![]() ![]() ![]() Lowlights: An app this huge can be daunting for beginners, so it’s worth taking the 10-day free trial and doing a course to get you started. There are also social features that allow you to create a group for your workplace or friends, so you can meditate together – nothing like some group accountability to keep your practice up! I found Sarah Blondin’s voice the perfect salve to sleepless nights, while Andy Hobson, who many will know from Headspace, is also featured. Once you find a teacher you like, the app, which is mostly free but has a paid premium section, you can follow them. Even a simple keyword search, such as “morning” or “sleep” can help narrow down the options, which you can then rank by rating or length. But, like online shopping, it helps to know what you are after. Highlights: The Amazon of meditation apps, this one is a beast, and can feel overwhelming with the sheer array of recordings, courses and even yoga classes on offer. Insight Timer is free but it has a paid premium section. $399.99 for one-off lifetime membership.īest for: For individuals or families seeking a well-rounded mindfulness resource to help reduce stress, encourage balance, boost sleep and focus, and teach ways to tap into thought and emotion without judgement. Already given the green light of many therapists and mental health experts, it’s an immersive app that will fit seamlessly into your life whether you are looking for some guidance into meditation or need a quick dose of motivation.Ĭost: Free to download, access to all features is $12.99 a month or $69.99 per year. Try the guided courses and masterclasses and the guided classes by experts, if you are likely to be distracted by the celebrities. Lowlights: The app itself is fairly easy to navigate, but the overwhelming amount of choice may make it difficult to know where to start. How about Harry Styles, Keith Urban, Laura Dern or LeBron James? With an extensive library of guided meditation, breathing techniques, sleep stories, stretching exercises, soundscapes and music, you can choose the session length and your narrator. Highlights: Powered by celebrities, Calm is a one-stop shop providing a holistic and accessible approach to mindfulness. (I’d always thought having a wandering mind would mean I would essentially fail meditation.) And I did particularly relish being told that, “Losing focus and refocusing over and over again is meditation”. The meditation exercises made me realise that I can meditate – and feel more serene – if I have the silence necessary for the practice. But this would stop me from hearing the very meditation instructions I needed. Lowlights: During one of the sessions, my youngest child yelled out to his brother that, “Lunch is ready!” Cue: stomp, stomp, stomp! Clearly, what I needed in order to – as the app’s catch-phrase puts it “go on your way with a smile on your mind” – was a pair of earplugs to be in the moment. “Without you even trying, you were practising a technique called mindfulness,” a voice told me. After being asked to remember, “a time you felt completely absorbed in what you were doing, so much so that you weren’t worrying about the future or reminiscing about the past”, I closed my eyes and smiled from ear to ear, remembering how I feel when I’m in the flow of writing. Some of the helpful hints provided during one, two and six-minute meditation exercises were revelatory. Highlights: By learning to focus on where we are and what we’re doing through meditation, this app promises that we can “stop being at the mercy of emotions or crazy thoughts”, and in doing so have better relationships, an increased capacity for concentration and develop more mindful eating. We tried six of the most popular on the market to give you our honest opinion. To ensure you download an app that is safe and evidence-based, experts suggest opting for paid apps (which are less likely to share your private information) and are well-known. And of the many thousands available, the quality varies greatly. “In terms of the recent data the answer is ‘yes’, though effects are less pronounced than what we observe for in-person programs and more research is needed”.“īut there are apps and there are apps. ”Can the online programs, be beneficial?” asks Dr Nicholas Van Dam, the director of the Contemplative Studies Centre at the University of Melbourne. ![]() Most importantly it can improve our relationship to and awareness of ourselves and gives us a tool that takes us well beyond life in lockdown. Research suggests it can help us to de-stress, focus, sleep better, feel calmer, lower blood pressure and even strengthen our relationships. Meditation is a skill rooted in ancient history, but the science behind it is catching up.
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