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Hi friends!
Thank you for welcoming me back to your inbox after a few weeks break on my part.
As we enter the last quarter of the year, I’ve been reflecting on new habits I’ve experimented with this year. For me, there’s a particular one that stands out: since January, I’ve been participating - every day, including weekends - in a morning meditation session on Clubhouse with a group of then-strangers who I’ve come to call friends over the course of the last 10 months (more on this in Mindful Nerd #005).
Today, I want to share some of my learnings from this unique experience and invite you all to join me for a similar experiment, something I called the Morning Circle.
What new habits you have picked up this year? Let us know in the comments.
⭕️ Morning Circle
The Morning Circle is a new, limited-time, group experiment I’m launching starting Monday, October 25 in the Clubhouse app. The idea is simple:
Before the day takes over, hang out with the Morning Circle: 🧘♂️ 10 minutes of silent space for meditation, ⭕️ 20 minutes of sharing and connection.
There's no agenda here. Lowest pressure activity on your calendar. 🚀
We’ll meet with a small cohort (invite-only) of people every day from 8am to 8:30am PT. We’ll do this for 2 weeks. At the end of the 2 weeks experiment, we’ll reflect on it to identify learnings and takeaways.
From my experience, here’s why I believe this can be a powerful format:
Form a meditation habit: joining the same session, at the same time, every day, helps you show up consistently and make time for meditation, something many people aspire to practice but most are not able to stick with.
In addition, there’s an element of social accountability when you sign-up and show up with the group, which helps as well.Connect authentically with others (audio-only): practicing meditation by yourself is great. Doing it with others is even better. Whether by allowing you to share your first-person experience in a safe space or by providing support and guidance, the community will add a powerful - and at times surprising - dimension to the experience.
Most participants will feel like strangers on day 1. But, even though by the last session you may still not know what their jobs are or where they live, you will have picked up something deeper about their personalities, values, interests, and more. Note that the entire session is audio-only on Clubhouse, so you’ll be able to more effortlessly focus on people’s voices alone.Set yourself up for success for the rest of the day: you’ve meditated, you’ve connected with others, now it’s time to leave the circle and go out in the world. I noticed that I can tackle the day with more ease, more skillfully, and positively when I invest in cultivating self-awareness and connectedness first thing in the morning. The positive influence of the group practice stays with you throughout the day.
If this resonates with you, join us for the upcoming first Morning Circle cohort on the Clubhouse app by signing up here:
If you have any questions, please hit reply and let me know.
📱 Apple meditations and mindfulness app
In the meantime, Apple recently launched its own meditation classes and mindfulness app in Fitness+. I believe this represents a significant milestone toward mainstreaming mindfulness and an underappreciated cultural shift.
5 reasons why:
1) 🏃♀️ History. In 1977 when the Complete Book of Running came out the general population wouldn't run... Look at running today!
The same secular shift has been happening with meditation in the West over the last decade. Now, the most valuable company in the world - an increasingly wellness-focused company - is introducing virtual meditations as part of its popular fitness offerings.
2) 📱Competition. Apple is jumping into a market-led by billion-dollar companies like Calm and Headspace, with some advantages: a cheap Fitness+ bundle instantly available on 1.5+B billion devices worldwide, the usual excellent production quality, and a secret weapon, the Watch.
3) ⌚️ Apple Watch. Apple's wearable is quickly improving. With the new Mindfulness app, it'll be possible to play meditations directly from the Watch and - I'm hoping - track HRV during practice. This biofeedback will help even the most skeptical people appreciate the improvements.
4) 🧰 Public perception. Today's mindfulness apps have mainstreamed sleep stories and introduced millions of people to some level of meditation practice. By adding 20min meditations to Fitness+ Apple's message is clear: this stuff is a critical component of your wellness toolkit.
5) 📈 Future trend. Secular meditation is increasingly normalized and practiced. Its science is mature and growing. Sensors and metrics add quantitative evidence. Apple is hiring meditation teachers. Is it on track to become the next running (or yoga)?
Do you use any mindfulness apps? What do you like the most about them and what is the biggest challenge for you?
Thanks for reading! I really hope to see you in the upcoming Morning Circle cohort. Feel free to forward the email to a friend or share the web link.
Be well and be kind,
Matteo