Mindfulness matters: Meditation app set for relaunch

London – Headspace, the online meditation platform that brought mindfulness to the masses, is preparing to relaunch its app with new features that emphasise the health aspects of meditation.

The new app splits meditation sessions into four sections: Health, Performance, Relationships and Headspace Pro, enabling a more personalised approach to mindfulness. People can now meditate about a specific problem, such as eating or sleeping. In addition, the app now tracks users’ mindfulness progress, much like how a fitness app would track weight loss or other fitness goals. 

At the preview of the new app, held at the Royal Society of Medicine last week, a panel of experts spoke about the importance of mindfulness. ‘We’re under a collective delusion about burnout,’ said Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post and author of Thrive, her new book that shows that wellbeing is as important as money and power when measuring success. Andy Puddicombe, co-founder of Headspace, told the audience they needed to ‘prioritise the health of [their] minds’ and that contentment means ‘being comfortable with being uncomfortable’. 

Arabella James, futures consultant at The Future Laboratory was also on the panel, expressing the contradictory yet important role technology plays in mindfulness training. 'Over the next decade, society will move beyond digital infatuation,' she tells LS:N Global. 'We expect to see the practise of mindfulness become more integrated in our daily routines, with technology enabling us to balance our connectivity with ourselves and others.'

The increasingly mainstream concept of mindfulness follows the Body Temples mindset, in which health and wellbeing are becoming priorities and not just for a niche crowd. 

Headspace Version 2 will be released on 26 June.