How many times a day we feel like running away from the relentless modern life? How about those noisy recurrent thoughts that won’t let us focus on work or even reading our favorite book? It has become a common issue in the modern Era to find ourselves stressed, tense, agitated and angry.
Lucky for us, meditation was able to make its way in the western world in the late 19th century, when the British were introduced to these disciplines through the Indian Buddhists, in the process of colonization. They were amazed on much peace and self-knowledge was obtained from the ancient practice.
All of this millennial knowledge got very popular on the 1960’s once again, as the hippie subculture in the United States started to boil with the influence of the eastern religion and spirituality. Almost 80 years later, we have technology to help us take the best from the ancient wisdom to our daily lives.
Today we bring you the top 5 Meditation Apps for coping with stress and getting back in touch with our inner-self, our source of wisdom, truth, strength, power, will and, of course, love.
1.Headspace
As the description on the App Store says “Headspace is meditation made simple, a way of treating your head right. Using proven meditation and mindfulness techniques we’ll show you how to train your mind for a healthier, happier, more enjoyable life”.
First developed two years ago by former Buddhist monk Andy Puddicombe and his team, Headspace has launched the second version of the digital mindfulness platform on 2014. With counting celebrities and more than a million other people around the world, Headspace will get you in the path to self-awareness, inner peace and better understanding of your emotions and thoughts as you go placidly amidst the noise and haste of the day-to-day life.
The app offers 10 free guided sessions for starters. Also, Headspace Version 2 has been optimized with new features that include buzzers to remind users with little nudges how easily the mind wanders, along with different meditation routines to adapt every need.
2. Calm
For the busiest days, this App offers a Calm break to get you back in track right from your office PC. The Calm app aims to help us unwind through guided meditations. Official webpage states “Relax with Calm, a simple mindfulness meditation app that brings clarity and peace of mind into your life”.
For up to 30 minutes, it instructs meditation sessions to help you improve your sleep, relaxation and focus.
For a quick refresher mid-day, the app has nature scenes and calming background noises that aid relaxation during the instructed mediation, which focuses on breathing and body awareness.
3. Lucid
Attention athletes! Former Twitter executive Jason Stirman has focused his 2.0 building passion on developing Lucid, an App that brings mindfulness to athletes.
According to TechCrunch’s overview, a leading technology media property, dedicated to obsessively profiling startups and reviewing new Internet products, “the Lucid App allows you to be a better athlete by training your mind in less than five minutes each day and learn what it means to truly be in the zone. Their mental coaches have worked with elite athletes like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Aaron Gordon, and others from all sports and all levels to help them perform at a higher level. Only the best of the best have had access to this training and these coaches, until now”.
Training can focus on confidence, being present, visualizing the goal, speed and various other behaviors an athlete needs to succeed for five minutes a day.
Lucid was launched last May and is free to download on the App Store. A 10-day-meditation Training Try-out is available for up to five days and you can pay a yearly subscription for a $100 or or 10$ per month.
4. Smiling-mind: Meditation Made Easy
Available for PC, App Store and Google Play, Smiling Mind was developed by an Australian non-profit with support from ReachOut.com, which describes it as “modern meditation for young people”.
The app features guided meditations with the objective of managing stress, increasing resilience and assisting in reducing mental health risks in later life.
Smiling Mind has different sets of meditation targeted for specific demographic groups that go from 7-11 year-olds, 12-15, 16-22 and adults. Also, it is recommended as tool that should be introduced to young people with stress, anxiety and depression as a part of a cognitive behavioral framework. It offers assistance on recognizing unhelpful thoughts and creates processes to cognitively distance from them.
5. Omvana
With a simple interface of a calming field of blue fronted with attractive icons, Omvana guides you easily with just one click through the meditation sets of your choice. The app features a wide library of guided meditation from global experts, with tools that allows users to record their mood and receive guidance on which meditation is right for the moment.
As a plus for those practitioners who like to focus on a particular life issue or area of improvement, Omvana helps to hone in on topics like health, wealth, sleep, and support mind-quieting practices.
This App is available for mobiles and PC’s.