I got started with Insight Timer because it seemed like a simple way to set a timer for meditation with a few added features that would reinforce the regularity of my personal practice.
As is so often the case, it proved to be a little more complicated than that.
I discovered the guided meditations offered through the app. I recorded a few of my own. I wasn’t looking to make a buck; I just wanted to share the love, to fill a gap, to reach a community I knew was out there.
These meditations were well-received, and I was delighted to see as many as a thousand people around the world checking each one out when they went “live.” Most of these were seasonal in nature, intended for specific moments in the Wheel of the Year; I stopped after publishing five, because of a policy change in mid-2019 related to the timing of the approval process, but that’s beside the point here.
Somewhere along the way I must have ticked a box accepting payments, well after I stopped publishing new content. I couldn’t really imagine this would lead to anything. But then, at the end of 2020, I got a notification.
That’s right. I’m a big spiritual guru now. I’m getting paid.
No! To be honest, this creates a bit of a quandary for me. I don’t feel right accepting money for this work. It was offered to the world as a gift, and furthermore it builds on the work of others who aren’t being compensated.
Therefore I’ve decided to donate these funds to SOUL, a local community group that plants trees in neighborhoods that want and need them. And since the amount seems rather paltry on its own, I will be multiplying by a factor of ten from my own personal funds.
Weird footnote: I started the Wikipedia article on Insight Timer a couple years ago. The fact that I’ve now received payment from Insight Timer creates an obvious conflict of interest. But, oops, the article was just deleted so the point is moot.
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