Why I’ve Signed Up for a Life of Calm
As of last month, I’ve taken the plunge for a lifetime membership to Calm. Read on to find out why and how Calm could be helpful for you.
With 2020 just barely in the rearview mirror but COVID-19 restrictions still isolating many of us from our friends, family, and overall, normal routines, it’s never been more important to make sure we protect our minds from the increased stress these changes are bringing.
To be absolutely clear, this has been true since we’ve been in lockdown for the first time, no matter where you live. In my case, I returned home from Vienna in March and immediately quarantined myself for 14 days back home in the Czech Republic. This period was then followed by the first round of government-ordered lockdowns, during which I began to feel the effects of my prolonged isolation. Before COVID-19 enforced restrictions began to fall into place, I’d neglected my Mindfulness practice for over a year. This wasn’t for any particular reason beyond the fact that I got busy and prioritized other things.
After several months of deliberation on how best to address my increased mental stress brought about by being locked down, I decided to purchase a lifetime membership to the Calm app in December.
Why did I choose Calm?
Since high school, I’ve known about the benefits of mindfulness-based meditation. In case you’re not familiar with it, just imagine training yourself to focus on your breath and tune out absolutely everything else. That’s the gist of it.
On a deeper level, mindfulness can also involve centering yourself on your breath, then focusing on a specific mantra or lesson. In the Calm app, a key example of this is the Daily Calm series. Each day, Calm’s Head of Mindfulness posts a meditation for all members to listen to in which the session begins with focusing on the breath and moves to a sort of parable for the day. This could be anything from remembering to live spontaneously from time to time, together with an example of doing so, or cultivating gratitude for listing things you’re thankful for at the start or the end of each day.
The possibilities are endless and following the Daily Calm series is like learning a new way to better yourself, while also being more in the moment, each day.
Moreover, the Daily Calm series is only the tip of the iceberg with regards to what makes the Calm app interesting for all sorts of people. Whether you prefer to relax with music, guided meditation, a story, or a Masterclass, Calm has it all. You can learn to build the ability to achieve peak performance in whatever you do from Lebron James, then listen to a story about a trip through nature, and finish up with a simple Mindfulness meditation, all in one place. Though all of these options may seem very different at face-value, they’ve got one key factor in common. They’re all focused on helping you achieve new levels of focus and relaxation, while also learning something.
To me, an app that’s dedicated to that is worth being a part of.
Why a lifetime membership?
Anytime I see true value in an activity, I go all-in on it. This has been true with crypto, as well as overall, educating myself in every area that I can. Just as David Epstein posits in Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, the more new technologies continue to engineer paradigm shifts in all sorts of global industries, the more generalists will succeed over niche-concentrated specialists.
In a nutshell, what that means is in today’s world, transferable skills are more important than niche-expertise like years in one industry with one specific position. By transferrable skills, I mean things like being able to break down highly technical concepts, irregardless of the industry they belong to, in a way that engages a wide audience or being able to tell a story with insights gained from compelling data.
Hearing all of this, you might logically find yourself asking: wait, where does a lifetime membership to a mindfulness meditation app come in to this picture?
Truthfully, the more life experience I’ve gotten, the more I’ve begun to believe that carefully honed mindfulness in everything that you do is a priceless transferrable skill. Current research suggests that regular mindfulness practice induces better focus, less depression, and overall, a more positive attitude in people. Still, as many have pointed out, it’s early yet, since Jon Kabat-Zinn really only began to popularize mindfulness on a wide-scale (via mindfulness-based stress reduction) back in 1991 and it didn’t really become a relatively widespread practice until the launch of the Calm app in 2012.
All in all, I believe that further studies will likely only confirm just how powerful mindfulness can be and I aim to be along for the ride, honing my skills in the discipline.
Who am I and why should you stick with this blog?
I’m an educator and well-known writer in the crypto space.
With this post, I’m starting to branch out beyond crypto and into other areas that I’m interested in. All in all, over time, I’d like to send all crypto content over to my personal website once it’s ready and keep non-crypto content here, at least for a start. If you’re wondering what sort of topics that entails, just imagine a bundle of all of the things that people need to succeed in a world where generalists reign. That’s the sort of content that I aim to put out as time goes on. If that interests you and you’ve got a topic to suggest or you want to connect about anything that I’ve written, reach out here or on Twitter any time. In my next post, I plan to dig further into my experience with the Calm app as it develops. Over the long-term, I imagine this being a regular part of this blog since I’ve literally got a lifetime of practice ahead of me and it’s early yet. Until then, remember that in a world in which technology continues to change everything at a break-neck pace, the only way to stay on top of things is to be a continuous student.
In other words, above all, having a growth mindset is everything. In the end, I hope that after reading my content, you learn something new and consider adopting a growth mindset for yourself if you haven’t already. Fundamentally, all that means is always striving to be better, which is what I aim to do with all of my time on Earth.
— — — —
Finally, most of my free time is now being taken up with my newsletter, which is completely free and focused on how the rise of the Metaverse improves things for everyone. Sub here.
