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                       Meditate for Free with the Oak App

   Josh Centers

   I've been listening to the audiobook of Tim Ferriss's [1]Tools of
   Titans, which documents the habits of highly successful people, and one
   of the many things they have in common (80% or so) is daily meditation.
   I meditated as a teenager when I dabbled in Zen Buddhism but that was
   an increasingly long time ago. I decided if that many high-performing
   people were doing it, it was worth giving it another shot.

   Studies have repeatedly demonstrated the benefits of meditation,
   including [2]improved mental and physical health, lower blood pressure,
   and even [3]improvements to your genes. Alas, sample sizes have been
   small or methodologies questionable, but it seems to be working for me.
   Anecdotally, I've noticed increased levels of focus and productivity
   and an improved ability to handle stressful situations. If I miss a
   day, I feel like I'm meandering through a fog.

The Elephants in the Room: Calm and Headspace

   Ferriss recommends the apps [4]Calm and [5]Headspace in the book. They
   sounded familiar, but I couldn't immediately put my finger on why. Both
   apps require an annual subscription fee, so I tested their free trials.

   Both apps were fine, and I started seeing improvements in my focus and
   mental clarity in a few days. However, it felt silly paying an annual
   subscription fee to meditate'it's just someone talking. What exactly
   are you paying for? As much as anything else, it seems to be celebrity
   meditations from the likes of Malcolm Gladwell and Matthew McConaughey.

   In fact, I find a celebrity voice distracting. I tried Calm's
   meditation intended to help you get back to sleep, narrated by Jerome
   Flynn, who you may recognize as Bronn from Game of Thrones. So here I
   am at 4 AM trying to get to sleep and thinking questions like:
     * What happened to his character in Game of Thrones?
     * Is he really into meditation or is he struggling to find roles now?
     * How much does an actor make for doing these meditations?
     * What part of the UK is he from?

   Lovely voice but entirely too familiar. Needless to say, I didn't get
   back to sleep.

   I liked the guided meditations but didn't see a compelling reason to
   pay. Eventually, I remembered why these apps rung a bell: Timothy Buck
   wrote about Headspace for TidBITS back in 2019 (see '[6]Headspace: A
   Guided Meditation Companion,' 14 October 2019).

   I looked up that old article and saw that readers had suggested [7]Oak
   as a free alternative. It's now my only meditation app, and I think
   it's all most people really need.

What Oak Offers

   Oak has a small set of both guided and unguided meditations:
     * Mindful (simple meditation to focus on your breath)
     * Loving Kindness (in which you think of people and wish them
       happiness, health, and peace)
     * Unguided

   Along with a few short breathing exercises:
     * Deep Calm
     * Box
     * Awake

   And a couple of routines to help you get to sleep:
     * Relaxing Sounds
     * Guided Breath

   Each meditation has extensive customization options: duration, male or
   female instructor, background sounds, and whether or not you have a
   warmup.

   As someone with three kids and thus a noisy house, I appreciate the
   large library of background sounds, which include things like cave
   water, fireplace, rain, Tibetan 'om,' and simple white noise. They're
   also helpful when trying to fall asleep because they help drown out the
   noise of your brain. You can independently adjust the volume of the
   instructor's voice and the background sound.

   Finally, you can enable a setting to link Oak to Apple Health, which
   updates your Mindful Minutes metric in the Health app.

   Once you've configured everything the way you want it'Oak remembers
   your choices for next time'tap Begin Meditation, and you're off.
   There's nothing more to it, nor should there be, in my mind.

What Oak Lacks

   Oak isn't as full-featured as Calm and Headspace. The main thing you
   miss with Oak is variety. Both Calm and Headspace offer new meditations
   every day with different lessons or things to think about. Personally,
   I find those distracting. I just want a few minutes to clear my head,
   not be inundated with a message of the day. But if you need that
   novelty to keep you coming back, you may soon grow bored with Oak.

   Calm and Headspace also both offer meditations for specific situations,
   while Oak doesn't. I found these situational meditations to be akin to
   dozens of ketchup options that all taste the same, since fundamentally
   meditation is about breathing and clearing your mind.

   And, of course, Oak doesn't have any celebrity voices. Sorry, famous
   people, I just don't find you relaxing.

References

   1. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082VKY29Q/?tag=tidbitselectro00
   2. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/04/harvard-researchers-study-how-mindfulness-may-change-the-brain-in-depressed-patients/
   3. https://www.wbur.org/news/2018/04/06/harvard-study-relax-genes
   4. https://twitter.com/willsommer/status/1573297065492455424
   5. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/headspace-mindful-meditation/id493145008
   6. https://tidbits.com/2019/10/14/headspace-a-guided-meditation-companion/
   7. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/oak-meditation-breathing/id1210209691

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