Website to help maintain a regular practice

[medivate]

Hello everyone,

I’m working on a website that helps practitioners commit to and maintain a regular meditation practice. It’s called Medivate--from “meditate” and “motivate.”

We have a trial version of the site ready, at http://www.medivate.org. Please take a look! I’m hoping you’ll find it helpful in maintaining a regular practice. At any rate, I’d appreciate hearing your thoughts and feedback on it.

Best wishes,
Frederick Meyer

[simhamuka]

I like the idea of making a commitment and sticking to it. The comment line, I'm not sure the comment line (unlike the rest of it) supports good habits. I don't think it's a good idea to step back and judge one's meditation. Often the days that I think things were going well, I wasn't doing as well as I thought, and days when I thought it was going poorly, I could look back later and see that it was great progress.

I think it was HH the Dalai Lama who said we need to give at least ... I think it was five years? ... before we can judge how well we're doing.

I was taught that often when we move to a deeper meditation, we think that we've gotten worse.

[jeeprs]

I suggest you make it possible for newcomers to see what it might be about, before having to register. I think you will find very few takers for any site for which registration is compulsory.

[username]

Simhamuka is right as most of her posts on this little forum are wise too.

I don't think it's a good idea to step back and judge one's meditation.

However making websites on issues you feel need exposition is also necessary these days and actually easy specially if you get some expert for mega google hits and later automated effective ongoing publicity. Make sure you prepare all your content assets and an effective PR campaign too and then launch. Also setting up a forum is very easy these days too. As is registering your domain anonymously, keep your host separate from the registrar for a few reasons. Good luck.

[dharmagoat]

I'm not sure the comment line (unlike the rest of it) supports good habits. I don't think it's a good idea to step back and judge one's meditation. Often the days that I think things were going well, I wasn't doing as well as I thought, and days when I thought it was going poorly, I could look back later and see that it was great progress.

I have taken a look at the site myself, and appreciate your concerns about certain features encouraging unhealthy habits. What I like about the site is how it makes no effort to teach its members how to meditate, leaving it up to the individual to practice according to their own tradition and as they see fit. While judging one's own meditation in terms of good vs. poor, productive vs. non-productive, can be misguided, the comment line needn't be used this way. Similarly, the rating field, where the meditator has the option of rating each sitting with a score from one to ten, can be used to rate the difficulty experienced during the meditation. Both of these features, used this way, provide a record of one's past diligence which can serve to encourage the meditator when motivation is low and confidence is flagging.

[username]

Some good suggestions by dharmagoat to consider and maybe try out. It is good to be prepared a few steps ahead of the curve beforehand. Good to try a beta out and always be ahead of obstacles by a few moves. I never regretted certain methods, amongst them this one as said in "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu:

"Victors win first and only then go to war while losers go to war first then seek victory."

So keep polishing up your beta website before final release. All the best.