Very few people train their mind holistically. While you might already train one thing, you are probably missing out on other vital parts. Meditation is the training of your mental capacities. Training those is never an end in itself. Instead, the four building blocks of meditation - mindfulness, resonance, wisdom & purpose are pillars of a beautiful life well lived.
Training your focus is great, but favorably altering patterns of cognition and emotion thats where its at. We might need to train our attention a bit, but training our sense of resonance with ourselves and others, and strengthening our ability to reflect on how you and others differ in perceiving the world will have groundbreaking effects. Align your training with the distinct mental functions you need to develop.
Training with a meditation app is a great way to start. But be aware that it can never replace a teacher, a community and a personalized training plan.
Your intuition will probably know this - the wise people in the books people brag about say the same: You would not climb Mount Everest without a guide; and it's no fun to do it alone. Why then would you treat your cognition - your sense-making with generic basic training?
Here are a few guidelines that will drastically improve the quality and joy in your training:
a) Who did he learn from?
b) How much practical experience do they have?
c) Is the person behaving in ways that show a degree of control in the four disciplines mindfulness, resonance, self reflection and purpose?
Now that you know what we know – get out there and play. The health of your mind matters. It matters to your happiness. It matters even more to the people that are surrounded by you.
