Mindfulness meditation has been shown to improve memory, focus, and mental well-being and regular practice improves sleep quality. When I first heard about these studies on mindfulness meditation, I imagined that to get these benefits, one would have to spend at least an hour per day meditating. I was surprised to find out that even five minutes can make a difference in stress hormone production and improved sleep.
There are many local resources for learning about mindfulness meditation with a group or counselor. I highly recommend joining a group if you would like to deepen your practice but these apps are a great way to begin to incorporate mindfulness meditation into your life.
Apps for Mindfulness Meditation
Stop Breathe and Think is my favorite app for mindfulness meditations that are short and easy to work into the day. I often stop and do a five-minute meditation when I feel myself getting scattered or stressed and it helps me refocus and reconnect. My patients with pain, digestive issues, and stress-related conditions have reported great improvement from using this app.
When you open the app, you can either choose the meditation you like or you can do a short survey about your physical and mental well-being then click on up to five emotions that you are feeling. The practice of checking in with yourself and asking yourself how you are feeling is helpful for grounding as well. Based on this information, the app will suggest meditations that will help to balance out the challenges that you are facing.
These meditations are mindfulness meditations and are non-religious. I also appreciate that the speakers use normal voices and do not adopt the breathy quality of some meditation recordings.
The app is free and comes with around 30 meditations but you can pay a monthly fee to purchase extra meditations.
App: Stop Breathe and Think
Available on iOS and Android
Headspace is my favorite app for Mindfulness Meditation training. It is a good resource for people who want to go deeper into Mindfulness Meditation practice and want to engage in silent meditation for longer periods of time. After doing a training program like this one, many people will go on to meditate silently on their own. Headspace includes videos that explain meditation and guided meditation recordings that are up to an hour in length. There is a 10-day free trial.
App: Headspace
Available on iOS and Android
Are there others you have tried and would like to share? Please let us know what makes them work for you! Thank you.
