The more comfortable I become with my meditation practice, the more I love to play around with my exercises, switching them up wherever I can. It’s fun to try new adventures, and I’ve been enjoying the versatility of the Expand app.

One of the greatest features of Expand is the ability to personalize your meditation with different focus levels in the app’s Timer section. While the Timer feature has been there since the beginning, new exercises have been added that let you choose focus levels as the primary purpose for an exercise. Now Focus 10 (mind awake, body asleep), Focus 12 (expanded awareness), Focus 15 (beyond time), Focus 18 (heart energy), and Focus 21 (bridge to other realities) are available to craft your own adventure. The original options—creativity and manifestation, focused attention, meditation, relaxation and healing, and sleep—remain as well.

After picking the focus level you’d like to meditate in for a daily exercise, you can choose the amount of time you’d like to meditate (anywhere from one minute to two hours) and, from there, you can select a background noise to accompany your exercise (or not, if you’d prefer).

One of the greatest features of Expand is the ability to personalize your meditation with different focus levels in the app’s Timer section.

The creativity and freedom that this allows in my meditation practice actually motivates me to hop onto the app and try out new meditations each day. While the guided exercises are important and something I need on some days, the ability to create my own experience within different focus levels is something that provides a playful excitement that I need to cultivate on other days.

After having taken many different programs at the Monroe Institute, I associate each focus level with different tasks and purposes, so for me this comes into consideration when I’m putting together my own meditation exercises.

I find that Focus 12 is a very self-reflective place where I can look into the mirrors and gateways of all facets of my life. I find it’s great for focusing on my small-term problems, reflecting on the journeys my life is currently on (from a closer perspective), and manifesting various directions I would like my life to take. So, when I’m looking for an introspective and more practical meditation, I find setting my exercise in Focus 12 very helpful.

Focus 15 is a great place for me to fully separate from small problems I see around me, providing a larger picture perspective away from time and the drama that sometimes comes with it. I love manifesting from Focus 15, as I feel it’s the best place to manifest more big-picture goals, and also to gain perspective on what’s important and what isn’t in life. Sometimes I get too caught up on smaller issues, and Focus 15 can provide great perspective.

And when I want to feel creative, free, and even more detached from unnecessary obstacles, Focus 21 can offer a pleasant escape and a fun adventure when seeking to energize extreme creativity.

I find that the most exciting element about getting to create these different adventures for yourself is that you can explore each focus level on your own time and see what it brings forth. Meditation is a subjective thing, so what I experience in one focus level will not be the same as what you experience. So, I encourage you to head into Expand’s Timer section and try out each of the focus levels to see what they evoke in you. It’s a great tool to not only expand on your own meditation practice but also to learn more about yourself.