner peace despite the circumstances, peace and unity in between all of us beyond judgments and ego projections. This mantra is one of my favorite: sat narayan (written above).
A post shared by Lili Barbery-Coulon (@lilibarbery) on Mar 25, 2020 at 3:25 am PDT
Relaxation rate: 50%. Not the best option for exploring your inner world, but at least we have a good laugh and it's not bad. Hang in there !
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