Every link in the tutorial list goes to a video. Is there anywhere I can get written tutorials? I’m starting to see the potential of Marvis but it is just so confusing and I don’t learn well from videos.
I’ve been passive the last several years but I’m getting back into it…
I’ve just converted to AM from Spotify over the weekend and after a few minor hurdles, I’m pretty tickled!
First hurdle was trying to do everything, everywhere, all at once, LOL… cloud matching my local music and trying to get everything synced up and transferring my ratings from older iTunes days took a couple of days where there was some wonkiness. All that seems to have settled down now. Ratings still need some tweaking, but I can do that over time.
Importing playlists from Spotify was easy using the built in tool. Just needed some organizing. I much prefer the album-centric approach behind AM.
One thing I was really bummed about was potentially losing last.fm scrobbling. I’ve been scrobbling since 2005! I had been researching all the options and nothing seemed ideal for me given that my work laptop (where I do the majority of my listening) is very locked down and I also use Amazon Echo devices around the house.
I got Marvis Pro and that seemed to be working okay for playing from my iPhone and iPad, but it would have required some inconvenient workarounds for my day-to-day listening habits.
Then I stumbled across a great solution that just came out a couple months ago called ScrobbleCloud! It works invisibly and it scrobbles all AM plays whether from iPhone/iPad app, Echo devices, web player, or desktop player. There’s a free level (scrobbles on demand) and a 14-day trial of the Pro license (scrobbles automatically every 2 minutes), and is only $5.99 for lifetime subscription. I’ve been testing it all day and it’s been flawless. I primarily used the web player today while I was working but I also tested it playing through Echo using voice commands (not Bluetooth pairing), and also through the standard Music app without invoking Marvis Pro. As far as I can tell, nothing was missed or duplicated… so yay! I will definitely be getting the pro license!
Marvis looks interesting so I’m sure I’ll still get my money’s worth from it. Unfortunately for work, I’m stuck with the web player but it performed fine for me today.
So that was my first three days on Apple Music… no regrets about switching. Hope it’s helpful for others thinking of switching. Would love to hear any great tips and tricks you have for getting the most out of it.
Rock on!
I just realized my one-year anniversary of starting Dr. Joe‘s meditations came and went last weekend without me noticing and I wanted to share an update.
For about the first 8-9 months, I stayed committed to a daily practice using only Dr. Joe’s meditations. I averaged 45 minutes to an hour a day, and last fall I even did a three-day “retreat at home” which I wrote about here. My goal when I started was healing from a collection of symptoms I attributed to long COVID.
Today, I still have a daily meditation practice, and my symptoms are probably 85-90% better. But I've largely moved away from the Dispenza techniques, and, for me, much of the healing happened after I began exploring beyond them.
The biggest shift was not a new technique, but in changing the relationship with my body. I went from trying to fix and control it to collaborating with it, accepting it, and learning to trust it. Ironically, when I stopped trying so hard to manifest healing and instead gave my body a greater sense of safety and trust, healing seemed to unfold much more naturally.
During my months with Dr. Joe, I had some pretty significant setbacks. Looking back, I don’t think his approach was inherently the problem. Rather, the way I was relating to it wasn’t helping my nervous system. My experience of the framework carried an underlying pressure to “do the work,” do it perfectly, believe harder, watch, judge, and correct my thoughts, push through, and control the outcome. I found myself becoming increasingly hypervigilant—relating to both my mind and my body with constant self-monitoring instead of curiosity and compassion. Whether or not that was the intended message, it’s how I experienced it. What my nervous system seemed to need instead was rest, space, quiet, safety, pacing, self-compassion, and much less pressure. For me, healing began when I stopped trying to manage every thought and sensation and started creating an internal environment of safety and trust.
I know Dr. Joe’s work has been life-changing for many people, and I completely respect that. This is simply my experience. If it’s working for you, that’s wonderful. But if it isn’t, I’d encourage you not to assume you’re failing. It may be that your nervous system responds better to a different approach.
Some of the things that have been especially helpful for me have been:
Craniosacral therapy
Yoga Nidra
Pain Reprocessing Therapy (working with the concept of perceived-danger pain)
Open-Focus brain training
Homeopathy
Meeting my body where it is today while gently, and very slowly, expanding my capacity
I plan to continue these and other nervous-system-supporting practices. Maybe I’ll even revisit Dr. Joe’s work someday with a different viewpoint. This fall I’m planning another “retreat at home,” but it will probably look quite different from last year’s.
If anything I shared resonates with you, or if you’re curious about the approaches that helped me, feel free to ask questions. I’d also love to hear about your own experience!