Meditation Apps
Mindfulness has exploded in popularity over the past couple of years. It was arguably never more necessary, in fact, than amid a global pandemic. According to the NHS website, giving more attention to the present moment and thoughts and emotions can help enhance mental well-being and encourage people to appreciate life and better understand themselves.
According to mobile insights and analytics platform App Annie, mindfulness applications saw a massive rise in demand during the first coronavirus boom last March, with downloads up to 25 percent higher in the early weeks. Thanks to the crash, hundreds of applications are now on the market to help you begin or continue your journey to mindfulness.
Most of these apps are free (at least at first) and offer fast, guided meditations, so whether you’re a novice or a pro doesn’t matter. But there are also many extras to look out for to help you learn about the idea behind the trend, from nostalgia-inducing bedtime stories to soothing background noises and high-quality graphics and images.
Below are some of the best Mindfulness & Meditation Apps:
1. Calm
A new daily meditation sequence called the Daily Trip had been added by Calm. It provides a more adventurous activity narrated by Canadian author and meditation instructor Jeff Warren. It has also introduced exclusive music tracks tailored to help you concentrate, relax or sleep. The ‘night tales’ of Harry Styles carry the nostalgia of being told a bedtime tale back. For a subscription that lasts the whole year, the app costs just £ 28.99 – a fantastic deal. A regular, guided meditation series led by Jeff Warren is The Daily Ride. Warren directs the Regular Trip sessions, and they take place every day in a different location.
2. Anxiety Solution
If you’re trying to alleviate tension or change your mood, the Anxiety Solution app is the ideal tonic. Over 70 workshops, including mindfulness, breathing tools, and sleep stories, are included in the app. It also involves a series of 28 sessions that helps clarify and decrease anxiety. Especially during the third national coronavirus lockdown, we found working through the course and filling in the daily gratitude journal very helpful.
3. Portal – Escape into Nature
Portal is an app for mindfulness with distinction. Instead of guided meditation, users are transported around the world by the app. It is possible to transport users to the Scottish highlands and the Slovenian Alps. “relax.” Not only did we think it helped us relax, but we were also sent to sleep when dreaded insomnia set in.
4. Headspace
Across 190 nations, Headspace has more than 65 million members. To help you find your feet, hundreds of guided meditations and whimsical animations, Olympian-led daily exercises, and daily meditations on a new subject every day. “SOS” sessions are meant to support users who wake up at night and struggle to get back to sleep. The app has recently undergone several developments and now provides a sleek and modern meditation approach. For anyone wanting to learn the basics of meditation and mindfulness, it’s a perfect option.
5. Balance
Balance.com is a free app that teaches you how to meditate in a no-fuss way. Simple language and techniques help you focus on your breathing and improve your visualization. Free sessions include morning meditations, nature sounds, and open sessions to help with gratitude. All users get a 10-day foundation plan based on their goals for free – and there’s an option to subscribe. We loved the short, guided meditations and found that our focus improved thanks to the simple explanations dramatically. The app is excellent for beginners or short of time – we could tailor sessions to as little as three minutes.
6. Simple Habit
Good-quality guided meditations that help relieve stress do. The reflections themselves are timed well and provide useful guidance. When they open it for the first time, users are asked to select topics that concern them. If you don’t want to pay for the optional membership, lots of the content is free to use. The software itself is clean and modern, with a simple interface that feeds and is easy to use. For those seeking a full-blown subscription, it is a bit on the steep side.
7. Openfit – Fitness & Nutrition
Openfit is a digital all-in-one platform and app that incorporates exercise, nutrition, meditation, and well-being. 13 separate sessions of sound meditation, spanning from 10 minutes to 45 minutes, to choose from. High-quality videos for each session “as live” so that you can see the facilitator. It’s worth it, a little more costly than the other apps, but given the variety and volume of content.
8. Insight Timer
Insight Timer is something like a meditators’ social network. It helps you see who is nearby and invite friends to join you and a world map showing you how many people are meditating at any moment. There are also cultural organizations where you are invited to engage in meetings around the UK or speak about everything from poetry to Hinduism.
As for the material, with a free library of guided meditations at 30,000 and counting, Insight Timer says it is the most common meditation timer in the world. These range from beginners’ flow to sessions focused on self-love, healthier relationships, and addictions to overcome.
When on the go, the adjustable timer function is suitable for brief meditations, and you can even choose whether you want ambient background sounds or ending bells. This is a fantastic app with lots of content, but it can be overwhelming for a novice. If you’re able to put the time in to figure out what works for you, we suggest sticking with it, though. Premium offers you additional courses and offline listening if you need even more material.
It is worth thinking about what you need and what you want while looking to find the right app. If, for example, you can’t bear the voice of the facilitator, then you’re going to find it difficult to relax. There’s an app that can do that if you want motivational messages sent out when you know you’re going to be depressed.
If you would like to monitor how you feel by answering simple questions, rather than sitting through guided meditation, audio-focused applications and mindfulness journals also exist.
We’ve listed the best apps above around the market to help you find the right one. Including those tailored for “fidgety skeptics” to those who give personalized meditations based on how you feel, we have rounded up the best, so you know what to expect, whether you’re a complete beginner a seasoned professional.