My Story

I was depressed growing up but honestly I never knew it. Everything on the outside was seemingly so wonderful. Back then, I certainly didn't know just how good life could be - or would become.

I began by taking on honestly look at what was going on in my life and in my mind. I was searching for ways to change my mind through philosophy, religions, meditation, yoga and whatever else I could get my hands on. My path steered me to meditation and my life very slowly but dramatically changed in great ways that I could not have imagined.

Discovery

I discovered there are two main goals in meditation: letting go of bad habits and the building up good habits. It's that simple. Letting go is done through insight practice such as vipassana. You use mindfulness to investigate reality, removes those clingy negative habits and sees through self-centered and constricted viewpoints. At times this is a most difficult practice - ultimately letting go of a root belief in any permanent lasting "self" requires almost fearless courage.

After grinding through that practice, I discovered it's complimentary practice: actively cultivating a positive self image. In this practice you develop true appreciation for life, whatever the circumstances, as deep love and gratitude grow. A sense of interconnected-ness, belonging, community and self confidence emerge. I found that this practice could be done throughout the day just by reminding myself to take a positive outlook.

Both practices require a commitment to stick with it over time. Having support from a community or teacher therefor becomes very important. Some type of system needed to be in place for me to keep up the mindfulness and encouragement.

How could I merge this vital practice with my daily life where I depend on my phone and computer at work?

Creation

As a software developer, I wanted to use what I'd learned and give back. I taught myself the Android OS for this contest and created an app with an idea. It's not the flashiest app but what counts is how well it works. Just like the unsatisfactory cycle of buying nicer and nicer things in hopes to increase our happiness... the best thing we can do is take a break. Relax and connect. Feel the earth and the tension and ease in our bodies. Spontaneously what then emerges is gratitude and a wonder for life. See for yourself.

Just another note- It's clear in psychology and neuroscience that we have a huge bias towards negativity. It generally takes about 20 seconds of continuous focus on a good experience to make a lasting impact on our mood. That's the same impact as a single instance of a negative experience. So it becomes really important to factor in more positive experiences in our life.

Here's How It Works

Messages are displayed at convenient times that you set during your day. You then focus on the meaning of the message for twenty seconds. During this time, you pause what you're doing, come back to your body, optionally close your eyes and enjoy the connection with things you deeply care about. When the twenty seconds are up your phone will vibrate to gently indicate that you're done.

There's also a social aspect to get encouragement (and self-accountability) with friends. As you and your friends use the app, you get a "point" for every message that comes up. As your watch each others score increase you'll have fun and automatically support one another.