Why would I create yet another meditation app? While the process was informative as I’ll describe below, the main reasons are:
- It’s a zero cost support for new meditators in the Sow & Grow Meditation movement.
- Post-practice encouragement to visit the site.
- “Text my check-in buddy” feature.
- To provide an option that does not require a login.
- To provide a free option with no advertisements.
- As a tool of the movement, it is designed to make itself obsolete:
- Easily pick a meditation plan with a full set of teaching audios
- Edit the plan to delete audios you no longer need, adjust durations of silence, or practice multiple techniques in one session.
- Start with continuous mantra deep listening practice and gradually increase the amount of time in silent practice.
- It’s easy to share and try a meditation plan, even a custom one, with a minimal commitment for the new user. In a couple of taps they can be practicing, with the timer running on any device with a browser.
- Regular users can optionally install the Progressive Web App to their desktops.
- Increases convenience over navigating to a browser tab.
- Enables off-line use.
- It is still updated to new versions automatically when you are on-line.
- The “Circle” timer integrates the meditation features into an interface to help guide a small neighborhood meditation group host. This supports the Sow & Grow emphasis on the host simply providing space and not needing to be a meditation teacher.
- The YogaFlow timer could be used by individual Hatha Yoga students, although it is primarily designed for Yoga teachers.
For years I happily used the Insight timer to ring a pleasant sounding bell at the end of my practice. Now when I revisit the app, it forces me to go through a lengthy process of starting to use it, just to get to the basic timer feature. It’s still has a free tier, which is great. I know the start-up process is designed to help new people to become regular with their practice. At Sow & Grow, we emphasize supporting each other, so our meditation tools can be simpler.
If you haven’t already I encourage you to check out the timer. It’s designed to be easy to learn and use. If that isn’t true for you please contact me!
AI as a tool to bridge the Wisdom Gap
The Sow & Grow Timer started out as a whimsical notion to create a visual timer for yoga teachers. I’d heard and seen examples in YouTube videos of how powerful AI was to create programs from scratch, without writing any code. The latest phone upgrade I treated myself to came with a full year of Gemini Pro, which normally costs $20 / month. So just to see what happened, I sat at my computer and had the first version of the Yogaflow functionality working in a few prompts. The power of AI to get things done really is seductive!
I’d also heard great things about the ability of AI to do research. So when I was preparing to teach my first Meditation class at Asheville Community Yoga, I used it to discover the latest in scientific understandings of the difference between guided and silent meditation techniques. What were the benefits of one over the other? It was very affirming of my insights and gave me some scientific backing to teach that silent meditation techniques were worth the additional challenge they pose for my future students. Then I was curious about the question of handling thoughts during meditation. I’ve used different techniques, as available in the recorded teachings I included in the app. But what are the scientific understandings about the relative benefits there? Wow. Starting with gently releasing thoughts and moving eventually to witnessing them without attaching my identity was also affirmed. Both methods very valuable, but best to start with the more common approach. Finally, I wanted to learn more about the continuous mantra technique promoted by one of my favorite teachers, Sadhguru: The Isha Kriya. I’ve been so impressed by this practice that I’ve requested permission to include it in the app. How wonderful to discover a meditation modality that is more accessible than silent practice, with all the benefits! So I created the two techniques of that kind for the app. As I refined my main Sow & Grow Meditation website, I was curious what other organizations also had a mission driven by the same world view. I learned about the term “Wisdom Gap” for the problem of (soon to be) ultimate technological power in the hands of humanity in its spiritual adolescence.
The Mindful Use of Machine Learning
Bringing the app to its current state involved about two months of ‘managing’ Gemini—a process of constant evolution. What started as a simple, single-page HTML experiment has grown into a sophisticated, React-based Progressive Web App (PWA) that handles the complex technical differences between Android and iOS. The most remarkable part? I didn’t need to master the underlying code or systems to make it a reality. This perfectly mirrors the Sow & Grow philosophy: just as our meditation hosts don’t need to be ‘experts’ or ‘teachers’ to hold space for others, I didn’t need to be a currently up-to-date software engineer (I retired in 2012) to build a professional tool for our community.
I’ll admit, I have become deeply intentional about using AI to amplify my work. While I am acutely aware of the environmental costs and the more ‘scary’ potential of such power, I believe the path forward is one of mindful engagement rather than refusal. We are at a turning point as significant as the dawn of electricity or the first Ford Model T. Instead of standing on the sidelines, I am choosing to co-create with this technology to bridge the ‘Wisdom Gap.’ By leveraging AI, I’ve been able to build tools that support meditation and Hatha Yoga—using modern code to serve ancient practices and help raise collective consciousness as rapidly as the technology itself is evolving.
Credit where it’s due!
The last two paragraphs of this post, and their heading, were written by Gemini, as well. I wrote two ending paragraphs that gave the same information and told the same story, but with my mediocre writing quality. I fed the paragraphs to Gemini one at a time. It generated three versions with different voices, and I picked the one that I liked best. I’ve never been a strong writer, to be honest. My book was pretty heavily edited as well by a friend, before I self published it. Now AI can take my personal style and message, and transform it into polished prose in seconds. I hope you enjoyed the result!
