Awakening Bell

Posted3 months agoActive3 months ago

mehagar

89 points

19 comments

awakeningbell.orgOtherstory

calmpositive

Debate

20/100

MindfulnessMeditationProductivity

Key topics

Mindfulness

Meditation

Productivity

The 'Awakening Bell' website offers a simple online bell that rings at random intervals to promote mindfulness, sparking discussion on meditation, notification alternatives, and personal mindfulness practices.

Snapshot generated from the HN discussion

Discussion Activity

Moderate engagement

First comment

Peak period

6-9h

Avg / period

3.8

Comment distribution19 data points

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Based on 19 loaded comments

Key moments

01Story posted
Sep 29, 2025 at 9:46 PM EDT
3 months ago
Step 01
02First comment
Sep 30, 2025 at 4:32 AM EDT
7h after posting
Step 02
03Peak activity
7 comments in 6-9h
Hottest window of the conversation
Step 03
04Latest activity
Oct 1, 2025 at 12:00 PM EDT
3 months ago
Step 04

Generating AI Summary...

Analyzing up to 500 comments to identify key contributors and discussion patterns

Discussion (19 comments)

Showing 19 comments

gbuk2013

3 months ago

1 reply

Can anyone recommend an iPhone app to do the same? I am literally keeping around an old tablet for running https://codeberg.org/tslocum/meditationassistant.git F-droid app in my meditation room.

I tried web apps before but iOS would cut them off when the phone went to sleep.

werrett

3 months ago

2 replies

There’s Zenitizer by an indie dev

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/meditation-timer-zenitizer/id6...

gbuk2013

3 months ago

1 reply

Looks nice but 20 GBP a year just to have a mindfulness bell is a bit much.

dakinitribe

3 months ago

If you have it on every hour, that's ~£0.00228 per bell.

manuelkehl

3 months ago

Hi, I'm Manuel, the developer of Zenitizer. Thank you so much for mentioning my app! Quite exciting to see it pop up here on HN, where I'm usually just a silent lurker.

It started as a typical "scratch my own itch" indie project since I, too, was looking for an app like this for iOS and watchOS and couldn't find one that ticked the boxes for me.

Happy to answer questions and always open for feedback!

Cheers!

jrowen

3 months ago

1 reply

The default settings are interesting. Are there people doing this every 15 minutes, daily? And otherwise live a "modern" life?

I don't meditate or actively practice mindfulness, the thought of it kind of gives me anxiety in a "I don't have time for that, gotta keep moving" way (though I do daydream and stare into space a lot, but is that mindfulness or the opposite?). In that sense I would almost consider this a form of torture, it's such a short interval, feels like it would always be on my mind (but that's the point?).

What is the relationship between mindfulness and deep focus, are they at odds or complementary?

turtlebro

3 months ago

As far as I understand it, the purpose of this is to avoid daydreaming, getting lost in thoughts or falling into auto-pilot mode. It's very easy to just start dreaming and go onto some tangent inside your head. So every few minutes there's a little wake you call to remind you if you're still present.

komali2

3 months ago

3 replies

Is anyone else obsessed with bells? I fucking love bells. Genuinely my favorite thing in the world is finding big bells and sitting somewhere near them while they're struck. I really want to explore this interest more some day, like if I get hella rich I'm gonna have some fucknormous bell forged. Like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bqpHuloKZs

mtwshngtn

3 months ago

1 reply

find a carillon[0] near you[1]!

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carillon

[1]: http://towerbells.org/

waltbosz

3 months ago

My desk at work is a 15 minute walk to a carillon.

wink

3 months ago

I kinda like bells but this first sample (from the posted link) would drive me nuts. If this woke me up my whole day would be ruined.

twic

3 months ago

TIL the largest bell ever made, weighing about three hundred tonnes, was lost because four hundred years ago, some Portuguese guy stole it and then dropped it in a river:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Bell_of_Dhammazedi

As far as anyone knows, it's still at the bottom of the river!

asimovfan

3 months ago

Mindful Notifier on F-Droid serves a similar function and works great.

ammanley

3 months ago

Well I heard there were actually two of these.

perilunar

3 months ago

I use a Mac menubar app called "Mindful Mynah". Plays a bell (or any system sound) at regular or 'fuzzy' intervals.

watsonjs

3 months ago

It's amazing the relief that such sound can bring

hoherd

3 months ago

I do this on macOS with cron and `afplay`

pkdpic

3 months ago

Love it. Especially the random interval. Wondering if anyone has ever proposed doing this whenever you get a text or social media alert. Seems ridiculous I guess but why not?

supersrdjan

3 months ago

I often use timers and alarms either on my casio or on my laptop as reminders for this or that. I routinely get so carried away by whatever I'm doing that I don't notice when the sound alert plays. Sometimes, when I realize later on that the bell already went off, I can recall hearing it earlier, as if it were a faint memory from a half-forgotten dream.

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ID: 45421067Type: storyLast synced: 11/20/2025, 12:44:40 PM

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