Wednesday, September 20, 2017

The Top 4 Best Meditation Apps for Your Smart Phone

Meditation is super important in our daily lives to
reduce stress and to maintain focus in a world full of distractions. In order to assist your own meditation journey, I have downloaded and tested 4 Meditation and Guided imagery apps for your smart phone. Each one is slightly different and each one has it's uses.

Relax Mini: Way of the Leaf

The first one is very simple. It's called Relax Mini: Way of the Leaf. It's basically just a guided imagery meditation tour. As a very calming female voice leads you through the woods in the fall leaves a video plays of a tree with bright colored fall leaves on it blowing in the wind. It's very calming and relaxing and with this one you can either watch the video or close your eyes and just listen to the calming voice. This was the first one that I downloaded and when I realized it was just the one guided imagery story, I decided I needed to try out a few more. I needed some options. But I'd rate this one 5/5 stars because it gives you a great tool to relax at the end of the day.

Simply Being

This is a collection of classical songs and nature sounds for relaxation and meditation. There is no voice leading you through the imagery, but it is pretty easy to let your mind imagine that you are in a calming place when you can hear the sound of the ocean waves, or the calming meditation music. There are 3 classical music options called Acceptance, Sanctuary, and Gentle Night and there are 5 nature options, including Calm Ocean Shore, Light Rain, Gentle Forest Brook, Evening Lake Birds, and Moderate Surf. You can decide whichever sound makes you the most relaxed and then you can set the timer for how long you want to meditate for. You can set the timer for 5, 10, 15, 20, or 30 minutes. I love this app and would also rate it 5/5 stars. It is super easy to use, and makes it really easy for anyone who wants to meditate daily. 

Headspace

This is an animated cartoon with an man with an Australian accent explaining the best ways to meditate. He gives you some beginner insights and starts you off nice and slow. There are singles options for when you just want to do a quick relaxation technique, but there is a main area where you basically have to complete the first session before you can unlock session 2 and so on. There are 10 sessions total. I rate this one a 2/5. It looks really professionally done, but I don't find it very calming and the first session didn't get me relaxed and neither did session 2. I wasn't very impressed with it, but that doesn't mean it's not worth trying if you want to! 

Breethe

And the Winner is.... Breethe. This app is absolutely AMAZING. You can use it for free, but I strongly suggest paying for the monthly fee. It gives you access to all of the wonderful meditations. There is a meditation for every situation. I pay the 12 bucks a month for a membership and my favorite mediation is one called positive self image. She walks you through a meditation where you sit in your happy place and look in a mirror and she helps you see yourself in a more positive way. It's wonderful and always makes me feel happy and safe. There are meditations to help you sleep, help you get through chemo treatments, weight loss, pain, getting rid of negative thinking. There are so many! And the app also has themed weeks, so you can do a themed week that has a meditation for every day of the 7 days of the week. There is one for feeling happier, stressing less, better sleep, etc. 

I hope this was helpful for you and I really hope that if you don't already have a meditation routine, that you download an app to help you create one. Happy meditating!

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