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May 15, 2023

best+meditation+apps

I researched the best meditation apps by evaluating the information from seven different sources, including articles from The New York Times, Healthline, Verywell Mind, SELF, and Women's Health Mag. The sources provided various lists and recommendations of meditation apps based on different criteria, such as features, user-friendliness, suitability for beginners or experienced meditators, and affordability. There was a general consensus among the sources regarding some top-rated apps, such as Headspace, Calm, and Insight Timer. However, the sources also recommended other meditation apps for specific purposes, like sleep or breathing exercises.

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Insight Timer

Other Notable Meditation Apps

For specific purposes or preferences, other meditation apps are recommended, such as:
  • Breethe and buddhify for sleep
  • iBreathe and Breathe+ for breathing exercises
  • Simple Habit for quick meditation
  • Mindfulness with Petit BamBou, Waking Up, and Sattva for spirituality and authenticity seekers
  • Oak and Meditation Studio for budget-friendly options
  • The Mindfulness App for beginners
  • Tara Brach for deepening practice
  • The Honest Guys for relaxation
  • Aura for personalized experience .
  • These apps offer various meditation types, techniques, and courses to suit different individual needs and goals. Most of them provide free trials before requiring payment or subscription.

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    "Best app for a beginner?"

    Not used in article

    "https://www.self.com/story/best-meditation-apps"

    • Insight Timer: Free app that includes 70,000 free meditations and music tracks. A seven-day free course also teaches beginners how to meditate. Upgrading to Member Plus offers advanced courses, offline listening, and an upgraded audio player for $10/month or $60/year.
    • Headspace: Subscription-based guided meditation app for $13/month or $70/year featuring a cheerful aesthetic with beginner-friendly guided meditations tackling various challenges like stress relief, mindfulness, grief, body image, politics, etc., along with Move Mode, an exercise-meditation pairing feature.
    • Shine: Founded by two underrepresented women who created an app for meditation and self-care exercises. Offers a free version with Daily Shine meditations, three “quick hitter” meditations, and daily inspirational texts. Upgrading to a premium membership for $12/month or $54/year provides access to more themed meditation lessons, self-care features, and the Shine digital community.
    • Ten Percent Happier: App dedicated to teaching fidgety skeptics how to meditate, began with a book by Dan Harris. Offers a chat feature that connects users to a meditation coach. Features a lineup of renowned expert meditation teachers for a $15/month or $100/year subscription.
    • Calm: Subscription-based guided meditation app costing $15/month or $70/year frequently recommended alongside Headspace. Includes mindfulness tools like timers, ambient music, and sleep-focused features like bedtime stories featuring celebrity narrators to help users fall asleep.
    • MyLife Meditation: Guided, emotion-based meditation app that includes a library of over 400 mindfulness activities, simple yoga poses, sleep tracking, and emotional check-ins that recommend activities before each meditation and track progress after. A $10/month or $59/year subscription offers access to premium features.
    • Healthy Minds Program: A totally free app created by a nonprofit affiliated with the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison featuring meditations, exercises, and lessons designed to build foundational mindfulness skills and promote emotional wellbeing through science-backed teachings.
    • Aura: Simple, personalized, and free meditation app that provides recommendations based on mood and offers themed playlists and features like life coaching, mood tracking, and gratitude exercises. A $12/month or $60/year premium membership includes access to premium features.
    • Expectful: A unique meditation app for pregnant people, parents, people trying to conceive, and those dealing with fertility issues. Tracks progress through sleep tools, postpartum mindfulness, and support, including a sleep tracker and special course to promote self-care and

    "Best Meditation Apps"

    Not used in article

    "https://www.womenshealthmag.com/health/g25178771/best-meditation-apps/"

    • Headspace:
      • Cost: $12.99 per month or $69.99 per year after a free seven-day trial.
      • Offers several types of guided meditations, mini-meditations, sleep sounds, SOS meditations for emergencies, meditations for kids and animations to help you better understand meditation.
    • Calm:
      • Cost: $14.99 per month, $69.99 per year, or a lifetime subscription of $399.99.
      • Provides guided sessions ranging from 3 to 25 minutes.
      • Topics include calming anxiety, gratitude, mindfulness at work, sleep sounds, nature sounds, and breathing exercises.
      • Has new meditations every day, progress trackers and 7-day and 21-day programs for beginners.
    • Insight Timer:
      • Cost: $9.99 per month or $59.99 per year.
      • Features many experienced mindfulness teachers.
      • Offers freedom to pick and choose what style of meditation to follow.
      • Allows to set a timer and sit without guidance.
      • Has a tracker to chart your progress and earn badges.
    • Aura:
      • Cost: $11.99 per month, $59.99 per year, or a lifetime subscription of $399.
      • Offers daily guided meditations, life coaching, nature sounds, stories, and music.
      • Algorithm-based personalization based on user’s needs and interests.
      • Option to track your moods and review patterns in how you feel.
      • Set reminders to breathe and take breaks for mindfulness throughout the day.
    • Sattva:
      • Cost: $12.99 per month, $49.99 per year, or a lifetime subscription of $399.99.
      • Draws meditations from ancient Vedic principles.
      • Features “sacred sounds, chants, mantras and music by Sanskrit scholars”.
      • Ideal for those looking to get more in touch with the history and origin of meditation.
    • Glo:
      • Cost: $23.99 per month after a seven-day free trial.
      • Customizable workouts by choosing the length, teacher, and level.
      • Variety of topics and focal points to choose from.
      • Ideal for new or experienced meditators.
      • Access to teacher-led yoga and pilates classes within the app.
    • Ensō:
      • Cost: Free, in-app purchases available.
      • For experienced meditators.
      • Simple timer that can be set with bells at different intervals

    "https://www.verywellmind.com/best-meditation-apps-4767322"

    • W provides a list of the best meditation apps for 2023.
    • The list is categorized by different criteria, including best overall, best for beginners, best for sleep, best budget, best guided, best for focus, best selection, and best for learning breathing techniques.
    • Headspace is the best overall meditation app on the list.
    • Ten Percent Happier Meditation is the best for beginners.
    • Calm is the best for sleep. It provides calming background sounds and short meditations.
    • Insight Timer is the best budget meditation app. It offers over 150,000 free meditations.
    • Buddhify is the best guided meditation app. Its wheel of meditation practices helps you choose the one you need.
    • Unplug is the best for focus. It has short, powerful meditations aiming at tackling anxiety and stress.
    • Simple Habit is the best selection. It has an extensive library of meditations that are easily cataloged.
    • Breathwrk is the best for learning breathing techniques. It has several breathing exercise programs that promote relaxation, pain management, and an energy boost.
    • Headspace has over 70 million downloads in 190 countries, and it provides hundreds of guided meditations that promote mindfulness, better sleep, reduced stress, and more for beginners to experts.
    • Ten Percent Happier Meditation caters to newbies with easy-to-follow guided meditations. It has shorter sessions that can be increased over time.
    • Calm is an app well-known for promoting relaxation and sleep, thanks to its soothing background sounds and to-the-point meditations. Its Sleep Stories feature bedtime stories from soothing celebrity voices like Matthew McConaughey.
    • Insight Timer offers more than 45,000 free meditations. The library allows filtering by need (e.g., stress, sleep, self-esteem), time, and specific benefit, such as pain relief, relationship woes, or teaching kids to meditate.
    • Buddhify has over 200 targeted meditations, and it helps with many mental health issues you may be struggling with.
    • Unplug has over 100+ world-renowned guides and 1,000+ videos filmed in its Los Angeles meditation studio, and it offers expert-guided meditation for anxiety and stress.
    • Simple Habit has 160 experts guiding hundreds of meditations. The app is specifically geared to help you get through difficult life events, emotions, and experiences. It offers special meditations designed to help you overcome panic attacks or lessen stress.
    • Breathwrk has numerous breathing exercise programs that promote calm, relaxation,

    "https://www.byrdie.com/best-meditation-apps-5090445"

    • W presents a list of 6 best meditation apps considered excellent on features and services, considering their pricing. The page discusses the pros and cons of each of these meditation apps. These include Best Overall: Calm, Best on a Budget: Insight Timer, Best for Sleep: Slumber, Best for Beginners: Headspace, Best for Skeptics: Ten Percent Happier, and Best for Authenticity Seekers: Sattva.
    • Calm, which costs $15 monthly or $70 annually, offers a vast library of meditations, tailored to meet users’ individual needs and goals. Calm features a Mood and Gratitude Check-in feature that allows users to track and document their “emotional rhythm” as well as ambient songs from popular musicians like Toro y Moi.
    • Insight Timer is a free meditation app and offers more than 100,000 guided meditations, including relaxation techniques, nature sounds, singing bowls, blocks, and chimes. Community features and discussion groups are available to assist users not yet ready for paid membership.
    • Slumber, which costs about $40 per year, isn’t specifically a meditation app but focuses on breathing practices, relaxation techniques, and hypnosis to encourage a good night’s rest. Bedtime stories, soundscapes, ambiance can be customized as per user preference, and users can track their sleep.
    • Headspace offers a broad range of categorically guided meditations, structured according to their duration–particularly beneficial for beginners who wish to ease into the process before taking on longer guided practices. Headspace costs $13 per month or $70 billed annually ($5.83 per month), providing content from everyday anxiety and stress management to mindful workouts.
    • Ten Percent Happier, costing $13 per month or $70 annually or $100 for families, features diverse audio and video meditation combinations, session themes, and instruction from various well-renowned and highly trusted meditation practitioners. There’s also a dedicated meditation coach feature accessible via the My Coach function.
    • Sattva, costing about $8.33 per month, is based on the ancient Vedic style of teaching that incorporates spiritual instructors who specialize in this method and have practiced it for years. Meditations with a variety of chants and mantras begin at six minutes in length. Group modules, playlist sharing, and monitoring progress facilities are also available.
    • The page also includes a brief frequently asked questions (FAQs) section that answers questions on the functioning of meditation apps, whether they are guided, how much each

    "https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-meditation-apps/"

    • The article provides a list of the best meditation apps available for iOS and Android devices that can help users to find balance amidst the unpredictable and often overwhelming challenges of everyday life.
    • The methodology used to evaluate and choose the best apps involved researching and testing 18 popular apps, the elimination of paid apps that had limited content, were available only on iOS devices, or didn’t offer a free trial period, and the completion of beginner courses of all apps to test clear sequencing and direction.
    • The criteria used for app evaluation included beginner courses, a wide range of meditation options, user-friendly design, reasonable trial periods, compatibility with a range of devices, and extra features.
    • The article provides a detailed description of the top three apps that received high ratings on the basis of criteria such as variety of meditation options, clear sequencing, easy navigation, appealingly cohesive design, well-organized library of meditations, goal-driven content, music and yoga instruction, user-friendliness, and affordability.
    • The three best apps are Headspace, Calm, and Healthy Minds Program. Headspace is the number one pick due to its largest variety of meditations, personalized to-do list, group sessions, easily navigable rich library of meditations, a mix of guided sessions for beginners and less-structured programming for pros, and solution-driven meditations that focus on anxiety, patience, self-esteem, and grief, amongst others. Calm is highly recommended for those who meditate already and are looking for more strategies or features to enhance their practice, with more free-form exercises, flexible meditation timers, and a dedicated music section. Healthy Minds Program is the budget pick- a basic meditation app that’s free with a well-structured, clear sequence of courses that build a foundation from the key ideas of Awareness, Connection, Insight, and Purpose.
    • The article also provides additional information on the benefits of meditation, the difference between mindfulness and other types of meditation, and how it can help with anxiety, depression, insomnia, and other mental health conditions. The article also highlights some of the limitations of meditation apps and suggests alternative approaches to learning to meditate, such as subscribing to mindfulness podcasts, trying free meditation tutorials on YouTube, or getting professional training at a meditation center.
    • The article cites the opinions and insights of three experts in the field of meditation, including David Nichtern, a senior Buddhist teacher, Dr. Judson Brewer, director of research and innovation at the Mindfulness Center at Brown University, and Diana Winston, director of mindfulness education at UCLA’s Mind

    "https://www.verywellmind.com/best-guided-meditations-4843806"

    • The webpage is titled “Best Guided Meditations of 2023” and provides a list of top seven guided meditation apps, along with their features and pros and cons, for users to choose from.
    • The article notes that finding peace and calm in a chaotic life can be challenging, and guided meditation may help in relaxing the mind and body and reduce anxiety, depression, insomnia, general pain, and high blood pressure.
    • The benefits of meditation extend far beyond relaxation, and practicing meditation can help develop concentration and enhance emotional positivity, allowing one to remain in the present moment.
    • The webpage states that guided meditation is a mind and body practice that involves listening to narration from an instructor or guide and focuses on interactions among the brain, mind, body, and behavior.
    • The seven apps highlighted in the article are Calm, Tara Brach, Headspace, The Honest Guys, Gabby Bernstein, Jason Stephenson, and Ten Percent Happier.
    • Calm is chosen as the best overall app and offers guided meditations for anxiety, body awareness, deep belly breathing, and calming racing thoughts. The app has a free trial period before subscribing and offers a flexible yet user-friendly interface.
    • Tara Brach is picked as the best app for deepening one’s practice and focuses on meditations for basic, heart, open awareness, and special meditation/reflections, with a backdrop of rain or birds singing. The app is free, and donations are suggested.
    • Headspace is recommended as the best app for beginners and features a user-friendly interface with hundreds of guided meditations that teach deep breathing and cope with external sounds. The app costs $69.99/year or $12.99/month.
    • The Honest Guys app offers simple and free guided meditations for relaxation with calming imagery, breathing techniques, and journeys that help in easing anxiety and stress.
    • Gabby Bernstein’s app is geared towards walking meditation and features upbeat music, connection of mind and body, and simple mantras to focus on while walking. The app is free with email sign-up, and meditation albums cost $11 to $18.
    • Jason Stephenson’s app is selected as the best for sleep and provides meditations to be used at bedtime that help relax the body, release tension, and sink into the mattress. The app is free on YouTube and email subscription.
    • Ten Percent Happier is recommended for skeptics and marketed for “fidgety skeptics” and beginners. The app offers expert guides, a user-friendly interface, hundreds of meditations, and personalized

    "https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/top-meditation-iphone-android-apps"

    • The webpage lists the best meditation apps for various purposes:
      • 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
    • For each app, the website provides a detailed description of its features, benefits, and cost structure
    • The website provides a table that compares the apps by price, subscription requirement, and app ratings
    • The following pricing guide is provided:
      • $ = under $9 per month
      • $$ = $9–$13 per month
      • $$$ = over $13 per month
    • Each app provides various meditation types and techniques including guided meditations, deep breathing techniques, mindfulness exercises, and personal mindfulness coaches
    • The apps are suitable for various purposes including reducing stress, improving sleep, helping with addictions, and decreasing blood pressure
    • Some apps are designed specifically for certain age groups. Calm has a section for Calm Kids that includes meditations for children ages 3 to 17.
    • Some apps offer different types of meditation courses, such as meditation courses based on positive psychology, cognitive behavioral therapy, and mindfulness
    • Some apps offer support to sleep better, reduce stress, restlessness, and anxiety
    • There are various fees associated with the apps, and most of them require a subscription to use some or all of the in-app features
    • Most apps offer a free trial period before requiring payment
    • The article provides general information on the benefits of meditation, what the different meditation types are, and what to consider when choosing a meditation app
    • Meditation has been practiced by many different cultures for thousands of years to increase spiritual awareness
    • Practicing meditation has a number of health benefits, including reducing stress levels, improving sleep schedules, helping with addictions, and decreasing blood pressure levels
    • According to a 2014 study, practicing meditation can lower levels of psychological stress and is helpful for overall well-being
    • If you have insomnia, a small 2014 study shows that people who meditate are able to improve their sleep schedules
    • Since meditation typically requires a fair amount of self-awareness and discipline, a 201

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