Something that’s supposed to mellow you out and leave you refreshed; meditation can at times be very stressful. What is it? How to do it properly? What is Mindful Meditation? Is there some app for it that can guide me throughout? If so, then which one is best?
If you’re struggling with any of the above questions, then this read is penned for you!
The meditation journey can be strenuous sometimes, and in this article, we shall help you pick your perfect meditating partner. But hush, let’s understand the basics first-
Table of Contents
What is Mindfulness Meditation?
Mindfulness is the ability to be fully present in the moment. It is the basic human capability that makes us aware of our surroundings and is in control of emotions instead of being overwhelmed by the happenings. Mindfulness is something that we all naturally possess, but our ability to manage our thoughts has somewhat faded in this hustling world. This is where meditation comes in.
What is Meditation?
Exploration is meditation. It doesn’t empty your head from thoughts; instead, it creates a special in which every passing moment is momentous. When we are meditating, we are venturing into the workings of our minds, such as sensations, emotions, and thought patterns.
This is what results in mindfulness meditation.
Mindfulness meditation helps us in suspending judgment and unleashing our natural curiosity from the chaos of our minds. It helps us in approaching the experience with kindness and warmness.
What are the Benefits of Meditation?
Studies have shown that meditation can help:
- Lowering blood pressure
- Improving sleep patterns
- Alleviate some of the symptoms of depression
- Betters’ memory
- Reduce stress
- Increase self-compassion
- Bolster the immune system
Josh Korda, podcaster, a meditation guide, and the author of Unsubscribe says, “A few minutes of controlled breathing can certainly activate the parasympathetic nervous system, resulting in reduced stress symptoms and controlled serum cortisol levels, which in turn lifts our mood and strengthen our immune systems.”
So, how do you achieve all this? In our recommendation- give software applications a try. No really. Meditation apps can complement your mindfulness practice as they help you to continue meditation anywhere, anytime.
Curious what all apps for meditation experts recommend for exploring the groove of your meditation? Here, after a lot of research- we have crafted a list of meditation apps, each one of which transforms your mind and body amazingly.
Go on, dig deeper!
Top 9 Meditation Apps
Omvana
Android rating: 4.9 stars
iPhone rating: 4.8 stars
Price: Free with optional in-app purchases
Designed for acting as your personal meditation coach, Omvana takes you to different stages of meditation for various aspects of life.
- 3-60 minutes tailored meditation guides
- Claims to have the largest library
- Tracks by experienced practitioners
- Both free and paid tracks are available
- Has music only options like an iTunes or meditation
- And much more.
Insight Timer
Android rating: 4.9 stars
iPhone rating: 4.9 stars
Price: Free with optional in-app purchases
Take your meditation practice with the thousands of available guided meditations on Insight Timer. Browse into the app library and jump-start your meditation routine with its cool feature set.
- 40,000+ Free guided meditations
- Hundreds of free music tracks
- Variety of timer options
- Discussion groups and community features
- Milestones for tracking your progress
- And others.
Headspace
iPhone rating: 4.8 stars
Android rating: 4.6 stars
Price: Free, offers in-app purchase
Price: Free with optional in-app purchases
Achieve a mental balance and calmness in your life with Headspace app for meditation.
Take help of the following features to achieve the same-
- Try any of its ten new sleep tracks before bed
- Or avail 16 nature soundscapes
- Offers personalized plans
- Mindfulness techniques for daytime usage
- And much more.
10% Happier
iPhone rating: 4.8 stars
Android rating: 4.6 stars
Price: Free with optional in-app purchases
Based on the book with the same name by meditation advocate Dan Harris, this app is perfect for sceptics who aren’t very sure about meditation.
- Every week new content
- Daily videos and guided meditations
- Aimed for people struggling with sleep and anxiety
- Premium version offers more than 500 videos and extra content
- Offers a free seven lesson course
- And much more.
WhiteNoise
iPhone rating: 4.8 stars
Android rating: 4.6 stars
Price: Free
Going by its name, the app avails white noise for masking any distracting sound that a user may encounter while meditating and results in a relaxed mind.
- Use white noise for a quality sleep
- Has 40 pre-recorded white noise sounds
- White noise sounds like bubbling rock, falling rain, ocean waves
- Mix sounds for creating your personal soothing music
- Doesn’t offer any guided meditation.
Gratitude Journal
iPhone rating: 4.7 stars
Price: Free
This is not exactly a meditation app, but a Gratitude journal helps in achieving what a mindful meditation would do.
- It makes it easy to log things you’re grateful for in life
- Personalize the journal with a distinct feel and look.
- Add photos or audios in your personalized journal.
- Reminders for reminding you to make entries in the journal
- And much more.
Simple Habit
iPhone rating: 4.8 stars
Android rating: 4.7 stars
Price: Free, offers in-app purchase
Simple Habit offers 5-minute meditation sessions from top mindfulness experts for achieving a stress-free and composed lifestyle.
- Classic guided meditations and bedtime stories
- Track your meditation progress
- Access the app offline with the premium version
- Sessions designed for daily life problems
- The perfect app for a busy lifestyle.
Buddhify
iPhone rating: 4.8 stars
Android rating: 4.0 stars
Price: $4.99 for iPhone
Powered by more than 200 meditations, Buddhify taught you the method of reducing stress and anxiety, which helps manage complicated emotions and promotes quality sleep.
- Mindfulness exercises for practicing in your daily routine
- Guided sessions of different lengths (3-40 minutes)
- Solo timer for an established meditator
- Range of experienced mentors to choose from
- Access advanced features set in the premium version to further your practice.
Inscape
iPhone ratings: 4.7 stars
Price: Free, offers in-app purchases
Inscape is a meditation studio in New York City, and the app is nothing but an extension of the zen room in which mentors guide you through mindfulness practices.
- The focus of the app is to reduce anxiety and achieve better Zzzs.
- Music, mediation exercises show up as per goal, and timings
- Provides a completely personalized experience
- Music playlists are even tailored with the names like Study Chill Tinder Troubles.
- And much more.
So you must be Wondering how we Crafted this list of Best Meditation Apps!
Hundreds of meditation apps on the app store claim to reduce stress and better sleep patterns. But, here in this article, we have only focused on the app that helps achieve mindfulness through various ways, such as meditating or logging into a journal. We considered the following factors in choosing the best out of the rest:
Several Meditation Options
We checked out the application that fulfills a wide range of requirements, be the user is a beginner or an established meditator. Varying mediation lengths, guided meditation sessions, shorter sessions that can be taken on the move are some of the features that have helped an app to make it to this list.
Soothing App Design
If an app is expected to be visited by the user on a daily basis, then it must possess a soothing and pleasant design. After all, what you see has a direct impact on your mind.
Novice Courses
A good curriculum involves everything, and it is a must for any app to be widely accepted in the market to have courses for newbies. We checked out the apps that didn’t have long guides, which a newbie would be overwhelmed by.
Free Trial
Free trials are again a must as they tend to help a user decide whether the app suits them or not. Before jotting this list, we included the ones which tend to offer a free trial.
Device Compatibility
It is important to have an app compatible with your device, be it an iPhone or Android. Most of the apps included in the list fulfill this criterion. Though there are few which don’t, they have been included because of their uniqueness and usability.
These were the basic criteria apart from checking the in-app functionality and other factors which were taken into account before penning this blog.
Did we Miss your Favorite Meditation App?
Go on, shoot your suggestions in the comment box below.
Also, if you’re some monk or an entrepreneur who wishes to get a meditation app developed of his choice, then Matellio has the perfect solutions for you. With our decade-long software and app development experience, we can certainly develop the perfect solution for you that will fit perfectly with your business goals. Our hiring models deliver you the feasibility to keep your budget in check. Feel free to reach us and discuss your idea over a 30-min free consultation call! Our experts would be happy to help.
