For individuals interested in beginning a meditation regimen, both the iTunes App Store and Google Play Store are a great place to start! But pull up a search for “Meditation,” and you’ll be given a huge amount of options.
At Empathic Practice we use a specialized coaching app to connect with our clients, providing encouragement and support through your meditation journey. Use the app to track your meditation time, how you’re feeling and how much physical movement you have engaged in. It even offers wellness plans to help guide your food choices. Exclusive to our clients, our app is more than an educational resource – it’s a connection for coaching on holistic healing. In conjunction with our app, at our practice, we use Muse as a way to improve and quantify our client’s meditation practice.
We really believe that technology can help us grow and develop, but we need to be mindful of how what we do.
For those that want to try other resources at home, we’ve made choosing the perfect mindfulness app easy!
Here are our recommendations.
Scroll through our list 5 Most Popular Mindfulness Meditation Apps of the year to get a quick comparison. After that, why don’t you take a 10-minute guided meditation to recharge?
Aura
Rating: With 11,000 reviews in the App Store, Aura was named the #1 New App by Apple in 2017 and has an average rating of 4.7 stars.
Features: When you open the app, you will be prompted to choose from a list of emotions, like anxious, can’t sleep or stressed. You will then be given a set of guided meditations and life coaching recordings that are tailored to your current state.
The app also features guided hypnotherapy sessions, inspirational stories, nature sounds and music to induce relaxation, focus, sleeping and more.
Price: Subscription-based only, this app will cost you $4.99 per month or $59.99 per year.
Breethe
Rating: This app received 4.7 stars and almost 17,000 reviews on the App Store, coming in #20 on iTunes’ health and fitness chart.
Features: Use Breethe to access a variety of guided meditations along with hypnotherapy sessions, bedtime stories and inspirational talks on spirituality and personal growth.
Additionally, Breethe offers “music therapy,” or tracks with music and special soundwaves meant to alter the water molecules in your body, allowing for a transcendent meditative experience.
Price: Unlock Breethe’s features for $12.50 per month, $89.95 per year, or subscribe two full years of premium membership for $149.99.
Insight Timer
Rating: Wildly popular in the App Store, Insight Timer was rated 4.9-stars by almost 112,000 users.
Features: Upon opening the app, you will see a map of the world, along with statistics on other users globally.
When I logged in, there were a total of 6.7 million meditators using Insight Timer, with 519,000 logging that day and 4,000 people meditating at that very moment.
When using the meditation timer, you will be given a variety of options. First, you must choose the duration of your mediation, along with a bell sound that rings when your session commences. Then, you can choose an ambient sound, like white noise or a soft, acoustic guitar track to be played during your session, as well as another gong sound to signify the end.
Insight Timer boasts a free library of over 15,000 music files and guided meditation tracks. There are also a number of self-help sessions, recorded by experts in the field.
Price: Downloading Insight Timer is free, but it features two in-app premium subscription options: $9.99 per month or $59.99 per year.
Calm
Rating: Securing the #1 spot on the iTunes’ Health and Fitness chart, the Calm app has been reviewed by over 321,000 reviewers and has received an average rating of 4.9-stars.
Features: Along with a large selection of guided meditations, this app includes a calendar that shows how many sessions you’ve completed, your longest meditation streak and the total time you have ever spent meditating on the app.
My favorite feature in the app is the visual breathing timer. Feeling anxious in a public space? Pull out the timer and follow its prompts to breathe in, hold, and breathe out.
This will allow you to discreetly ground yourself in the present moment.
Price: For a one-year subscription, the Calm app charges users $59.99. For a forever subscription, you’ll be spending $299.99.
Headspace
Rating: Rated 4.9-stars by 467,000 users on the App Store, Headspace is the most popular app on ourlist!
Features: Having been featured on the Today Show, Dr. Oz and BBC Breakfast News, Headspace offers a variety of features in a user-friendly format.
Choose from a huge library of guided meditations and courses that focus on topics like stress & anxiety, personal growth, work & productivity, physical health and more.
Price: A premium subscription with Headspace will cost you $12.99 per month or $94.99 per year. You can also purchase lifetime access to the app’s premium features for $399.99.
Keep in mind that these apps are only resources and should be treated as such. Used alone, an app itself does not have the power to change your life or your habits. But if you take the information that you have learned from your app and implement it into your practice, you may feel better equipped to meditate by yourself, without guidance.
And sometimes, all you need is to go on YouTube and find a guided meditation that helps you relax, reflect, and recharge. You can jumpstart your journey to happiness using a 10-minute guided meditation we put together for beginners!
Additionally, while these apps may be helpful in staying on track with your meditation regimen, it is important to avoid feeling isolated. Perhaps, the most effective way to amplify your meditative experience is through group meditation, which creates a sense of belonging and community.
At Empathic Practice, we provide you with both.
Empathic Practice uses a coaching app to connect with its clients and patients, encouraging and supporting them through their growth and practice. The app is available only for clients that we coach, and we believe in using the app as part of the connection for coaching, but not as the only resource.
We also hold group meditation sessions every Wednesday at 5:30 pm, as well as special group meditation events.
[blockquote author=”” link=”” target=”_blank”]Join us on Thursday, March 21 at 5:30 pm at Long Hollow Creatives for our guided Meditation for Creatives. This guided journey through the elements will represent creation, concentration, expression, and expansion. The Meditation for Creatives was developed to allow imagination to wonder and wander.[/blockquote]