The Dhyaan blog
Meditation, measured honestly.
Start with a guide
Four long reads, each with deeper articles underneath
Guide · Measuring meditation · 7 min
How to measure meditation (and what no sensor can tell you)
What your heart, breath and stillness can really show about a sit, where they mislead you, and how to read your own numbers without turning practice into a test.
Guide · Apple Watch & AirPods · 5 min
Meditating with Apple Watch and AirPods: the complete guide
Guide · Silent meditation · 5 min
Silent meditation: how to sit without a voice in your ear
Guide · Dhyana · 5 min
Dhyana: what meditation means in yoga and the Bhagavad Gita
All articles
13 articles · The Gita on meditation →
How to know if your meditation is working
Five signs you can check yourself, what a watch or AirPods can and can’t see, and why a meditation score sends you the wrong way.
What happens to your heart rate when you meditate
Your heart rate usually eases down a few beats while you sit. Sometimes it climbs. Here is what drives both, and how to read your own numbers.
Does meditation increase HRV? What the research actually shows
Your HRV jumps during a sit. Most of that jump comes from slow breathing, and 19 trials found little lasting change. Here is how to read the number on your watch.
Falling asleep during meditation: why it happens and how to tell
Your head drops, then snaps back up. Why stillness tips into sleep, how to spot a doze, and how to stay awake without forcing it.
How to track meditation on Apple Watch
Log a sit with the Mindfulness app, find it in Apple Health, get a deleted Mindfulness app back, and see what Apple’s own tracking leaves out.
Can you meditate with AirPods in? Yes, and here’s what they notice
Noise cancellation or transparency, comfort on long sits, and what the motion sensors inside your AirPods quietly notice while you meditate.
How to meditate without your phone (using only Apple Watch)
Start the sit from your wrist, feel the bell as a tap, keep notifications out, and still find out afterwards what happened while your eyes were closed.
Guided vs silent meditation: which is better for you?
What the small pile of research says, when a voice helps, when it starts getting in the way, and an easy route from guided to silent sits.
How long should you meditate each day?
What studies on dose and frequency found, why sitting most days beats sitting long, and an easy way to pick a length you will keep.
How to keep meditating without streaks or guilt
A broken streak makes people quit. What habit research says about missed days, and why a weekly sankalpa is a kinder target to keep.
Dhyana mudra: how to hold your hands in meditation
How to form dhyāna mudrā, which hand goes on top, what your thumbs give away about your attention, and the small mistakes that make it tiring.
Trataka (candle gazing): how to do it safely
The classical instruction from the Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā, a gentle beginner practice you can do tonight, what the small studies found, and who should skip it.
Japa meditation: how to meditate with a mantra and a mala
What japa is, how to move through 108 beads, the three ways of chanting, and how to keep count without losing the mantra halfway round.