Find your zen: Use these meditation guide apps to chill out

Life’s never not crazy. We are constantly working at a breakneck speed & jumping from one social obligation to another. With electronic devices around us, we are also constantly multi-tasking. We can simply announce that there’s no rest for the wicked & shrug it off, or we can try to take a pause every now and then.  

Pausing & reflecting on our lives should be a non-negotiable part of our routines. This sounds very ambitious, but consciously practicing mindfulness can enable us to make mindfulness a way of life. Meditation’s the simplest & most effective way of practicing mindfulness. 

Meditation carries a plethora of other benefits for our physical as well as mental health, including lowering blood pressure, boosting the immune system, better self-control, building resilience for stress management, etc. 

The great thing about meditation, as a practice, is that you don’t have to be spiritual or religious for it to work. You just have to find what mode of meditation works best for you & then make it a part of your routine. 

There’s no dearth of mindfulness & meditation apps these days. Some promise to help you combat anxiety, some aim to enhance the quality of your sleep. Here’s a list of apps that can help you maintain your regular meditation goals. 

Presently

Presently’s a very distinct app that chooses gratitude as the tool for mindfulness exercise. It works on the principle of minimalism – as is clear from its user interface – and creates a record of things you feel grateful for. In this manner, Presently helps you focus on the things that really matter, thereby cutting down on the digital noise around you. 

Headspace

One of the most popular apps with guided meditation exercises, Headspace contains modules on Restfulness, Managing Anxiety, and the like. Its exercises revolve around breathing & grounding techniques. Headspace also extends the idea of calmness to a good night’s sleep. 

Calm

Did you like the idea of bedtime stories as a kid? If so, the Calm app might be for you. It consists of guided meditations, soothing music, body scans, and bedtime stories to help you bring calmness to every aspect of your daily routine.  

The Calm app has been in the news for its celebrity quotient. The app library of sounds also happens to feature soothing contributions in the form of Matthew McConaughey’s southern drawl, Stephen Fry’s English accent, etc. 

Calm’s constantly adding to its list of offerings like last year’s addition of Peloton’s mindfulness sessions & Journey’s live group classes. It’s on its way to becoming the ultimate digital wellness hub.

Insight Timer

If you like the celebrity quotient, then Insight Timer brings you audio narrations by the likes of Lalah Delia, Russell Brand, psychotherapist Anthony DeMello, among others. Insight Timer is a meditation apps best that customizes the experience to suit your moods. You can choose from a variety of templates. Some of these templates like the Rainforest Creek make use of all your senses.

Some others like Tropical Vacation pack an escape & a meditation session all in one. Insight Timer’s best used by someone who is ready to experiment a bit before finding their own tune. 

Simple Habit

Another app that aims at a customized experience, Simple Habit works like a quick-fix solution for your tranquility needs. If you’re an extremely busy person then you might consider audio meditations as short as 5 minutes. Simple Habit can be a great tool to start with when you live on unpredictable schedules due to professional or personal commitments.

Liberate

Julio Rivera created Liberate specifically for the Black, Indigenous, and people of color communities. The app’s approach to meditation is very receptive to & conscious of the issues & traumas that marginalized communities face. For example, it has a separate module on microaggressions.

If you think the wellness space was crowded with & guided by white experiences, Liberate might have filled that gap.