In the last blog post, I mentioned that you would make mistakes as you practice meditation and mindfulness.
If you can recall, I also mentioned that if practicing meditation and mindfulness becomes incredibly challenging, you could turn to guided meditation apps.
In this post, I will share with you 5 mindfulness apps you can use to get started:
#1: Calm
Calm is a brilliant meditation app that has a free, one week trial. If you intend to use it regularly, which you should, you will, eventually, have to purchase a totally-worth-it subscription.
Upon opening the app, the first thing you notice is the gentle nature sounds that instantly relax you. You can change the greeting jingle to the sound of rain pouring, crickets, crackling firewood, rolling waves, etc.
The app offers ‘daily calm’ sessions or “guided mindfulness-based” sessions to soothe your stressed nerves. The sessions also help to distract your mind from your worries and anchor your realization to the here and now.
Once in the dashboard, you’ll find different programs geared towards beginners, intermediates, and advanced-level mindfulness practitioners. Additionally, you’ll have a wide selection of meditative and relaxing music tracks. Besides the music, Calm also has sleep stories that you can listen to as you unwind and sleep.
Overall, Calm is a fantastic meditation app that can help you build the habit of being mindful.
#2: Insight Timer
Insight Timer is another brilliant app available for both Android and iOS. This app helps you adopt mindfulness through easy-to-follow guided meditations and sessions. The sessions are from various meditation teachers such as The Dalai Lama and Russell Brand.
The app has a 7-day trial that allows you to access its free content. Insight Timer has a library of more than 25,000 guided meditations created by approximately 3,000 meditation experts. Some of these experts include Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield who are renowned names in the field of mindfulness. The meditative practices cover a wide range of topics, including creativity, peace, stress, relationships, mindfulness, etc.
The app has a community appeal because it uses your location to show and connect you with other meditators nearby. It also keeps you up-to-date with different insights. Such insights include the number of people meditating right now and the number of meditation practiced that day.
#3: Stop, Breathe and Think
This app is available for both iOS and Android. It gives you access to its free meditation if you select the ‘all sessions’ options. It does have a paid version as well that comes with more and better features.
Stop, Breathe & Think has an intentional, deliberate mindfulness experience that gives you insight into mindfulness and its benefits. It then uses those benefits to motivate you to meditate regularly.
Every day you open the app, it asks you how you feel, and then it rates your feelings. The app also prompts you to note 1 to 5 emotions you feel.
From that, the app intuitively recommends different meditative and mindfulness practices that can help improve your overall wellbeing. Using Stop, Breath, and Think daily can help improve your mood and forgetfulness, and embrace the here and now.
#4: Smiling Mind
Smiling Mind is an easy-to-use app available for Android, iOS, and the web. This free app features hundreds of easy-to-practice guided meditations that keep you engaged without overwhelming you.
The app organizes the different meditations available into various categories. For example, it has meditations to sleep, meditative practice to improve relationships, mindfulness exercises for your workplace, etc.
You can choose where to begin; moreover, you can jump into and between different programs as you please. Most of the guided meditations available on the app are between 5-15 minutes long, but some are 45 minutes.
With more than 4 million downloads, the app offers specialized programs for kids, teenagers, adults, and educators, making it beginner-friendly. Besides meditations, Smiling Mind also has exciting and engaging activities. Some of these activities include “Finding your Inner Master,” “A Legal Alien,” “Are You Really Listening,” and many others. These activities offer you a unique approach to increasing your level of mindfulness.
#5: UCLA Mindful
The UCLA Mindful app is free on iOS and Android phones. Developed by the Mindful Awareness Research Center established at (UCLA), the app has different meditations in Spanish and English. It helps you build the ability to become mindful by concentrating on your body, breath, and sounds.
The app also helps you understand your emotions and establish a relationship with them by helping you observe them nonjudgmentally. It also has loving-kindness based meditation sessions aimed at helping you nurture empathy and gratitude.
Moreover, the app has a ‘Getting Started’ section that novices can use to learn how to use the app.
While there are other Mindfulness meditation apps, these five should help you get started on habituating mindfulness.
Happy meditating and remember:
Establishing a meditative and mindful state of being is a lifelong marathon, not a sprint. If you approach it as a marathon, you’ll keep practicing until these states become part of your psyche.
To help you with this process, in the next post, I’ll share tips to enhance your level of mindfulness:
In my book – How To Be Mindful Of Thoughts: Steps To Achieving Mindfulness And Living In The Moment (Buddha on the Inside Book 3), I discuss various other approaches you can use to increase mindfulness. Get your copy and see your productivity at work increase rapidly.
Written with beginners in mind, It will teach you:
- The basics of mindfulness, including what it really is, what it entails, how it works and more
- Why you need to nurture mindfulness
- How mindfulness and leadership coexist
- How to transform your life with different mindfulness techniques
- How to observe your thoughts, manage your emotions and feel good with mindfulness-based meditative techniques
- How to make mindfulness part of your everyday life to derive all its benefits
…And so much more!
Get your friends and family to practice mindfulness too with the widely acclaimed The Ultimate Inner Peace Affirmation Audio Series To Attain Nirvana!
