When I did my meditation teacher training, we did not use apps. I trained the old-fashioned way, which was pure bliss and for sure has a place in my life. However, in today’s world of technology, there are way too many tools out there to just rely on my own inner tools ;-) Today, I wanted to share with you some of my favorites. I am not affiliated with any of them; I just dig them.
Unless you have been hiding under a rock this last decade you probably have heard about the strong science behind the benefit of meditation. All the cool kids are doing it :-) Do not be afraid of it please. Make it your own. The only bad meditation is the one you did not do. :-)
Insight Timer
Insight Timer is my #1 go-to app for pretty much everything meditation.
This app is known for its extensive library of guided sleep meditations. This app is a goldmine for anyone looking to improve their sleep quality and meditation practice. Another one of my favorite parts of this app is their fantastic music library. There is one feature I have yet to explore and that is their bedtime stories, I will be trying some of these out soon and will report back. With over 200,000 free meditations and sleep tracks, I am confident Insight Timer will be a fantastic app for you. At the time of this posting the price for their premium membership was $59.90 for a year or $9.99/month. I have had this app for over a decade and so i only pay $19.99 a year. How lucky am I? I suggest doing the free membership for a while, and if you feel you are committed to this practice, then buy the year membership, the premium stuff is amazing. The free membership has a lot to offer as well. The most important thing is you download this app now and start using it ;-)
Calm
The Calm app is a fantastic tool for anyone looking to enhance their mindfulness and relaxation practices. This is my second favorite because it offers a wide variety of features, including guided meditations, soothing sounds, and sleep stories that make it easy to unwind. I have used the sleep stories with this app and have enjoyed them. The user interface is clean and intuitive, as is Insight timers. I have deleted apps because they had crappy interfaces, I want to calm down and not get frustrated lol. One great feature of this app is it caters to both beginners and more experienced users. This is a great tool to use for stress reduction as they have a lot of short snippets you can access when you are low on time. The cost is similar $69.00 for a year. They do have a free section as well so you can check it out but Insights free is way more extensive.
Balance
Ok, this one is not one of my go-to’s but I did want to mention it because it has some intriguing aspects to it. The balance app slogan is that it offers “meditation that adapts to you.” The reason I think this is a cool part of the app is that way too often I would have clients come to me and say “I don’t know where or how to start a meditation practice.” This is an easy peasy question for me to tackle as a meditation teacher but to the person just wanting to use an app and do a plug and play approach, this is a good app to start with. The app will create custom plans according to your individual need. They can do this because they use AI to create plans. I love this and think it is a swell approach to someone just starting out. Balance is not perfect and as I said it is not my go to but it might be worth checking out for their free trial. After the free trial, the cost is $69.00 a year. Still say, Insight timer wins.
Davidji
This last suggestion is not an app, although his work is featured on some of the apps. This suggestion is a website. It is a website that features Davidji. David is an AMAZING meditation teacher. I met David while living in Southern California; he lived in the same city as we did. He has a unique look lol and the cutest dog ever. His dog is named Peaches and he meditates with people on the beach. Isn’t that the cutest? BUT I do not love David because of his dog or his voice, I love his teachings because they are very authentic to the core. He seems to have this gift to guide you through meditation in the perfect way where you stay connected. He covers a lot of different topics. On his website, he has a lot of free stuff. You can follow David on social media, check out his work on Insight timer or listen to some of his free stuff on his site. He also has written some wonderful books as well.
Have you tried any of these apps? If so what are your thoughts? Do you have any other favorites you want to share?
