Our Top 6 Favorite Mindfulness and Meditation Apps
If you’ve been feeling more stress, anxiety and mental fatigue lately, you aren’t alone. Many people are experiencing a phenomenon known as the “pandemic wall” – a form of burnout characterized by nearly a full year of self-quarantining, homeschooling and other safety measures necessary to stay healthy and reduce viral spread. Becoming more mindful is one way to combat this issue.
You might already be using meditation to reap benefits such as improved concentration, better mental well-being and more restful sleep. Whether you’re new to the practice or a seasoned veteran looking for a change of pace, apps can help you explore different meditation styles and motivate you to keep up with a regular practice. Here are six you can try.
1. Mindfulness Daily
The Mindfulness Daily app, available on iOS and Android, is ideal for anyone who wants to become more mindful, but who doesn’t know where to start. The app’s structured, guided routine will remind you to practice mindfulness in the morning, in the middle of the day and before going to bed at night. It also keeps track of how long you have kept up your streak of mindfulness days.
2. Headspace
Headspace, which describes itself as “a gym membership for your mind,” is one of the best-known mindfulness and meditation apps for a good reason. This iOS and Android app includes hundreds of themed meditation sessions designed to help you release stress, feel calmer, enhance your focus and even fall asleep more quickly. Headspace offers a free two-week trial period, after which you’ll need to switch to a paid subscription to keep accessing the content.
3. 10% Happier
The 10% Happier app aims to introduce newcomers to meditation using principles explained in the book of the same name. This app promises to help users stay upbeat and mentally resilient every day by teaching you the basics of meditation and allowing you to track your progress in making mindfulness a daily habit. You can access meditation basics and get automatic reminders for free, but you’ll need to upgrade to a paid membership to benefit from all the content this app has to offer.
4. Meditation Rx
Meditation Rx is an iOS and Android app from the creators of the popular Meditation Oasis podcast. The app, originally designed for people living with illness and their loved ones, is free during the COVID-19 pandemic. Besides guided meditations for stress relief and relaxation amid traumatic times, the app contains daily meditations and a condensed version of Meditation Oasis’ Meditation Course.
5. MyLife
MyLife is an ideal option for people who aren’t sure they can fit mindfulness into their busy schedule, but still want to give it a try. Because your emotions can shift from one day to the next, MyLife will tailor mindfulness suggestions from a list of more than 400 activities, based on how you’re feeling at any given moment. Will you join the more than 20,000 users who have given this app a five-star rating? Experiment with it and find out if it suits you.
6. Calm
The Calm app may be familiar to you if you’ve ever seen their soothing “Do Nothing for 15 Seconds” commercial. Calm, which claims to be the top meditation and sleep app, initially offers a “7 Days of Calm” course to introduce you to mindfulness meditation, plus a few guided and unguided meditation sessions. Many users swear by the “Sleep Stories” feature, which sends listeners off to dreamland with gentle music, nature sounds or narration from A-list celebrities like Laura Dern and Matthew McConaughey.
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