In today’s wellness-obsessed world, meditation might be prescribed as often as penicillin. Offered as a solution to many of the stresses associated with modern life – including burnout, brain fog and sleep issues – an estimated 8.9 million adults in the UK practise meditation, according to government surveys and Google Trends data. It’s a therapy that has proven effects too, with studies showing it can dampen the inflammation response caused by stress, and reduce the symptoms of anxiety.
But despite its glowing reputation, meditation doesn’t come naturally or easily to everyone. Maybe you find it impossible to sit in stillness, or to calm your racing thoughts? It can be a struggle. If that sounds familiar, then actor and Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow might have a solution. A longtime proponent of mindfulness and meditation, the wellness guru recently invested in Moments of Space: an AI-powered meditation app that aims to challenge preconceived ideas of meditation as silent and solemn, instead taking an eyes-open approach that promises to help you find inner peace as you engage with the world, rather than by shutting it out completely.
The app, launched by Kim Little, a Buddhist and software developer, was born out of Little’s desire to help make meditation a more mainstream and practical therapy, rather than something that feels lofty or unattainable. The “little and often” format that it’s built around (the app encourages short snippets of meditation as well as lengthier stints), might also be attractive to anyone who finds the idea of sitting still for long periods daunting.
As well as trying to make meditation more accessible, Little wants to educate people on the skill of meditation, the idea being that, once you understand more about how the concept actually works, you’re able to reap long-term benefits from it beyond whatever short window you manage to carve out in your day.
To do this, Moments of Space is centred around Tibetan Dzogchen techniques, which emphasises mindfulness over the unconsciousness practice (unmindful thinking and feeling) many other apps focus on. The eyes open approach plays into this, because it forces you to be aware and conscious of your surroundings, and makes you work harder to find the focus – the “space”, as Paltrow describes it – between each visual distraction. There’s also a personalised function that uses pre-captured personal data to find the right meditation to suit your mood and surroundings at any given time. Although there are plenty of narrators to choose from to guide you, if you find Paltrow’s soothing Californian drawl appealing you’re in luck, as she voices several meditations in addition to being a co-owner of the app.
It aims to democratise the practice of meditation, but beginners and complete novices might still find using the app a challenge initially, and the vernacular used throughout – amplifying energy, exploring sensation and embodying ease – still feels a little jargon-y. If you do give it a go, the Moments tab, which offers “standalone moment” meditations to accompany everyday tasks such as journalling or cooking, might be a good entry point. While Paltrow claims to be a fan of the Mindful Walking movement-based meditation (an activity which definitely requires an eyes open approach), the jury is out on whether the multi-millionaire mogul makes use of the Mindful Cleaning option.