What 111,000 Meditation Plays Taught Me About What Women Really Want

When I first started sharing meditations on Insight Timer, I thought I had a pretty good sense of what people wanted from meditation: calm, focus, stress relief – the usual suspects.

However, after reaching over 111,000 plays and receiving hundreds of reviews, I’ve gained insights that have completely shifted how I think about supporting women.

Most meditation apps and teachers create content for broad audiences, using universal themes and widely appealing language that serves many people across different situations. I’m certainly not knocking this approach as I think it can have tremendous value: it's accessible, shareable, and provides trusted support that people can return to again and again.

But when I analyzed my most-played meditations, I noticed something interesting. The ones with the most engagement were the ones with specificity. The ones that spoke to particular moments, exact struggles, and precise feelings. The meditation on feeling shame. The one for trusting in the timing of your life. The one on rewriting your story in midlife.

You don’t need another meditation telling you to just breathe. You need someone who understands exactly what you’re breathing through.

What the Data Reveals

Here’s what 111,000 plays taught me about what you really want from meditation:

• You want someone who gets it
  Vague advice that could apply to anyone doesn’t land as well as direct dialogue that feels personal.

• You want your complexity honored
  If you’re a woman in midlife, you’re probably not dealing with simple stress. You’re navigating career transitions while managing aging parents while supporting teenage children while questioning your marriage while experiencing peri/menopause. Generic meditation advice can sometimes gloss over that reality.

• You want practical spirituality
  Not spiritual bypassing or fluffy wellness talk, but grounded practices that connect your inner wisdom with everyday life. You need support that helps you show up better for your real responsibilities.

• You want permission
  So many meditations focus on discipline and consistency. But what I see in reviews is relief when you're given permission to meditate imperfectly, to adapt the practice to your needs, to trust your own wisdom about what serves you. This spills over into more than meditation. It sets the tone for how you live your life.

The Personalization Revelation

When I paid attention to comments and messages, I saw you asking for support with your specific situations:

“I feel like my boss is undermining me and it’s crushing my confidence.”

“I need something for when everyone has an opinion about my choices but I have to live with them.”

“Can you guide me through not absorbing my mother’s criticism?”

You wanted guidance that met you exactly where you are, with language that reflected your reality in the moment.

That insight led me to build Elevations, a new model of meditation – one client told me it felt like I was talking directly to her soul. Another called them "works of art."

Elevations are personalized meditations that address your unique situation, use your name throughout, and meet you in your exact circumstances. It’s not a replacement for your favorite meditations, but an evolution. Because when meditation speaks directly to your particular reality, it becomes exponentially more effective.

When you hear your own name in meditation, your brain pays attention differently. Neuroscience calls it the self-reference effect – hearing your name primes your brain to remember guidance tailored just for you.

Also, values-based rather than rules-based approaches hit differently. Instead of "meditate for 20 minutes daily," Elevations are more "how do you want to feel when you walk into that difficult conversation?"

One clear pattern emerged from my findings: many of the women most engaged with my content are teachers, coaches, therapists, or caregivers in some way. You spend your days supporting others but struggle to receive support yourself. Personalized guidance feels like having someone in your corner, someone who truly understands.

You don’t need meditation to make you more productive. You need meditation that reminds you you’re worthy of the same care you give everyone else.

What This Means for You

If you’ve tried meditation apps and felt something was missing, you may have outgrown one-size-fits-all guidance. Your practice doesn’t need to look like anyone else’s. It needs to serve your life, in your season, with your challenges and your strengths.

You deserve guidance that sees you, uses your name, honors your complexity, and meets you exactly where you are.

Ready to hear your name in a meditation that really serves you? That's what Elevations offer. A 30-minute conversation about your specific needs becomes a personalized meditation that creates real and lasting change in your life. I’d love to create something magical just for you.