An application to meditate with ease? What a good idea !

After the international Buddhify, Smiling Mind or Pacifica, the success of the "frenchy" Little bamboo confirms the arrival in force of these new tools in the Hexagon. Their promise: a meditative relax on demand, more fashionable than ever, especially with women (65%) and thirties.

Ten minutes, the time it takes to meditate

Elodie Garamond, the founder of the very dynamic Yoga Tigre Club & Spa, salutes the many advantages offered by these apps: "Everyone is motivated to taste meditation, but the hardest thing is to persevere. the need for regularity and discipline .

The more you meditate regularly, the sooner you enter the associated state of relaxation. Ten minutes a day is enough . The application allows immediate use, at will, while going to the studio can take an hour, not to mention the schedules of the centers.

Technology serving the body

The advantage of the support? The diversity of techniques proposed.

Thus "Body scan" passes the sensations of each part of the body in review, others concern the control of the breath or rely on the visualizations.

We are spoiled for choice.

Intelligence content, interactivity and ergonomics, tone of voice ... just isolate yourself and slip the headphones into the ears (several programs can download his session) to chase the hubbub of the brain.

A solution to stop living at 100 km / h?

There is even an app, Mind Bell, through which we program a bell (in the mode of bowls or cymbals Tibetan), which will ring several times in the day, randomly.

The idea is to "bring us back to the consciousness of what we are living," Elodie Garamond explains, "to feel, a little clock that lets you escape from the 'autopilot' and take a minute to yourself."

Zen applications: the importance of a good use

Meditation 2.0, a way to live with the times? "These tools can be a blessing as long as you make good use of them", tempers the famous psychiatrist Christophe André.

"In a society where everything is more and more fast and intense, we have been encouraging our patients for more than ten years to meditate everywhere, while waiting for the bus, while walking, during a break in the office, taking a few minutes to focus. on the present moment, it is necessarily good ".

The author of the long-time book "Mediter day by day" (500,000 copies since its release in 2011) notes the general enthusiasm for these practices from the East.

Illustration: his daily column "3 minutes to meditate", broadcast last summer on France Culture broke the record of Podcasts of the radio: they were downloaded 2 million and a half times, and are the object of a publication to Iconoclast editions.

A practice against indicated for the "digital addicts"

But as for food, too much is the enemy of good, alert Christophe André, who only advises these applications to people with reasoned use of their Smartphone.

On the other hand, those who already spend several hours a day in front of their screen, he says, will only maintain the subliminal belief of being able to do nothing without these pesky screens! "

But the message of meditation is to let go of phones and tablets to be more in the presence of oneself . So to pass, as recalled by the psychiatrist-passer, by the breath, the body, the observation of thoughts, the free emergence of emotions.

The most effective: meditating in a group

Is it possible to achieve true meditative quality via an app?

"These tools make it possible to discover the technique, to make booster shots when one has lost contact with the practice, but that does not replace a direct teaching " affirms Christophe André.

"If you feel that meditation touches us, through an app, a cd, or even YouTube, the next step is to participate in a group practice." A retreat or seminars provide more specific instruction and share with others. "

The same goes for Elodie Garamond: "When you meditate in assemblies, there is an extraordinary vibration.We are carried by the energy of others.This is the limit of the app.In the end, we remain alone with his phone . "

It is for this reason that the young woman launches the first edition of the ambitious "Women Spirit Festival". Based at the industry hotel, the women-only event will focus yoga and mindfulness meditation sequences for two days. Songs, mantras and yogic meditation are also on the program.

"In the silence, we feel strong things, argues Elodie Garamond, there are important connections, and we experience a form of nonverbal communication with the people around us.When we enter into modified states of consciousness, this energy collective helps us to go beyond our limits. "

Ooomm.