What was your screen time like last week? Mine
was 2 hours 52 minutes a day on average.
Well, what if we could utilize that time towards sacred
or holy pursuits as opposed to doom scrolling?
Welcome to Compass Finding Spirituality in the Everyday. I'm your Host,
Ryan Dunn. 2 hours 52 minutes per day,
that's not terrible, I guess. But still, it's almost three
hours of my day, every day spent staring into the little
glass glowing triangle. Now some of that time is meaningful. I'm
connecting with people, staying informed, I'm doing work. But
let's be honest, a lot of it is actually a little bit more mindless,
isn't it? It's scrolling. Doom scrolling. Even the
scrolling often triggers a stress response which
sends cortisol and dopamine into our systems. And then dopamine
specifically keeps us craving more. It's been called the
molecule of more. And when we're swimming in dopamine, we we want
novelty and surprise. And that ignites our need to keep
scrolling or looking for fresh information or to
find something else that's as triggering as something that we just saw,
even if it's negatively triggering. And that's why we find that headlines
centered on negative emotional responses tend to get more attention.
Anyways, when we're scrolling on our screens, what's happening
here is a feedback loop. We see a concerning post
which ignites our cortisol receptors. Our brain
registers a threat and then we scroll in hopes of
clarity or control. And the brain is seeking dopamine. But instead
there's more stress as we scroll, looking for something that feels rewarding.
The loop is self reinforcing. Cortisol ramps up our
anxiety. Dopamine rewards the scrolling behavior,
so we just keep repeating it. Now of course, this isn't the only
thing that that we do on our phones or screens. We do
lots of things there and we can use them to disrupt
this stressing cycle and to redirect our attention
and create neuropathways of positive reinforcement for things
like stillness and awareness. Our screen time
can be used to nurture our spirits. That's what
today's episode of Compass is all about. Turning your screen time
into into soul time. I'm going to introduce you to a handful of apps
that invite us into reflection, contemplation and
prayer. Some are rich with content, some are beautifully
simple, but all of them can help guide us towards moments
of spiritual presence. Just a quick note, none of these apps are
sponsors and I'm not getting any kind of affiliate benefit for recommending them. I'm
just sharing tools that I've found useful on my own spiritual journey.
And I think all of these apps are free, so some may have some additional
content behind a paywall, but generally these are not heavily profit
driven endeavors. They were designed to feed the spirits of users
before they were utilized for profit. I'm not gonna name
specific podcasts here. I know that some people will pop on a podcast and
that can be a time of reflection and prayer for them. Personally, I fear
that podcasts might just be a little bit too passive of
an activity, though that's probably not a fully fair
assessment. There are some that will likely invite listeners into
some active contemplation, but I wanted to concentrate on apps
that focus on inviting the user into some kind of
active participation over what I see happening with
most podcasts, which is a more passive form
of information absorption. Right. Plus there are so
many great podcasts out there that they could take over something like this,
and I feel bad for having to make judgment calls about which ones to include
and which ones to exclude. So before we talk apps though,
let's talk about the why of doing this Now. Jesus modeled
a rhythm of engagement and retreat, and he taught in public.
He healed the sick. He fed crowds. The introverts are listening to
this, they're already exhausted. So here's the good news. He also
withdrew to quiet places to rest, reflect, and reconnect
with God. In Mark 1:35, we read in
the morning while it was still very dark, he got up and went out
to a deserted place, and there he prayed. In Luke
5:16 mentions the same practice. We're told that Jesus would slip away
to deserted places and pray. And around some of the most
emotionally intense moments in his life, like feeding the
5000 in Matthew 14 or just before his crucifixion,
we learn that Jesus turned to solitude and prayer
for clarity and strength. These moments weren't just about
escape, they were about renewal, about grounding
in sacred presence, about creating space for discernment and
healing and connection. Now, modern life
doesn't make this kind of rhythm very easy. Since we're
constantly connected, we can often feel overwhelmed by trying to
add in something else. But just like rest is vital and a
workout routine, spiritual rest, this kind of rest that we encounter
through prayer and reflection or simply pausing,
is vital in our faith journeys. That's why we're exploring
spiritual apps. Not because they replace faith or any kind of spiritual
practice that we might do in community or in a church, but because they can
help us carve out space for this renewal
in the swirl of our everyday lives. So
let's get to it. Let's look at some that can help. First app
we're looking at is Everyday Sanctuary. This app is
meant to be a five minute satisfying and sacred
experience every day. It offers a short daily process that
follows a five step rhythm, pause and find
presence, reflect on scripture, reset our
focus through purposeful breathing, explore gratitude,
and then commit some time to praying for needs. A lot of it is left
up to the user in this app, meaning that there won't be a voice or
text telling you what you should be experiencing during any given
step. It's just the prompts that are given and there's space then also at
the end to journal and you can email those entries to yourself through the
app and then you have a written record of some of your experiences, which
I find is actually kind of novel for these apps and pretty
cool. I'm a proponent of naming your gratitudes. I think this
is a tremendous way to break cycles of stress and
stuckness. And it's such a simple thing. People just think it's cheesy, but it
is very meaningful. A lot of negative rumination dies
in gratitude. So the fact that this app invites us to do that
daily is really helpful for me. It's particularly great
if you're looking for structure without a sense of overwhelm
and good news. If you want to learn more about this app Everyday
Sanctuary, you can by listening to our episode with the
creator Abigail Broca. That was episode 125
back in January of 2024. App number two
is called Insight Timer. Everyday Sanctuary gives us a
repetitive formula every day right? And everyone gets the same prescription
every day. Insight Timer, our second app here is a bit
of a choose your own adventure. It's packed with thousands of guided
meditations, including many with a spiritual or Christian
perspective. It's kind of fun to explore around across the
different perspectives. However, I'm not one to say that the only
way to have a Christian spiritual experience is to be guided by a
Christian. I was introduced to Insight Timer by my friend
Jess Beelman and he's a good creator to follow on there. He
brings a down to earth approach to sacred reflection. The app
includes sleep aids, calming music,
customizable meditation timers, and as you seek out
more creators, you might just want to search for the word like Christ.
It comes up with a pretty good list of introductory
meditations and the meditations in this app are generally
spoken word over ambient music and that's about
it. So just know that the interaction that you're having here is all
internal and meditations range anywhere from like 45
seconds to 45 minutes. You get to choose app
three is called Lectio 365 or Lectio
365. Lectio 365. It's
inspired by the ancient practice of lectio divina, or
sacred reading. It also utilizes a stepped
formula like everyday sanctuary. So
Lectio365 opens with a moment of pause,
then invites us to rejoice and reflect on a scripture
reading. Then we ask for God's help and then we seek
to yield to God's will. This app was developed by
247 Prayer Movement and Lectio365
offers morning and evening devotionals based on scripture
and the audio version features these cool calming voices
and reflective pacing. It kind of helps you slow down
and then soak in the passage and really kind of moves you
then to prayer. And you can read through for yourself if
you want. Like a self paced experience with Lectio
365 or then the guided audio readings are anywhere from
5 to 10 minutes. Usually there's a longer one in the morning, I've noticed, and
then a shorter one later in the day. App number
four is a pretty familiar one for most people because
YouVersion is probably the most well known Bible app,
but there's a lot under the hood here Besides like the 230
different translations of the Bible that you can page through.
YouVersion also offers hundreds of bio reading plans,
many with reflections and prayers alongside them. Some
are really more blog posty in tone, others are
deeper, so you may have to do a little digging to find ones that really
nourish your soul, but once you do, then they can be really powerful ways
to stay rooted in scripture. My warning here though, is to be mindful
about the content that you're picking up. When I was talking about
podcasts, I mentioned being wary of just having someone
else's lens of experience or interacting with scripture be your
guide. Well, there are a lot of reading plans in
youversion that fall into that, where it's kind of like here's a piece of
scripture, here's how I feel about it, and that's the whole devotion.
But the cool thing about youversion is the possibility that's
behind it. There are so many reading plans that you can find one that
works well for you. You just might have to hunt around a bit and then
try some out for a little bit before you decide whether or not you're going
to stick with it for the entirety of the plan, or if you just want
to move on. App number five is the Centering Prayer
app. Guess what it's about? It's very simple and that's the point of
it. It's a timer designed specifically for the centering
prayer practice. The app includes background music as you're having
your practice. It includes some scripture snippets
and guidance for breath and posture. It's a great
companion just for developing a habit of silent
contemplative prayer. I'm not going to go into depth about centering prayer
here and check out the app for that. I do tend to talk a lot
about centering prayer, as it has been incredibly meaningful
in my own spiritual nourishment. And I did a full episode
on that too, way back in episode 40, which was recorded in June
of 2020. That's kind of an interesting time to revisit. So
if you want to dive into that little snapshot of history, go
back to that one. Incidentally, when I'm not talking about Centering Prayer as a
contemplative practice, I'm probably talking about Ignatian Examine instead.
I just discovered an app for adapting Ignatian
Examen, but I haven't played with it yet, so we're just going to have to
wait for a future episode on that one. App number six is
called Pray as you Go. It's developed by the Jesuits in
Britain. This app offers some beautifully produced audio
sessions. They feature scripture reflective music and the music can
be really cool. It's not just droning, ambient stuff. And
the app has guided prayer as well. It's truly meant to
be taken on the go. So the audio sessions are meant to
accompany you as you walk, or as you do your commute,
or as you, I don't know, lay on your bed and wonder why people for
so long have thought that textured ceilings were important to have.
The app helps turn on the go moments into God with Me
moments or Me with God moments. All right, I'll mention a few more apps
that I've not spent time with but might be worthy of consideration for this
pursuit. They include Abide Hallow and
Soul Time. Soul Rest is a neat
online app and it works really well on desktop. Pretty much everything
else that I've mentioned is going to be phone based, but
Soul Rest delivers meditations for your desktop.
Many are from YouTube, and it's cool because you can just have it do
a random meditation if you want to. So in the middle of your workday
you feel like having that sacred rest. Just pop open
the app and hit the random button. Or if you're coming up
against a big project, you can hit the panic button that they also offer and
get a guided meditation that's going to disrupt the downward
spiral or your runaway thoughts. And I thought that meditation, the
panic Button one was really well done. One more
recommendation that I have and it's not a contemplative app, but
it's really fun and I found it to be a refreshing way to
engage in some interactive kind of prayer. It's called Text
Jesus and it's simply an AI based interactive
conversation with a Christ centered algorithm. So I suppose
that's not really prayer because I'm not
addressing the Almighty directly, although I can say
that I am indirectly. I do use this for gleaning some
scriptures that are relevant to situations that I've encountered or
some anxieties that I'm carrying. I shared the feeling that
I was disappointing some people around me and Text
Jesus came back with assurances that God's love is not
dependent on my successes or my failures and that God
sees my efforts in heart. And that was a nice reassurance at the
time. And the whole app can be kind of fun in a way that
can be kind of like getting some Jesus inspired
responses to journal entries that you might be putting down. It's
not theological advice, but it can offer comfort, it can offer
reassurance, or even, just as I like to look at it, a gentle
nudge towards grace. That's what I feel when I'm using it anyway.
So is there an app that will solve your
spiritual challenges? Well, of course there isn't. These are just tools.
But the good ones can help us create space, they can help us build some
rhythms, and they can open us up to God's presence in the midst of
our day. If you're feeling spiritually dry,
distracted, disconnected, or like you just need a
disruption for good, maybe trying one of these apps is going to help
you reawaken some joy, peace, or attentiveness.
Also, I would really like to hear from you. There's an app that's been
helpful on your spiritual journey. Let us know by
dropping a comment on the podcast episode. Thanks for taking
this journey with us on Compass Finding Spirituality in the Everyday.
If you enjoyed this episode or found it helpful, please consider
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seekers for show notes, for links to the apps that we
mentioned. For more resources, visit umc.org
compass wherever you are on your spiritual journey,
we're grateful to be walking with you. Until next time, take care.
Keep exploring peace.