Frequently Asked Questions
- What is Black Lotus?
- The purpose of Black Lotus is to provide meditation that works. Meditation that works to infuse happiness into lives. Meditation that works to help realize the full potential of one’s life. Meditation that works to help you with your relationships, with others and yourself. Meditation that works.
- How are meditations conducted within the app?
- There are a variety of meditations within the app, ranging from silent meditation to complete guided walk throughs. Every day, there is a recommended meditation to help with the current goal. However, beyond that, it is up to you on how you want to go about the practice.
- Does the app help me with the health of my emotions?
- Yes. We have curated highly effective meditations and content to help with a variety of emotions. To name a few, they are building self esteem, building mindfulness, being calm, and building focus.
- Each emotion is captured within a goal pack that guides the user to conquer that emotion.
- How is the app structured?
- The app is structured using different goal packs that tackle different emotions. You can build your focus, learn to be stress free, build your self esteem and many more.
- Each goal pack is for a set number of days ranging from 11-21. To structure the day we use something called the RARE framework which stands for Reflect, Act, Reinforce, and Evaluate. Every morning you start the day with Reflect and do a meditation to get in the right mindset. You complement the meditation by doing acts of kindness and mindful activities in Act. After that, you read or watch some inspirational content related to the goal pack and lastly, you end the day by doing a self evaluation.
- This framework has been crafted by Om Swami and is based on his extensive experience in meditation, ranging more than 15000 hours. Based on his learnings, he saw that just meditation is not enough and you need to approach it more holistically by using catalyst activities like acts of kindness.
- How do I do kind acts with the app?
- In the Act portion of the day, there will be a Random Act of Kindness activity. There, you will find the opportunity to do some pre-canned acts or there is an option to also do a simple kind act and log it with a generic ‘Did a kind deed’ option.
- How do I become more mindful with the app?
- Black Lotus has been built so that mindfulness extends beyond the yoga mat or the meditation cushion. After doing the meditation in the morning, you are prompted to do simple mindfulness exercises such as doing everything with your less dominant hand, eating mindfully, or simply listening to the sounds around you. These activities coupled with the morning meditation will accelerate the growth of mindfulness within you.
- How many times can I meditate in a day?
- As many times as you like. After finishing the initial meditation, there will be an option to do meditation again with more tracks throughout the day.
- Who guides the meditations?
- As of now, all meditations are guided by Om Swami. Within the near future, we will have some other meditation and yoga experts guide the meditation as well.
- What are some features that are being worked on?
- We are currently working on something called Mindful Nudges which will help the user further inculcate mindfulness.
- We are also introducing something called Instant Actions which help you to do short meditations and breathing exercises through the day as you need them.
- How do you measure progress within the app?
- There is a very detailed Path available in the ‘Me’ section of the app that charts the progress of the user based on the RARE points. These points are allocated for the daily meditation as well as the mindfulness activities throughout the day. As the user receives more points, they move up the Path. At each level, there is a description of what qualities they will see in their meditation.
- Is there a free trial?
- Yes! You can try out any subscription pack for 3 days. Additionally, there are 2 packs that are available for free all the time. They are Explore RARE and Instill Gratitude.
Learn about Black Lotus
- Is there a particular order to do the goals?
We recommend that you start with the ‘Explore RARE’ goal pack to get accustomed to the habit. After that, it is up to you to select which goals you want to tackle. Each goal has outcomes linked to it. You can use the activities and these outcomes to understand what resonates with you and begin your journey. To build complete mindfulness, we recommend that you do each goal at least once. - How many goals can I do at once?
You can only work on one goal at a time to ensure deep impact. - What are cycles and how do I know how many cycles I have completed for a goal?
When you go through a goal for the period of the duration specified, you complete 1 cycle. For each goal, a minimum number of cycles are mentioned so as to yield the maximum benefit by following the curated activities.
The first time you complete a cycle for a goal, you will be awarded a badge that you can view on the Me page. Each subsequent cycle you complete, a count number will be displayed against the badge to inform you of the cycle count. - How should I use the app daily?
Good question.
Each day of the Goal pack has been curated by Om Swami with 4-5 recommended activities. These are structured as per the RARE (Reflect, Act, Reinforce, Evaluate) framework. The idea is simple - focus on what needs to be done on only one day i.e. Today. Starting the app will take you to the Today page where you will be shown the relevant action that you should ideally be doing, depending on the period of the day.
Morning (7 - 12m):
Ideally, you start the day with a few minutes of Reflective meditation. Each meditation is specifically created by Om Swami for the chosen goal in mind. We strongly recommend you begin the day with this guided meditation. The app will send a notification to remind you if you have not done this activity.
Throughout the day (7 - 12m):
The uniqueness of Black Lotus is that it is not just a meditation app but offers a holistic offering to make self-transformation possible. A key finding of Om Swami is that one needs to be kind in order to progress internally. The app gives you the opportunity to perform simple kindness acts in daily life, called Raks (Random Acts of Kindness). We recommend you to browse through the 3 suggested Raks once you complete the meditation and then try to do one of them in your day. You will find the kindness actions captured in the Act tab of Today. Just doing one Rak has been found to impact individuals positively, instantaneously.
Another activity in Act is an important tool for reaching the goal - Breathwork! Listen to the guided breathwork from Om Swami’s voice and witness the impact of breathing on your mind and body. We urge you to not miss out on this important daily activity.
Any time of the day (1 - 4m):
Once you complete the activities in Reflect and Act tabs, you will get the Reinforce activity unlocked. Here you will find a few minutes of inspirational reading content. All the reading content has been specifically curated for each goal by Om Swami. If you benefit and enjoy the reading, you can use the share option to pass it on to your loved ones.
Night (1 - 2m):
Before you call it a day, we recommend you note down your assessment of doing the activities in the day. This will be beneficial to make course corrections and ensure you are on the right track. You get to do this in the Evaluate tab where you will be asked specific questions that you can respond quickly.
That’s it! The app will remind you when you miss any activity across the 3 periods of the day - morning, evening, and night. If you do the suggested activity the moment you receive the notification, then you will be on your way to incorporating and benefiting from the RARE habit. - How is the streak calculated?
The streak gets calculated once you complete the day’s Evaluation activity. There are no separate streaks for Meditation, Rak, etc but have been combined to form the RARE streak that gives the count of the days you have been following RARE in your life. - How do I schedule the three notifications as per my schedule?
This is completely customizable and is available in the Me page. Once you go to the Me page, click on the Settings gear icon at the top left, and then you will see three options on when to get notified for Morning, Afternoon, and Evening. - How do I set the timer within the app?
Please see the following video for instructions on setting the timer and additional tools: https://youtu.be/r6qOmpXry-8 - I am getting certain experiences during meditation. Should I be concerned?
If something is persistently hurting or bothering you, please get it checked. If it comes and goes, and you feel it's a beautiful experience, be thankful and keep going. There are much bigger rewards ahead. - How do I share my feedback or new ideas?
Please use ‘Contact Support’ in Me page to send us your feedback or directly write to support@blacklotus.app. - How do I go about subscribing to the app?
- You can choose a subscriber-only goal and then choose to subscribe.
- You can go to Me - > Manage Subscriptions and choose the plan of your choice and subscribe