Why I Built Meditation Mastery – By Dr. Alex Stillwater
I created Meditation Mastery after years of failing to stay consistent with my own meditation practice. This is the story behind the app and how it shapes everything you see inside it.
Short answer
Why did I build Meditation Mastery? I built Meditation Mastery because I spent years failing to stick with meditation. Most tools felt too long, too vague, or too complicated. I wanted a simple, structured system that helps beginners start with one minute, stay consistent, and see real progress without needing to become a monk.
The longer story
For years, I bounced between meditation apps, books, and videos. I’d feel motivated for a few days, do long sessions, and then stop when life got busy.
The same problems kept showing up:
- I didn’t know if I was “doing it right.”
- Sessions were longer than my brain wanted to handle.
- Building a streak felt fragile and stressful.
- Nothing showed me, in a simple way, that I was improving.
Eventually, I realised the real problem wasn’t meditation itself. The problem was habit design.
Beginners don’t need more theory. They need:
- a tiny starting point they can’t talk themselves out of;
- clear instructions on exactly what to do today;
- a way to see their progress at a glance;
- gentle accountability that doesn’t feel like shame.
So I started building the app I wished existed:
- 1-minute starting sessions so there’s no resistance;
- a step-by-step plan that adapts as you stay consistent;
- guided sessions and short lessons to reduce confusion;
- streaks, reminders, and a heatmap so progress is visible.
Over time, Meditation Mastery became the product of thousands of small iterations — guided by my own practice and anonymized usage patterns from people just like you.
What Meditation Mastery is not
Meditation Mastery is not:
- a medical device;
- therapy, counselling, or crisis support;
- a replacement for professional help.
It’s a structured tool for building a gentle, sustainable meditation habit. The content is for general wellbeing, not diagnosis or treatment.
For full context, please read the Content Disclaimer and the Terms of Use.
How this shapes the content you read
When you read a guide on this site, you’re not reading theory from a distance. You’re reading:
- lessons learned from my own attempts to stay consistent;
- patterns I’ve seen in anonymized Meditation Mastery usage data;
- ideas tested in the real world with real beginners.
That mix of personal practice + product data + research is what I try to bring into every article, script, and lesson.
If you’re curious about the numbers, visit the Insights & Data page for examples of how beginners actually use the app.