Although my yoga practice began quite a few years ago, it wasn’t until the past year when I began to incorporate meditation into my daily practice and now, I’m hooked.
I set up a small, comfortable space in my house where I light a candle, began my breathing exercises, followed by some light stretching to wake me up and start my meditation. I’m at a point in my practice where I’m now able to meditate without any additional help, but I actually still enjoy receiving guidance through the use of applications and find it to be quite beneficial.
So far, I’ve tried and really liked quite a few meditation apps, some of which I still use to help me feel calm and stay in the present moment.
If you’re new to meditating or have never used a meditation app before, there are so many good options out there that it may be slightly overwhelming to narrow down to the best one or few that works for you.
No worries, though.
I found and tried five of the best free meditation apps that will get you started with your meditation practice and help you find your zen wherever you have a strong phone connection.
CALM
As soon as you open this app, you hearthe soothing sounds of rain falling on leaves, fire crackling, wind in the pines, or any other scenic sound you choose that appeals to you. If you’re new to the app, you can try the free 7 Days of Calm – daily 10-minute guided meditations – which is also a great introduction to mediation if you’ve never tried it before.
What I enjoy most about the free version of this app is it has quite a few benefits to enjoy before actually signing up for a paid plan. You can set up timers to have the app send you notifications throughout the day to remind you to meditate just in case you forget to do so in the morning and it always ends each meditation with a quote that you’re able to share with your family, friends or anyone else that comes to mind. If you choose to upgrade to a paid subscription, I especially recommend the sleep stories to drift you away to sleep with ease.
HEADSPACE
This was the first app I tried when I wanted to practice guided meditation. You start off with 10 free mediation sessions and if you like it, you can purchase a plan with the app to unlock other versions of meditations such as sleeping, eating and even commuting meditations.
BREETHE
Upon initially downloading Breethe, I watched a quick, minute and a half video from Lynne, the voice behind the meditations. Afterward, I was able tochoose from several free meditations and exercises depending on my specific goal. If you have a goal to lose weight, get better sleep at night or simply want to start your day off on the right foot, there are exercises for each of the goals. Similar to Calm, Breethe also has a 7-day Learn to Meditate series, which teaches the practitioner the basics of meditation and how to establish the foundation of a successful meditation practice.
SIMPLE HABIT
This app is asking for only five minutes of your day to help improve your mood, sleep better, reduce stress or any other reason you select upon signing up for an account. What’s even better, the first month is free and gives you unlimited access to over 1,000 meditations.
Once you sign up for your free month, you can choose which meditation you’d like to start with, close your eyes and allow the instructor to guide you through your session. For my first session, I tested out the 7-day Improve Focus series, where a calm voice guided me throughout the 5-minute meditation each day as each session continued to build on from the previous one.
Another cool feature from this app that separates it from other meditation apps, is there are different teachers for the many meditation sessions to choose from so while you’re practicing a new meditation, you have the opportunity to be guided and learn something new from a different instructor.
INSCAPE
If you’re like me and haven’tmade your way into the physical meditation studio in NYC, the app works as a nice replacement for the time being. Inscape has several single sessions and series to choose from depending on your goals. For my first session, I started with a 7-minute energetic morning session which I highly enjoyed simply because of the constant reminder to breathe and to establish my intention for the day.
There are so many other mindfulness apps to choose from but, these are some of my favorite apps to get my day started off right or when I just simply need to find my cool and connect back to the present.