6 Best Mindfulness Meditation Apps 2022 iOS & Android
Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years for spiritual reasons, but through the years it has also started becoming more popular because of its mental and physical health benefits. Many people turn to it when looking for a way to reduce stress and anxiety, increase productivity, help with sleep issues, intrusive thoughts, or even with addictions or to decrease blood pressure, and more. Research shows that there are numerous mental and physical health benefits for those who practice meditation regularly.
However, learning how to meditate can be tricky. There are quite a few different techniques that you could use and once you turn to the Internet for help you’ll quickly find out that there is a lot to choose from. Ultimately, it all depends on what you want to achieve and which meditation technique works better for you.
There isn’t an ideal way of meditating that should be used by everyone. It’s more of a personal thing, which is why you may want to turn to a guided meditation app for help. Meditation apps offer a lot of free, guided courses that will help you take your first steps and learn the basics. They can introduce you to various techniques and help you find the one that’s suited for you.
Sounds great, right? The only problem is that you’ll find lots of meditation apps that will offer you help, talk about the benefits mentioned above, and recommend guided meditation for you to start with. It may turn out to be even more overwhelming to choose one meditation app to try than it was to find out about all the meditation techniques that you can learn. This is why we decided to provide you with a list of top meditation apps to try in 2022.
Here is our list of top popular meditation apps in 2022:
Headspace: Meditation and Sleep Made Simple
Headspace is the most popular Meditation App out there. Chances are that even before you took an interest in meditation, you heard about it. It has a very user-friendly interface with lots of colorful, cheerful visuals, a clear structure and logical categorization, and it offers hundreds of guided meditations from beginner to expert level. It is especially recommended for people who are at the start of their meditation journey because it offers a lot of guided meditations of various lengths. These include very short meditations to help you build your meditation habit gradually.
It provides tips on how to meditate and explanations of issues and challenges that you may have to overcome on your way, and it also builds personalized plans based on your input. It makes learning the basics of meditation easier, which is why many sites strongly recommended it for beginners. Once you get the basics you’ll be able to explore breathwork, mindfulness sessions, and ambient nature sounds that will help you relax and meditate without guidance.
Headspace offers a free trial option, but afterward, you should buy either a monthly or yearly subscription to enjoy the content, because except for some introductory materials, it will be locked for you unless you buy premium access. If you don’t want to invest in an app like that or need a little more time than the 14-day free period to make that choice, below you’ll find some other propositions.
Calm: Sleep & Meditation
Calm may not be a perfect pick for everybody as it is not as well-organized and categorized as Headspace, which may not make it a perfect choice for beginners and may make it a little overwhelming for people trying it out. However, if you have already meditated before and are looking for ways to expand your practice, Calm is a perfect pick for you. It has many guided meditations for you to choose from, including ones that help you with reducing anxiety, practicing gratitude, fighting low-esteem, breaking bad habits, and many more. Just like with Headspace, Calm will try to curate the experience by asking you some questions at the beginning of your journey with the app. Thanks to your answers it will select the best meditations for you.
There are a few things that make Calm stand out. One is that you can listen to over 100 Sleep Stories (relaxing tales that are supposed to help you fall asleep easily) that are voiced by famous people, such as Matthew McConaughey, Harry Styles, or Kate Winslet, among many others. Special add-ons that make Calm unique don’t end there though. It also offers a Mood and Gratitude Check-in feature, which lets you keep track of both of these things.
Calm, just like Headspace, is a freemium app, which means that after a free trial you have to buy a costly subscription, which is 70$ per year, or 15$ per month.
Take3Breaths: Meditation at the workplace
The Take3Breaths app is a lot newer than the two mentioned above, but it has the potential to grow to be just as widely known. It specializes in introducing meditation to companies, homes, and offices across the whole world. Why companies and offices? Because Martin Hassall, the individual behind Take3Breaths, whose voice you hear in the guided meditations, realized throughout his journey as a meditation teacher that meditation can reshape your day-to-day working experience, help you gain focus and motivation to perform your duties, be more productive and less stressed at work, and can even increase your creativity, all of which will lead to you to the feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction from your job.
Even though it focuses on boosting your mood at the office and bettering your work, it is also directed towards companies who wish to improve their employees’ general wellness. Practicing daily with Take3Breaths will help you regulate your emotions, enhance your mood, memory and attention span, as well as reduce your stress level and improve your sleep. Take3Breaths will support you not only during your working hours but throughout the whole day. It has a user-friendly design that, along with breathing exercises and modules such as Productivity Increase, Sleep and Relaxation Meditation, Anxiety and Stress Relief, and Creativity Increase, will ease you into the world of meditation and mindfulness.
The Take3breaths app provides users with 24-hour access to meditation techniques, tools, and timers to help deal with the challenges of living in today’s world. It’s an app that will help you create a meditation habit and because it’s so new, you can expect it to grow with more sessions like free guided meditations for anxiety, productivity, sleep and relaxation, creativity, and many more. As of now all the content in the app is free, which makes it a perfect app to start your journey with. Take 3 breaths in the morning with the Take3Breaths app and start changing your life.
Insight Timer
Insight Timer is another free app that offers a lot of content, and when we say a lot, we mean over 127,000 free meditations, which include a range of soothing ambient, relaxing music tracks, nature sounds, singing bowls, blocks and chimes, as well as meditations led by seasoned teachers on how to calm your mind and reduce anxiety.
You can base your search on your needs (for example, stress relief, falling asleep, improving your self-esteem, etc.), time (lasting from 5 minutes to 30+ minutes), or a benefit (relationships, spiritual, kids, among others). There is even a seven-day course on how to meditate that can ease you into meditation practice. The only problem with Insight Timer is that it’s not organized or structured like other apps are. With so many meditations available, it takes a lot of time to go through them and find the ones that resonate with you, especially if you are someone who is at the beginning of their meditation journey. The best feature of this app however is that you can find meditation teachers, virtual groups, and live events within your area (such as full moon meditations, healing circles, book clubs, sound baths, and more) that you can attend virtually.
Simple Habit
This is an app for anyone who’s convinced that they don’t have enough time for meditating. Recordings that you’ll find in Simple Habit are short and, according to the app, can even be practiced while commuting. If quick, 5-minute meditations and meditations for specific situations are what you are after, you have to try this one. They have lessons for any time of day, any personal situation or goal, and lessons on improving almost any aspect of your life, including your love life and sex life. It’s free to access most sessions on Simple Habit, but for access to all the content and the ability to download, you’ll have to pay for a subscription.
The Mindfulness App
The Mindfulness App can be a great starting point for any beginner because of its 5-day guided practice and introduction to mindfulness that it offers for free. Just like Headspace and Calm, it’s a freemium app that offers some free content and has a lot of premium stuff too. Similar to Insight Timer, you can track your statistics in your meditation journal, but you can also set reminders to keep yourself mindful throughout the day and try personalized meditation options. Just like the other apps, it offers meditations that last from 3 up to 99 minutes, which makes it easier to fit meditation into your busy day. You can also find guides, podcasts, and audio on various subjects within the area of meditation and mindfulness. The timed sessions on The Mindfulness App give you control over how long you want your meditation to last.
In a nutshell, meditation apps are a great way to start your meditation journey. They offer a whole range of free guided meditations for beginners, as well as courses, podcasts, sessions, and breathing exercises for you to learn from. They can help you improve your workplace wellness while also helping you with your creativity, productivity, sleep, and anxiety. They enable you to create meditation habits more easily and most of them are great for quick 5-minute meditations that you can squeeze into your busy schedule. Each meditation app has its pros and cons, and each offers different content and a different approach to meditation and mindfulness. However, if you choose the one that resonates with you the most, you won’t be disappointed. We created this list based on research and the opinions of people all over the internet, and we sincerely hope that it will help you find the perfect app to start your meditation journey.
