Christophe André, the psychiatric doctor who introduced meditation to the world of health care has contributed immensely to its popularization in France. He joined Petit BamBou, the meditation app with over 4.5 million users with the goal of enabling everyone to start meditating.
by: Silicon Luxembourg
photo: Momentum Productions
featured: Benjamin Blasco, Christophe André and Ludovic Dujardin
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Mindfulness meditation has grown rapidly in the last 5 years. It has been supported by a passionate ecosystem of experts, authors, startups, teachers and practitioners. There are however many who have not been able to try this simple and inexpensive approach to taking care of themselves.
Building a collaborative model
Petit BamBou, which offers audio guided meditations, has opted for a collaborative model to enrich this ecosystem: its content has been designed by a varied set of experts chosen because of their experience, expertise and enthusiasm. Over forty experts have contributed with their writing and/or their voices to enrich the content of the application.
“More than 21 million Petit BamBou sessions have been initiated since January 2019.”
Creating Exclusive programs
Christophe André has already recorded three exclusive meditation programs, specially designed for Petit BamBou with sessions of 12 to 20 minutes. These meditations join the 800 sessions already available in French. These reference programs make it possible to discover or deepen one’s practice of meditation, without going through the “theoretical” aspects. Programs include “Living in full consciousness” aimed at helping face the inevitable difficulties of life, “Meditating in the face of difficulties” aimed at helping one savour the good things in life, and “Meditating for living happily and generously.”. All three programs will be available in 2 lengths, “medium” or “long,” to adapt to the listener’s tastes.
A tool for the world of health
The psychiatrist and the app, both acclaimed in France, would also like to cater to the health professional community. Christophe André’s programs are designed to be supported by treating physicians and caregivers for a comprehensive mind-body health approach. The numerous scientific studies on meditation have taken this practice to a new dimension but it is essential the practice is easily accessible. Petit Bambou’s mobile app makes it very easy.
“Many companies also offer meditation to their employees through an app or workshops. Today, more than 19% of managers are already meditating.”
2019: A record year for Petit BamBou
The leading meditation app in Europe recently passed an important milestone: 4 million people have created an account on the service.
All figures prove that the practice of meditation is not just a fad reserved for a minority. For instance:
- More than 21 million Petit BamBou sessions have been initiated since January 2019.
- 37% of Petit Bambou’s users are men. This contradicts the preconceived notion that meditation is exclusively for women.
- 60% of its users are over 35 years of age.
- Many children use the 90 child-friendly sessions in the app.
Many companies also offer meditation to their employees through an app or workshops. Today, more than 19% of managers are already meditating (study by Malakoff Médéric Humanis) and the trend has concurrently shown similar growth in 2019 for Petit BamBou.
It’s that time of the year again with two big announcements coming up in addition to this nomination. The first: Uber Rewards recipients can now meditate with Petit BamBou. Almost a year after the United States, Uber launched its loyalty and benefits program, Uber Rewards, for its French customers. Once users have joined the program by registering through the application, they start earning points for every Euro spent. The second is the partnership with the French retail chain Fnac which specialises in the distribution of cultural and electronic products and the magazine Psychologies to launch a National Meditation Day in France on March 11 (Wednesday).
