People can all benefit from meditation. Science has shown it decreases negative thinking and reduces pain, inflammation, depression, anxiety, and stress. It also boosts cognitive ability, ability to focus, productivity, feelings of connectedness, your memory, and grey matter in your brain! These are just some of the benefits, among more.
The issue for most people is that it can be hard to get into the habit of meditating. Being consistent and making time for it every day can be a challenge. Life can be busy and distracting. What better way to help you stay on track with great meditation habits than an app on your phone. That way, instead of being another distraction, your phone can help you keep just a bit more calm.
The list of some popular meditation apps available
Here are some of the best and most popular meditation apps available:
Headspace
Founder Andy Puddycombe walks you through beginning mediations and progresses you to more advanced ones. His calming voice becomes a guidepost for your peace and quiet time. The app has you come back for a meditation every day, which keeps you accountable.
Insight Timer
As the top free meditation app, Insight Timer boasts a whopping 1,700,000 mediators. It has a variety of meditations at different lengths.
Simple Habit
Designed by Harvard psychologist Yunha Kim, this app offers a variety of quick 5-minute meditations for different goals, issues, and scenarios. Great if you like quick 5-minute boosts.
Aura: Mindfulness Daily
This app is perfect for people who are really short on time and use that as their constant excuse not to meditate. It offers a plethora of 30 second to three minute breathing exercises and meditations. The basic version is free and the premium membership offers more meditation options and tracking tools.
Calm
This app feature 7 to 21 day programs targeting a specific focus like anxiety, sleep, focus, or happiness. The meditations range from 3 to 25 minutes and there is a 7 day free trial.
Inscape
Great morning meditations with different topics that range from 5 to 88 minutes. Inscape has a physical space in New York City, but you can get the experience from anywhere with the app.
Guided Mind
A library of single meditations available to purchase on iTunes individually. There are meditations to match anything that you want to work on or feel like on any particular day.
Om Vana
Customizable background music makes this app unique. It also boasts the largest number of different possible meditations.
Try out different forms of meditation and apps till you find what routine works best for your needs. Meditating can be difficult and takes practice. It gets easier with practice and consistency. Everyone is different and prefers different music and techniques, so don't give up if you don't enjoy one of the apps. Take advantage of the trials to explore your possibilities. New meditation apps are coming out all the time.
Reference
Seppala, Emma. “20 Scientific Reasons to Start Meditating Today.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 11 Sept. 2013, www.psychologytoday.com/blog/feeling-it/201309/20-scientific-reasons-start-meditating-today.
