Like yoga and organic eating, the wellness benefits of meditation have become more and more apparent as time goes on. Research shows that mindfulness acts as a natural stress reliever, a way to quiet the mind and help you get through tense and anxious moments. This list is the top meditation apps for your devices, so you can meditate on the go and when you’re most in need of centering.
Buddhify
This 300 MB app is a heavyweight in both size and functionality. It has dozens and dozens of guided meditations within the app that you download directly onto your phone. The main interface of the app is a pie chart that when a selection is chosen, breaks into a smaller pie chart. Each meditation is categorized into different moods and situations, such as trying to fall asleep, being in nature, feeling pain, waking up and several others. They range in time, from a few minutes up to a half hour, and users can play the meditations and follow along with the instructions. It works out to over 80 different guided meditations and 11 hours of unique material read by Buddhify’s roster of voice talent. You can also set a timer to meditate without any guidance. This app is excellent for its depth, just make sure you have the space on your device to download it.
Headspace
This app is great if you are new to meditation and interested in learning more about it, whether it be different methods or the different situations it can be most beneficial. It offers a free 10 day ‘mini course’ where each lesson/day is 10 minutes with a different theme. Once you graduate, you can continue with the app and subscribe to guided meditations up to 60 minutes, with hundreds of hours of different themes and goals. Users have the chance to use the buddy system, relying on a friend to remind you to practice your mindfulness, and the app keeps track of stats to compare and follow your progress. You can also download any of the meditation series or lessons to use without internet access.
Calm – Meditate, Sleep, Relax
Calm is similar to both Buddhify and Headspace and unique in its own way. Not only does it have the countless hours of guided meditations but daily mini-courses to keep you actively learning and expanding your mindfulness. Some of their topics include traveling to school and work, forgiveness, gratitude, calming anxiety and focus and concentration. They offer open and unguided meditations, breathing exercises, nature sounds as well stories for adults to play as they go to sleep. You can subscribe to the areas of the app you’re most interested in, as well as watch your progress to ensure you are continually growing in your mindfulness journey.
Insight Timer
This is one of the top meditation apps on the market, boasting of having played 1.7 billion minutes of meditation to 1.8 million users. They have 35 topic-specific playlists of guided meditations, 1,200 teacher to help you along your path and 4,500 separate tracks of guidance. Users can use forums and meet ups through the app to meet fellow mindfulness seekers which is a personal touch that many other apps lack. If you would rather meditate on your own or combine methods, there’s 750 music-based tracks users can access. The timer offers pre-set sounds such as bells with soothing background noises that go off in intervals. Geared for 8 different scenarios, the app offers users the chance to fall into a deep meditation or merely slow and control their breathing.
Stop Breathe & Think: Meditate
This app emphasizes its goal of offering meditation program designed to promote gratitude and compassion. It’s free and tries to not just teach and lead you through a meditation lifestyle, but keep tabs on your moods day to day. It can help users better focus on important areas in their life that need the most attention and thus find the corresponding meditations that are meant to address those feelings and situations. These can include feelings of apathy, torn, distracted, mixed up, lazy, confused, panicked and lazy. All you need to do is pick up to 5 different moods for the app t access your mind-state and tailor the best meditation programming for you in that moment. You can also keep track of your emotional state stats and watch how your different moods vary and affect you day by day. The Webby People’s Voice Award winner for Health and Fitness in 2015 does require an internet connection.
Prana Breath: Calm & Meditate
Independent developer Oleksandr Albul released this focused ‘breathing gymnastics’ app. It takes from Tibetan, Pranayama, and Sufi breathing exercises to train your body into using breathing as a means of psychical and mental healing. Promising results in 15 minutes per day, the app offers on things such as better sleep, improved brain function and cold and migraine combating. There are several breathing methods that are learned, and you can keep track of your progress learning and adapting to them with handy charts. There’s access to health tests, specific training and various other breathing methods explained and taught for what’s called a Guru upgrade.
Meditation Music – Relax, Yoga
This is created by Relaxio, who are known for their high quality rest and relaxation sounds apps. They offer HD-smooth melodies to help you reach a peaceful mindset that range from Heaven, Soft Piano, Gentle Morning, and Beautiful Lake. You can set a timer to have the sounds shut off on their own, as well as have a gong let you know when the timer is coming to an end. You can install it on your SD card and combine elements and mixes to find your perfect lullaby.
Thankfully, with a mobile device, people interested in things such as yoga or meditation no longer have to attend special and expensive courses. They can learn at their own pace, finding what works best for them and tailor their favorite practices to their needs right from their phone or tablet. The above top meditation apps may be beneficial to you and even give you the confidence of being able to teach and help your peers.
