Chapter 10 - Great Mindful Meditation Apps
It’s somewhat ironic that while modern technology can cause a lot of stress, there are downloadable mindful meditation apps that can help guide you through some soothing mindful meditations. You can choose from a variety of specific topics, such as sleep, anxiety, depression, stress, etc. or participate in an entire mindful meditation program.
Make them a part of your daily routine. These apps can be downloaded to your Android devise from the App Store for free. Some more complex programs offer a paid subscription. It’s certainly a worthwhile investment.
There are hundreds of meditation apps, so let’s look at some of the most popular ones.
Headspace
Headspace has over eight million users and counting, including entrepreneurs such as Richard Branson. The app teaches correct breathing techniques and guides the listener through various visualization exercises and walking meditations. It is considered the best meditation app for beginners.
Headspace offers a more intensive ten-day meditation program for a monthly subscription of $10.00.
Mindfulness Daily
Meditation Daily offers daily 15-minutes guided meditations and lessons on how to integrate mindfulness into your daily life.
Smiling App
This mindful meditation app is free. It is divided into age-specific categories, for younger children, teenagers, and adults. There are also meditations specifically for sports and the workplace. Each meditation has a number of daily sessions to integrate and expand on a particular topic.
Insight Timers offers 4000 guided meditations that can be listened to in any random order. The app attempts to create a community feeling by announcing how many other people are currently meditating.
Aura
Aura works on a slightly different premise than some of the other apps. It sends you a new meditation every day, so you don’t have to listen to the same one twice. The app is personalized for you, according to age and specific mindful meditation interest on a certain day. Different meditations for different moods. The app allows you to save the meditation to listen to again.
To personalize the experience, Aura initially asks about your age and how stressed, optimistic, and interested in mindfulness you are. You inform the app of your mood on a specific day, and it will send you a complementary meditation to match. You can save any daily meditation for repeated listening.
Omvana
Omvana offers beginners, intermediary and advanced 20-minute meditations. There are 75 free meditations from which to choose, but there is no guidance as to which one might be best for you in a particular situation.
Stop, Breathe & Think
Stop, Breathe & Think is unique in that it actually explains the process of meditation, how it works and can benefit the meditator before the meditator starts to make use of the 30 free meditations. The 10-minute meditations revolve around breathing, kindness, staying calm and nature sounds. The app tracks how often you meditate.
Calm
The Calm app has a number of soothing nature sounds, breathing exercises, relaxation meditations and sleep-inducing “bedtime” stories to lure the listener to sleep. There are 16 meditations in all, each lasting from 3 minutes to half an hour.
The Mindful App has options for everyone. It is a subscription app that can be downloaded with free features.
5 guided meditations, relaxing nature sounds, and daily reminders are free. The subscription also includes 20 meditation courses and 200 meditations specifically for relationships, calmness, body and focus.
Why not let a calming meditation app become a part of your daily routine?