Little Druid on the Prairie

I just ran across a new meditation timer app that I thought might be useful to other people practicing meditation. It’s called Insight Timer, and it does a lot of the same things as the app I prefer to use (Meditator) with a number of other features. It’s got an online community, as well as tracking tools so that you can track how long you’re meditating and how many days per week and things like that. It’s got free versions as well as a full paid version for both iPhone and Android.

Meditator has more chime options, plus optional ambience noise for your meditation background, but since I only use the tingshas and singing bowl chimes, I’m not sure I’d miss them. As well, Meditator is only available for iPhone and iPad, so android users are out of luck.

I haven’t personally tried Insight Timer yet, but it looks like it could be a really good tool for a beginning meditator.

For a smartphone user on the Dedicant’s Path, this is a great way to keep track of your meditation progress (though I don’t know if it has a way to input comments after each meditation), especially if you’re like me, and just making journal entries once a week, regardless of the number of times a week you’re practicing your meditation.  When you go back to write your final essay, you’ll have easy access to statistics like how many times a week or month you’ve been practicing, as well as how long your average sessions are. Helpful!

So if you like tracking and statistics and the idea of building a virtual meditation community that you can connect to (and know when other people are meditating), as well as the usual features of a meditation timer (chimes, reminder chimes, timer presettings), check out Insight Timer. Both Insight Timer and Meditator are the same price (unless they go on sale! I got Meditator for free on a promotion), but Insight Timer has a reduced-function free version that you might try to see if you like it first!

Note: I am not affiliated with either Meditator or Insight Timer, nor have I been paid or compensated for this post. I am just a user of meditation timers and thought my readers might find this information useful.