best meditation apps

• The article lists 12 calming apps, including:

  • Calm: best for sleep meditation
  • Headspace: best for guided meditation
  • The Mindfulness App: best for timed meditation sessions
  • Buddhify: best for on-the-go meditation
  • Sattva: best for Vedic meditation
  • Sanvello: best for a combination of mindfulness and CBT
  • Ten Percent Happier: best for practical teachings
  • Insight Timer: best for a choice of meditation techniques

• The article notes that calming apps aim to relieve stress and anxiety through mindfulness and meditation techniques.

• Mindfulness is the practice of bringing a person’s attention to the present moment.

• The article provides tips for finding a calming app, including considering price and frequency of charges, social features, and app features.

• The article cautions that apps are not a replacement for clinical treatment and that a doctor may recommend therapy, medication, or both for managing stress and anxiety.

• None

• Headspace is a mindfulness app that provides guided meditations, mindful workouts and sleep techniques for iOS and Android users.
  • The app was co-founded by Andy Puddicombe, a former Buddhist monk who narrates a majority of the guided meditations.
  • The app is not tied to any singular religious identity.
• The app is best suited for beginners who prefer more structure and plan to do short sessions.
  • Headspace teaches eight helpful techniques derived from Burmese and Tibetan Buddhist traditions.
    • Noting: labeling experiences as they arise into “thinking” or “feeling”
    • Visualization: picturing something or someone in your mind
    • Resting awareness: letting your mind roam free during meditation rather than focusing on the breath or a visualization
    • Focused attention: focusing your attention on a single object, goal, or mantra
    • Loving kindness: mentally sending goodwill, kindness, and warmth toward others
    • Reflection: asking yourself questions
    • Body scan: performing a mental scan, from the top of your head to the end of your toes to sync the body and mind
    • Skillful compassion: focusing on a person you know or love and paying attention to the sensations that arise from the heart
• The app offers a variety of features, including guided meditations, sleep techniques, mindful workouts, and social connections.
  • Meditate: includes both meditation courses and single programs centered around different topics.
  • Sleep: includes relaxing guided sessions and Sleepcasts, which are paired with white noise to help you fall asleep.
  • Move: includes low to medium impact workouts that focus on the mind-body connection.
  • Focus: offers curated music and meditation playlists designed to help you focus on the work in front of you.
  • Social connection: allows you to add friends and family from your contact book as buddies to hold each other accountable.
• The app can be downloaded for free, but there are paid subscriptions (Headspace Plus) that offer complete access to its content library.
• Using Headspace to practice mindfulness meditation may help boost your well-being, promote positive thinking, and reduce emotional reactivity.
  • Research from 2019 examined the effects of using Headspace to do short mindfulness meditations a few times per week for 8 weeks.
  • Practicing mindfulness may help improve your mental focus. A 2018 study suggests that a 15-minute mindfulness meditation session can cut mind wandering by 22 percent.
• Calm is another well-known meditation app that offers many of the same meditation techniques and subsequent benefits as Headspace.
  • Calm is designed to be intuitive and soothing, often featuring nature images.
  • Calm may be best for people with meditation experience.
• Healthline selects brands that have good business practices and are socially responsible. A mental health professional from Healthline’s Medical Network reviewed this article for accuracy.

• “Best Meditation Apps”
  • Difficulty in choosing the right app due to bundle of sleep, exercise, yoga, and meditation content
  • Know what you want from a meditation app
    • Consider if you want an app with meditation resources for kids, content to help you sleep, accessibility features like closed captions, access to live group meditations or individual coaching
    • Ten Percent Happier, Balance, and Healthy Minds Program are suited for basic meditation techniques or deepening your practice
    • Insight Timer is good for beginner meditators with a large meditation library, including yoga, breathwork lessons, live events, and journaling
    • Simple Habit has guided meditations for kids and sleep content, but no accessibility features
  • Take stock of your strengths and challenges before choosing a meditation app
    • Building a meditation practice comes with its own unique challenges
    • Personality traits may affect the success of mind-body interventions
    • Mental disorders or depression may be linked to poorer mental health following a meditation intervention
  • Apply skepticism and trust your instincts when selecting a meditation app
    • Some guided meditations may be ineffective or turn people off to meditation
    • Meditation apps often package themselves as secular to appeal to broad audiences, even if the meditation practices offered are rooted in spiritual traditions like Buddhism
    • Fall back on your own best thinking as you assess meditations and the apps that host them

• Reddit user shares their thoughts on the Calm app and other meditation apps
  • Suggests trying all the big apps to see which one works and sticks for you
  • Has tried Calm, Headspace, Insight Timer, 1 Giant Mind, and Aura
  • Prefers Calm because of its new Daily Calm and enjoys the variety
    • Uses it at night to help sleep in a positive frame of mind
    • Plans to add another session in the mornings in 2021
  • Also loves that the Daily Reflection is based on the daily theme and uses it as a morning journal prompt
  • Appreciates the incremental goodness Calm has added to their routine
    • Feels doing the Daily Calm is doing something good for themselves
  • Suggests trying the trial before getting the lifetime membership [60% off at the time of writing]
• Comments
  • Reddit users recommend Calm and Fabulous apps
    • Calm is great value and a huge help
    • 10 minutes of daily meditation, moods check, and reflections help see things with a different perspective
    • Money spent on mental health
  • Calm doesn’t support one user’s language, but not a big issue.

• Insight Timer app
  • 40,000+ meditation choices
  • Free app with option to pay for extra stuff like downloads
  • Has helped people calm down during stressful times
  • Timer function to track meditation time
  • Guided meditation options available
  • Courses available
  • Some users experience “relaxation hypnosis” from too many guided meditations
  • Quality control could be improved
  • Paid membership available
• NowZone app mentioned by a user
• Some users prefer using the default clock app as a timer for meditation
• Some users suggest that the timer function in Insight Timer is reliable and flexible
• One user suggests that the focus on the 40,000+ meditations is not necessary and the app could benefit from focusing on the timer function

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How to choose a meditation app?

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What are the benefits of using a meditation app?

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What free meditations does Insight Timer offer?

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What types of visual content does Headspace offer?

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What features does Calm offer that make it stand out from other meditation apps?

• Insight Timer:
  • Free
  • Lots of different types of meditations
  • Tara Brach and Kate James’ meditations recommended
• Waking Up:
  • Good for those with high anxiety and ADHD background
  • Alternative meditation leaders included
  • Different app may be the one you stick with best
  • Sam Harris’s approach
• Sadhguru app:
  • Includes an array of practices yogis have been doing for hundreds of years
  • Thorough explanations behind how they work and their benefits
  • Recommended practices: Isha kriya and upa yoga
• Ten Percent Happier:
  • Has helped stop merely reacting to things
  • Helps get through a tough year
• Balance:
  • Different mindfulness sessions for different “problems”
  • Year free trial
  • Costs a lot for lifetime but worth trying
  • Helped user a lot
• None

• “Waking Up” by Sam Harris is recommended by multiple users on the Reddit post.
  • One user says “Waking up in great. Also insight timer.”
  • Another user says “I just started “Waking Up” and the first few lessons are outstanding but I’m biased because I think Sam is brilliant.”
• Other recommended apps include:
  • Calm: “Its got series, one off’s and sleep stories.”
  • Dharma Seed: “has about 30K talks and guided meditations.”
  • Audio Dharma: “an archive of Dharma talks given by Gil Fronsdal and Andrea Fella.”
  • Insight Timer: “for a timer to track stuff.”
  • Balance: “You get two different voices. A daily meditation course/progress plan for developing new meditation skills and then also the option to choose single meditations based upon what you want from your meditation pragmatically - e.g focus, less anxiety, sleep etc.”
  • MyLife and Let’s Meditate: “two of my favorite free guided meditation apps on Android.”
  • Enso: “I’ve got over 255 hours in on Enso and I have no plans to switch to anything else.”
  • Headspace: “Yes I love headspace ! They have animations to help you understand certain exercises, short sessions for 3-5 minutes and long sessions of 10/15/20 minutes.”
  • Brightmind: “has an amazing 30-day course called How to Meditate by Jeff Warren.”
  • 10% Happier: “has an amazing selection of teachers, great teaching videos, and a lot of fun and engaging content.”
• One user suggests Tara Brach’s podcast for mediations and lessons.
• One user doesn’t think apps are necessary besides a timer and offers advice on focusing on breath.
• Another user shares a link to a YouTube video demonstrating a meditation practice.
• One user recommends Joseph Goldstein’s courses on 10 Percent. The app has a good amount of courses to begin with plus some short talks about different topics and an option to talk to a meditation specialist if you have any questions.

• Best meditation apps:
  • Calm:
    • $70 annually
    • Recent update allows exercises and meditations through Apple Watch
    • Celebrity voice talent like LeBron James, Matthew McConaughey, and Jerome Flynn
    • Not much free content on the app.
    • Quick & Easy, Mental Fitness, Sleep Stories, Meditations, Music, and Recent Daily Calms on your Home Page
    • Calm Kids, Calm Masterclass, Calm Body, and a Breathing Exercise
    • Track total sessions, meditation minutes, and longest day streak with a calendar
    • Tamara Levitt has the best voice of all the guided meditations on this app
  • Headspace:
    • White/orange color scheme(apparently a little less calming) and all content locked until you pay for “Headspace Plus”($70/year)
    • Lots of visual content like videos and short, animated series before courses
    • Moves section which is filled with workouts
    • Personalized plans based on a little input from you
    • Sections:The Performance Mindset, Personal Growth, Work & Productivity, Stress & Anxiety, Sleep, Kids & Parenting, Life Challenges, Sports, Physical Health, or if you’re a student
  • Insight Timer:
    • It is the app with the most available meditations for free users(over 35,000 free meditations), providing 10 or more free guided meditations added every day
    • Discussion groups and a world map of how many people are currently on the app
    • Various categories: Learning to Meditate, Coping with Anxiety, Managing Stress, Improve Your Sleep, Mindfulness at Work, Improving Relationships, Boosting Your Self-Esteem, and For Your Mornings
    • Everything else seems to be accessible to everyone(ie, free)
    • 1 Giant Mind(apparently the essence of Transcendental Meditation, but 100% free), Sattva, and Plum Village are other apps mentioned

• Webpage: 12 of the Best Meditation Apps

  • Best guided meditation apps:
    • Breethe, Headspace
  • Best meditation apps for sleep:
    • Calm, buddhify
  • Best meditation apps for breathing:
    • iBreathe, Breathe+
  • Best app for quick meditation:
    • Simple Habit
  • Best meditation apps for spirituality:
    • Mindfulness with Petit BamBou, Waking Up
  • Best meditation apps for a budget:
    • Oak, Meditation Studio
  • Best meditation app for beginners:
    • The Mindfulness App

• Benefits of meditation:

  • Reducing stress
  • Improving sleep
  • Helping with addictions
  • Decreasing blood pressure

• Meditation apps can be used to learn meditation habits:

  • Guided meditations provide cues for when to breathe and where to focus your attention.
  • App profiles can be used to track progress through meditations.

• How to choose a meditation app:

  • Consider budget and experience level.
  • Choose an app based on offered meditation styles or special features.

• Headspace and Calm are two popular meditation apps that offer similar benefits.

  • Choose Headspace if:
    • new to meditation
    • want a more structured meditation practice
    • want access to shorter, quick meditations
  • Choose Calm if:
    • have some meditation experience
    • want access to lengthier stories and music
    • enjoy calming nature sounds
    • want a less structured meditation practice.

• Reddit post from 5 years ago asking for the best free meditation apps
  • Stop, Breathe & Think has great free features, but now has a subscription service
  • Calm has some free guided meditations and some paid features
  • Headspace has a free intro series of 10, 10-minute, guided sessions and a 30-day free trial of the paid service
  • 10% Happier has some free meditations available
  • Aware may be a free option
  • Insight Timer has a timer feature, but users experienced issues with the timer not ringing
  • HMM HAA - Breathe and Relax, Sleep, Remove Stress is an app available for Android users
  • Additional apps mentioned that may have free features: Mooji, Dharma Seed, Atmosphere, and ACT Coach

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What is the best meditation app?