community features Archives - Meditation Mind

Bloom Bot

Meditation Mind Team — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 07:45:57 +0000

One feature that really helps set our Discord community apart is Bloom, our custom bot. Bloom welcomes all new members, so it’s often the first name people will see when joining the server. While Bloom helps with a wide range of administrative tasks such as this, what makes the bot invaluable to our community members is the meditation tracking and stats functionality it offers. Bloom tracks meditation sessions, provides stats (with graphs!), and manages vanity roles for meditation streaks and total time meditated.

Keep reading to learn how to use these features, along with a handful of other commands that community members may find interesting or useful.

Meditation Tracking

Meditation Tracking Stats

Tracking and Stats Customization

Meditation Challenges and Courses

Community Enhancements

Meditation Tracking

For many users, /add may be the only command they ever need. Adding session times allows Bloom to keep track of your streak and total time meditated. Based on this data, the bot will automatically award the following vanity roles.

To add a meditation session, simply type the /add slash command. Make sure the Bloom command is selected, then input the time in minutes and hit enter or tap send.

There are also options to specify seconds, privacy, and a UTC offset. Setting the privacy to “private” will make the add anonymous. All adds use UTC by default, unless a custom offset is specified. For more information, see /customize, which allows you to set your own personal defaults for these settings. However, note that any settings specified when using the /add command will override your personal profile settings.

Note that when attempting to add more than 300 minutes at once, Bloom will ask you for confirmation, like the following.

One may wish to add large amounts of time on occasion, e.g., after a silent retreat. Time tracking is based on the honor system and members are welcome to track any legitimate time spent practicing. Vanity roles are purely cosmetic, so there is nothing to be gained from cheating. However, note that exceedingly large false entries will skew the server stats, which is unfair to other members. Please be considerate.

Bloom also supports importing sessions from some of the most popular meditation apps: Insight Timer¹, Waking Up², VA Mindfulness Coach³, and Finch⁴. If you use an iOS device, you can import sessions from your Apple Health data⁵, which expands support to any meditation app that tracks Mindful Sessions, and most of them do!

¹In the app, go to Settings > Features & Preferences > Sessions > Export log
²On the website, go to More > Account Settings > Export progress
³In the app, open the pop-up side menu and go to Export User Data (Mindfulness Logs Data)
⁴In the app, go to Settings > (Account) Your data > Export data > Export. Unzip the export file and import the BreathingSession.json and/or TimerSession.json file(s).
⁵See Share your health and fitness data in XML format and below for extracting Mindful Sessions

There are two ways to import data. The /import command uploads your log file directly to the bot and can be used in #meditation-tracking or in a DM with Bloom.

Alternatively, you can send a DM to Bloom with the log file attached, right-click (desktop) or long-press (mobile) the message, and select Import Tracking Data from the Apps > Bloom context menu, as shown below. Select the import type and click Submit. The file will be processed and the add will be announced in the #meditation-tracking channel, like usual.

This is especially useful on mobile when exporting from Insight Timer, since you can send the log file directly to a DM with Bloom, like shown below. Other apps will require additional steps to get the log file into a DM. Contact staff if you need assistance.

By default, Bloom will only import sessions that are newer than the session most recently logged with Bloom. If you would like to import all sessions included in the log file, set the Import Type to all entries, as shown below.

When you select “all entries,” Bloom will check to make sure entries in the log file do not conflict with sessions you have already tracked using Bloom.

If you are importing Insight Timer or Apple Health data, selecting “all entries” is completely safe because Bloom will check start and end times and skip any entries that overlap with existing data.

Unfortunately, log files produced by Waking Up and VA Mindfulness Coach include date and duration, but no start time. Bloom logs these entries at midnight and checks for conflicts based on exact duration. While unlikely to happen, this means that if you previously recorded a session at midnight using Bloom and your log file includes a session of the exact same duration on the same day, that entry will be skipped.

If you use an iOS device, we recommend using Apple Health data for the most accurate logging. Luckily, if you have Apple Health sync turned on, data from both Waking Up and VA Mindfulness Coach will be included.

The Apple Health data export can be extremely large, as it includes much more than Mindful Sessions. But don’t worry—we’ve created a program that will extract the data for you. Just download Bloom Bot Parser (available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux), run it on your PC, select your Apple Health export data file, and the program will supply a CSV file for use with /import.

If you ever wish to view of list of your previously added sessions, simply use the /recent command, as shown below. Optionally, you may also specify a page number (not shown).

While there are several reasons you might want to review past session data, the most common use for this command is to retrieve an individual session ID. This is required to remove a session, which we will cover below.

If you ever need to remove a session, simply use the /remove command. You will need the session ID*, which you can retrieve using the /recent command (see above). Shown below is a recently added entry, which we will remove as a demonstration.

*Session IDs use code block markdown, which makes copying easy on mobile—just tap the ID!

Note the session ID: 01J8YC2AT4W096QA2C8A0RKR9K. To remove this session, use the /remove command and offer this ID as input, as shown below. The session will be deleted and you will be given confirmation.

Meditation Tracking Stats

To check your meditation streak, just use /streak. Optionally, you may specify the user whose streak you would like to see. If no user is specified, your own streak will be shown.

(New!) In addition to your current streak, /streak now also shows your longest streak.

You can show the streak privately via ephemeral message by setting privacy to “private.” Also see /customize, which allows you to set your own streak to private or disable streak reporting. However, note that any settings specified when using the /streak command will override your personal profile settings.

Bloom can display stats for both individual users and the overall server, using the /stats user and /stats server commands, respectively.

All stats include graphs, with data displayed in orange on a black (dark mode, the default) or white (light mode) background, which can be toggled using the theme option. Stats for members who are monthly supporters on Patreon or Ko-fi will be shown using the member’s custom role color, which is a donator perk.

Below are examples of server stats in dark mode (left) and light mode (right).

Both user and server stats default to daily minutes. Optionally, graph data may be specified. You may choose either meditation minutes or session count, using a timeframe of daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly.

Stats are also offered in multiple styles: bar chart (default, seen above), bar chart with combined data (below on left), and area chart (below on right).

Stats may be displayed privately by setting the privacy option to “private.” User stats always show the current streak, unless streak reporting is disabled in the user’s personal profile. For more information about these settings, see /customize, which also allows you to prevent others from viewing your stats.

Bloom can also display individual /stats bests.

When viewing an individual’s overall personal bests (the command default), an image will be generated that shows best day, week, month, and year for both time meditated and session count (below on left). Visibility honors the user’s stats privacy setting, and can also be optionally specified when using the command.

In addition to overall bests, you can view a Top 5 or Top 10 list for each combination of stat and period (top five weekly times shown below on right). Top 5 and Top 10 lists are shown privately regardless of privacy settings to prevent flooding of the channel due to their size.

Bloom also offers /stats leaderboard charts. Both Top 5 and Top 10 leaderboards are available in four timeframes (daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly), sorted by minutes, sessions, or streak, with support for both light and dark modes.

Leaderboards honor individual tracking privacy settings, meaning that private streaks will not be shown and members who have anonymous tracking enabled will be shown as “Anonymous.”

Tracking and Stats Customization

Users can use the /customize group of commands to create their own user profile to personalize their meditation tracking and stats experience. Profile settings include: UTC offset, anonymous tracking, streak reporting, streak visibility, and stats visibility.

Note that slash command options take preference, allowing user profile settings to be overridden when running the relevant command.

To see your user profile, use /customize show. The default settings are shown in the user profile below.

To change the UTC offset, use /customize offset. Select the appropriate hemisphere and then choose the offset for your local time. Whenever you track meditations using /add, the time will be recorded using the offset specified in your user profile.

Note that UTC offsets do not automatically adjust for daylight savings time. You will need to update your profile or manually specify the alternate offset when using /add.

To enable anonymous tracking, use /customize tracking. When you add a meditation session with anonymous tracking enabled, an anonymous entry is displayed in the channel to motivate others, but any personal information (total meditation time, streak and role info) is displayed privately via ephemeral messages, as shown below.

When combined with other privacy settings, this can produce potentially unexpected results. For example, enabling anonymous tracking without setting your streak to private would allow others to view your streak even though your adds are anonymized.

To avoid such surprises, a warning is displayed whenever anonymous tracking is enabled or disabled, and you will be offered the option to automatically adjust the relevant privacy settings, as shown below.

To set the visibility of your streak information or to completely disable streak reporting, use /customize streak.

When you set your streak visibility to private, using the /streak command will display your streak privately via ephemeral message and other members will be unable to view your streak. You can override the display behavior by using the /streak command and setting the privacy option to “public”.

If you turn streak reporting off, your streak role will be removed, your stats will no longer show your streak, and you will no longer receive streak notifications or streak roles when adding time. However, your streak will not be lost. You can still view your current streak by using the /streak command and you will be given the appropriate streak role should you ever decide to turn streak reporting back on.

To set the visibility of your stats, use /customize stats.

When you set your stats visibility to private, /stats user will display your stats privately via ephemeral message and other members will be unable to view your stats. You can override the display behavior by using the /stats user command and setting privacy to “public”.

Bloom will offer to log time spent in meditation voice channels automatically. After spending at least five minutes in an eligible* VC, Bloom will ping you and ask if you would like to log your time upon leaving the channel.

In addition to Yes and No responses, you can also choose Always or Never to specify a default response and prevent further prompts.

*Eligible VCs include both #meditate with me channels, #group meditation, and #Meditation Hall (Silent)

You can change these settings directly by using the /customize vc command. In addition to enabling or disabling meditation VC tracking, you can also specify how you would like to receive tracking notifications when using anonymous tracking: private thread (default), direct message, or not at all.

Meditation Challenges

Each month, we host a meditation challenge to help community members establish or rekindle a consistent meditation practice by making it a part of their daily routine. At the beginning of the following month, one participant is randomly chosen to receive a copy of PLAYNE: The Meditation Game.

For those who want to take on a bigger challenge, we also host a 365-day challenge. To enter a challenge, just use the /challenge join command. The command defaults to the monthly challenge. To leave a challenge, use the /challenge leave command.

To join the 365-day challenge, just set the optional challenge parameter, like below.

To leave a challenge, use the /challenge leave command.

We also have challenge-specific stats for those participating in our monthly and/or 365-day meditation challenges.

Just use the /challenge stats command in #meditation-tracking. The command defaults to stats for the monthly challenge. Use the optional challenge parameter to display stats for the 365-day challenge.

Stats include total and average time and sessions for the challenge period, and current and longest streaks (all-time), as shown below. Streak stat visibility honors individual tracking customization settings.

Use /course join to enroll in a course or /course leave to withdraw from a course.

The commands can be used in any channel where you can send messages, and an ephemeral (private) response will be shown in the channel where the command was used, as shown below.

The commands currently default to the Mindfulness Course, which is our free, four-week mindfulness course, based on MBSR and MBCT. When more courses are added, the optional course parameter can be used to specify the course you would like to join or leave.

Community Enhancements

You may have noticed that Bloom provides a random quote each time a user adds meditation time. Members may also request random quotes using the /quote command, as shown below.

As a donator perk, monthly supporters can also specify an optional keyword or phrase, in search engine format. A search is performed using the specified keyword or phrase to narrow the pool of quotes from which the random quote is chosen. If no matches are found, a random quote is chosen from all available quotes.

While the occasional quote in #the-lounge is fine, we ask that quotes and other bot fun generally be limited to #bot-commands to avoid interrupting member discussion.

By member request, Bloom will now provide a random Pali Canon sutta (Buddhist discourse) when the /sutta command is used in the #bot-commands or #eastern channels, as seen below.

Suttas are randomly chosen from Bhikkhu Sujato’s translations of the Suttapiṭaka, or Basket of Discourses, and retrieved using the SuttaCentral.net API.

Optionally, members can specify the collection (choices shown below) from which the random sutta is chosen. By default, up to 500 characters are displayed, to limit screen space required by the command. However, when the visibility option is set to private, the limit is increased to 3,500 characters.

Community members can now bookmark messages for their own personal reference. To add a message to your bookmarks, right-click or long-press any message and select the Add to Bookmarks command from the Apps > Bloom context menu. Specify an optional description in the pop-up dialog, or just click submit.

Note that context menu commands will not work in channels where you can’t send messages. To bookmark a message in such a channel, copy the message link and use /bookmark add in any channel where you can send messages.

To view your bookmarks, use the /bookmark list command. To remove a bookmark, use /bookmark remove and specify the bookmark ID*, which can be found in the bookmark list.

*Bookmark IDs use code block markdown, which makes copying easy on mobile—just tap the ID!

You can also search your bookmarks using the /bookmark search command. This will search your bookmark descriptions, so be sure to add helpful descriptions if you plan on using the search function later.

Search supports quotation marks to indicate that words should appear in a specific order, the “or” keyword, and minus/hyphen (“-“) to indicate that a word should not be included.

Because bookmarks use database resources, regular members are limited to 20 bookmarks. Unlimited bookmarks is a perk for members who support the community with a subscription on Ko-fi or Patreon.

If you’re ever wondering what some meditation-related jargon means, try using the /whatis command to get a quick definition! Since results are usually compact, the command may be used in all channels, but please use it reasonably. When in doubt, use #bot-commands.

Whenever you want more than a quick, compact definition, you can use the /glossary group of commands. As several of these commands produce significant output, usage is limited to #bot-commands.

Use /glossary info to get full details for an entry, /glossary list to get a list of all available terms, /glossary search for an AI-powered search, or /glossary suggest to suggest a term for addition.

Both /whatis and /glossary info support autocomplete, so if you already have a term in mind, just start typing the name and the available choices will appear.

Submitting a server suggestion is easy and anonymous. Simply use the /suggest slash command in any channel where you can type, as shown below. Note that you will not be able to type in the #server-suggestions channel, so you will need to use the command in a different channel. This is to keep suggestions anonymous and limit discussion to the automatically generated threads.

Bloom will post the suggestion in #server-suggestions on your behalf, add voting reactions, and create a thread for discussion. An example can be seen below.

Bloom also manages the server starboard. Any post that receives four or more star reactions will be added to the #⭐starboard channel. The example below is from a time when only three stars were required, but is retained for its historical significance.

As seen below, the message has been added to the starboard. All starboard entries include a link to the original message, and the number of stars received is updated dynamically. (New!) High star counts now receive an animated star emoji!

(New!) The starboard now supports media galleries! Messages can feature up to ten images/videos in a single media gallery. An example with two images is shown below.

(New!) The starboard will now properly display special content automatically embedded by Discord, such as Tenor/Giphy/Imgur GIFs and videos, Spotify links, etc. In order to display correctly, the format is slightly different from other starboard messages, as seen below. The star count button jumps to the original message.

(New!) Members can now opt out of starboard eligibility for any of their own messages by reacting with ❌. This can be used to remove a message from ⁠the starboard, and will also prevent a message from being added, or re-added, as long as the reaction remains. As soon as the reaction is removed, eligibility will be restored and existing star reactions will be taken into account.

Bloom also offers easy and anonymous reporting of messages, either using the context menu or by emoji reaction. While our moderators work hard to maintain a harmonious atmosphere, it can be difficult to keep an eye on chat 24/7. Community members can help alert moderators to potential issues, and reporting a message is the quickest way to do so.

To report a message using the context menu, simply right-click (long-press on mobile) and select Apps > Bloom > Report Message. Below is an example of a message being reported for excessive adorableness. (Just a joke! We love adorable animals!)

To report a message by emoji reaction, simply react with the :reportstaff: emoji (), as shown below. The reaction will be removed immediately by Bloom.

Both methods will notify the moderators immediately. For context menu reports, you will receive confirmation via ephemeral message (below, left); for reaction reports, you will receive confirmation from Bloom via DM (below, right).

Note that if Bloom is down, it will not be able to remove your reaction. This makes context menu reporting the safer choice, since anonymity will be preserved even in case of failure.

As you can see, Bloom adds a lot to the community, and it handles many other tasks behind the scenes, too. We are constantly working on not only improving efficiency and stability of the bot, but also adding new features, which will be added to this page as they are released.

The post Bloom Bot appeared first on Meditation Mind.

@meditate with me

Meditation Mind Team — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 04:01:58 +0000

While meditation is commonly regarded as a solo activity, there can be something really powerful about coming together and meditating with others who share a similar intention. Group meditations can be a great source of motivation and accountability, as well.

Scheduling regular, live group meditations for a strictly volunteer-based community that spans the globe is difficult. However, ad hoc group meditations are a great alternative and the @meditate with me role makes organizing them easy. Keep reading to find out how!

1.) Grab the role
2.) Ping or get pinged
3.) Join a voice chat channel (optional)
4.) Play a guided meditation (optional)
5.) Meditate together

First, you’ll want to grab the role. Current members can find the role in the Customize section of #Channels & Roles, while new members will be able to select the role during Community Onboarding, as shown below.

Once you have the role, using it is as simple as ping or get pinged. Whenever a member wants to meditate with other members, they ping @meditate with me (usually in #group-meditation) and invite anyone with the role to join, like so:

People often send out invitations 5-10 minutes before they plan on starting the meditation, but others will ping the role several hours or more in advance. Some people like to ping to gauge interest and then decide together how to proceed. As long as you’re using the role to meditate with others, the finer details are up to you.

Once you’ve decided on a time, you’ll just need to determine the content. Sitting together in silence is a fantastic option, but many people prefer to use recordings of guided meditations. Discord’s Watch Together activity makes it easy to use guided meditations from YouTube, and you can share other sources using Discord’s Go Live and Screen Share functionality.

To use a recording, you’ll need to join a voice chat channel.

If you chose the @meditate with me role during onboarding or from the Customize tab of #Channels & Roles, you should have two #meditate with me voice channels in your channel list. These channels are dedicated to ad hoc meditations, so it’s best to choose one of these, if available.

If both are occupied, then you may also use the #group meditation voice channel, but be aware that the channel is also used for scheduled group meditations. To avoid disruptions, we recommend checking events to make sure the channel will be free for the duration of your meditation.

To play a guided meditation recording from YouTube, just click the big, blue Choose an Activity button or hover over the Activities Launcher button and then select Watch Together, or the YouTube logo. Check Discord’s Watch Together FAQ for details on how to choose and manage videos.

If you would like to use recordings from other sources, such as video or audio files on your own PC, you will need to use Discord’s Go Live/Screen Sharing functionality. While this is relatively simple to do, it can take some time and effort to get everything running smoothly, so we recommend using Watch Together whenever possible. If you’d like to share your screen, check out Discord’s Go Live and Screen Share article.

And then meditate together! It might seem like a lot at first, but after a session or two, you’ll be able to host impromptu group meditations with ease. If you ever have any issues, you’re always welcome to contact a staff member for assistance. And if you’re not already part of our online community, join us on Discord and let’s meditate together!

The post @meditate with me appeared first on Meditation Mind.