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The Seed of Mindfulness
Gordon Meyer | Jan 8 2008
Merlin's Mindful Eating and Keeping Weight Off reminded me of the best tool I've found for prompting mindfulness in virtually any situation. It's the Powerseed, and while it is marketed primarily for weight loss, it turns out to be a useful reminder/timer for virtually any activity where mindfulness is important. It's a sleek, battery-powered pod about as big as the end of your thumb. It offers both visual and audible cues, and operates in a couple of different coaching modes. The basic idea is that it is a discreet coach that prompts you to "check-in" with yourself. It signals both short and long regular intervals, which are useful for being aware of time passing, as well as performing different routines are each mark. I've had mine for sometime time now, long enough that I had to figure out how to change the battery. According to the product's website, it's not currently available, but my understanding is that the inventor is updating the 'seed with battery and other improvements so perhaps it will be back soon. Another approach you might consider is computer-dependent, but more flexible. I also use Red Sweater Software's FlexTime as a handy tool for regular-interval cueing. See Merlin's early peek at it for more detail, and from a slightly different perspective. Either way, tuning-in is a Good Thing. 11 Comments
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 Powerseed SystemSubmitted by Powerseed on January 9, 2008 - 9:31am.
Merlin...Thich Nhat Hanh's mindfulness teachings were indeed a source of inspiration that led me to create this attention-focusing tool. My ADD tendencies and rapid, mindless-eating were another impetus;) I was truly amazed when I saw how much less I could consume (and still feel satisfied!)--simply by finding an effective way to break through my mental wanderings and actually PAY ATTENTION to my food and bodily feedback AS I ate. This led me to wonder if these methods could help others and so I bit the bullet and self-financed the tooling, production and a market test of 2,000 units. The Powerseed approach was well-received with 85% of surveyed customers saying this system was better than other weight control programs they had tried. At the same time, I don't want to tout this product as some sort of non-diet wieght control panacea--changing ingrained lifestyle patterns is always difficult and success critically hinges on one's intentions first and foremost. At this point, I am regrettably out of inventory with a customer waitlist as I search for a compatible financial and marketing partner to move forward. As a solo-entrepreneur, any suggestions or advice on how to proceed from you or your knowledgeable readers would be sincerely appreciated! I also recognize that this product can serve many other uses beyond weight control and I'd be very interested in hearing of other lifehacks. My email is billATpowerseedDOTcom » POSTED IN:
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