Introduction

The latest version of the Yogamap app is available on the Appstore with support for iOS11.  In this article, I am outlining the features in the app that specifically support meditation functionality in the app.

Meditation option in Yogamap App

Yogamap app has some exciting features that make meditations timing easy, more mindful and the allowing of focus on the meditation and not by the app itself.  We have ensured that the app is minimally distracting when the app is used for Meditations (and in general) for the yoga workout.  This option allows users to use the Yogamap app for all kinds of meditations from Yoga ( Hatha, Kundalini, Ashtanga, Iyengar, Vinyasa) as well as Zen meditations (zazen with different sitting styles – hankafuza or half lotus, kekkafuza or full lotus, kinhin or walking meditation) One can set the desired interval and once the interval is over then a nice relaxing gong gracefully ends the meditation.

Summary of the meditation option features of the Yogamap app :-

Customizable times

Customizable times to the seconds to accommodate 11, 31, 61 and or any other time down to seconds.  For example, to setup a 61 min. meditation inspired by Kundalini Yoga, one would use the double tap gesture on the time part of the Meditation screen.  The screen would transition to the duration screen where a picker is presented with spinners for hours, minutes & seconds.  Slide the hour picker to 1 and the minute picker to 1 to set the time to the 61 minute meditation time.  Leave the seconds spinner to 0 as 1 hr 1 min = 61 minutes so not second setting is not needed.  Similarly to setup a 3:30 min meditation , leave the hour picker to 0, set the minute spinner to 3 for 3 minutes then set the second spinner to 30 for the extra 30 seconds.

Breathwork

During the meditation you can do long deep breathing, sitali pranayama as well as segmented breathing and even breath of fire for most Kundalini yoga inspired meditations.  For Zazen or other style of zen meditation you can also use the breath as specified by the meditation.

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Time is Up

1. When the meditation time is up, there is a relaxing gong sound.  The plan is to add more relaxing sounds besides the gong in the future.  Please note that the device (your iPhone) needs to be NOT in Vibrate mode for the Gong sound to be audible.  Here, we ensure that the app works with any kind of music playing in your meditation playlist.  So, you should hear the gong sound even when the music is playing.
2. There is also a gentle haptic feedback when your meditation timer is over.  For the haptic to be felt it has to be touching any part of the body so the vibration can easily be felt.  Another way of doing this is to leave the phone with the running timer on the floor or a hard surface.  You can set the phone to Vibrate and when the timer is finished then the haptic will be heard when it is on the floor.  This is beneficial if you are in a deep meditative state so you are not disturbed but gently brought back from it.

The above article summarize some of the features in Yogamap app now available on the Appstore (Download here).  While we try to improve the Meditation part of the Yogamap app all the time, we welcome all your suggestions to improve it.  In the future, I would like to add more support for Zen meditations, more relaxing sounds and custom reminders at regular intervals. Please visit the Yogamap facebook page or Yogamap on Twitter or on Instagram here. — Gary Saggu (Developer)