7 Apps to Start You Meditating

By Guest Blogger, Elaine Clara Mah

We’ve heard it a million times over: Meditation is extremely beneficial. But a daily meditation routine can be hard to include in our packed schedules. There’s also that palm-sized object we call a smartphone that takes up our attention and time. Good news though, because those very phones are now going to provide a way to create a practice through meditation apps.

To help you get started on your meditation practice, the BookMeditationRetreats.com team has scoured the web for the best meditation apps in the market. Here’s a list of our top 7:

Buddhify

Touted as the “mindfulness app for modern life,” Buddhify is an award-winning app designed to make meditation readily available to you at all times, be it traveling, working or just being at home. It boasts over 80 guided meditations that will help you develop your mindfulness practice in no time.

Calm

This guided meditation app features programs designed as multi-day series. Beginners to meditation can start with the app’s free 7 Days of Calm program, which includes 7 sets of 10-minute meditation audios. The paid subscription will give you access to other series including 7 Days of Focus, 7 Days of Sleep and 7 Days of Happiness. With this app, it’s almost as if you’re going on a meditation retreat.

Headspace

If you’re just discovering meditation, Headspace is an empowering app to get you going. A daily 10-minute program is available for download for free, to give you a taste of mindfulness meditation. Once you are ready to move forward, you can purchase subscription packages to access a host of tools, including progressively longer mindfulness practices. Reviewers have said that Headspace features some of the best guided meditation audios in the market, with celebrities like Emma Watson singing its praises!

Insight Timer

Insight Timer gathers a community of meditators from all over the world and is home to over 2800 meditation guides from which to choose. The meditation timer on the app allows you to decide just how long you’d like to meditate for and will let you know when your session is up by a “bell” sound that can be customized. Beyond meditation, it is also a platform for like-minded meditators to connect and engage with each other.

Smiling Mind

To help children and young adults get started on being mindful, Australian company Smiling Mind has created age-based programs to improve mental well-being, sleep and concentration. They have unique modules for different age groups as well as programs designed for mindfulness in the classroom. The app is also completely free, so you can start helping your children create a habit of meditation right away.

Meditation Music

If all you need to help you focus the mind is music, then this is the app for you. Meditation Music provides you with soothing sounds that will aid in releasing the thoughts of a busy mind. It also comes with a meditation timer so you can just “be” in your meditation session.

Universal Breathing: Pranayama

At the very core of meditation is breathing. A practice of deep and focused breathing works to calm your mind, making it easier to enter into a meditative state. Pranayama uses music and animated visuals to guide you to slower and deeper breathing, helping you to progress in your practice.

About: Elaine Clara Mah