Meditation. It鈥檚 not a New Age thing anymore, or a Buddhist thing, or even a David Lynch thing. It鈥檚 gone mainstream and secular, and now, like everything else in your life, it鈥檚 available as an app.
The catch term these days is mindfulness. This is in fact a slightly different pursuit than meditation. As , it鈥檚 sort of the opposite, since traditional meditation is a mind-emptying practice. But documenting the positive effects of meditation and mindfulness, from the obvious鈥攕tress reduction, help with anxiety and depression鈥攖o the not-so-apparent, like stronger immune systems, lower risk of heart disease, better relationships, and overall increased happiness.
Smartphone technology鈥攖oo often the greatest enemy of enjoying the present moment鈥攃an help you get there. There are apps that aid with relaxation, breathing exercises, and 鈥渕indfulness-based stress reduction.鈥 You can find screen after screen of effective methods to help people feel better and work more productively, whether in New York cubicles or NFL training rooms. What you鈥檒l find below is the best of what鈥檚 available now on iTunes and Google Play.
What Qualifies as the Best Meditation App?
We focused on apps that have a human feel, with voices offering instruction and guided meditation. The following apps feature real people whose experience is apparent and who have a good bedside manner. We steered clear of the cloying, the motivational-speaker-esque, and those unmotivating sleep-inducing instructors who sound like they鈥檝e enjoyed a little too much weed and can鈥檛 pronounce their consonants.
But a lot depends on your own personality, the vibe you go in for, and the techniques that work for you. So take some time to play around with various apps; the ones here all cost less than a digital streaming service. (Note: most of these require additional purchases once you鈥檝e run through the included content鈥攆rom single fees per meditation to $10 or more for an annual subscription.)
And don鈥檛 forget one key fact: You do have time. I need to remind myself of this whenever I get too caught up in the rush. Every minute invested in resting those neural pathways will pay itself back鈥攜ou鈥檒l need less sleep, and you鈥檒l be sharper and more efficient.
Best Meditation App for Your Mindfulness Goals
Best All Around: Buddhify
Buddhify calls itself 鈥渕odern mindfulness wherever you are.鈥 It鈥檚 designed for those who鈥檝e always been curious about meditation but haven鈥檛 known where to start. A brilliant, colorful design and wide array of situation-focused meditations make this app engaging and useful for experienced meditators as well. What sets it apart is the rainbow-hued spinning dial that asks what you鈥檙e doing now. Trying to sleep? Sitting in a park? Exercising? There are 16 such categories, and a small handful of guided meditations to choose from within each. It offers a variety of enjoyable instructors, plus a solo option, a stats page to track your progress, and the option of social sharing for those who want to feel they鈥檙e part of the community. Who knew meditation was this much fun?
Best for Beginners: Calm
This intuitively designed and supremely accessible app puts learning front and center, and includes helpful Masterclass information where mindfulness experts explains some of the science behind meditation. Included are several no-nonsense guided meditations that focus on a single concept, like relieving stress. Best of all is the check in screen that asks you to pinpoint your current mood and emotions, then recommends different meditations or mindful activities based on your answers. Additionally, a progress page tracks the time you spend meditating, and the app also includes other meditative tools, like bedtime stories read by celebrities, mindful movement exercises, and a white noise simulator.
Best If You Already Meditate: The Mindfulness App
This simple, clean app combines a lot of the best features from all the others on this list: a handful of guided three- to thirty-minute meditations led by instructor Catherine Polan Orzech, who teaches Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction; the option of self-guided silent meditations in the same increments, or in whatever length you specify; optional daily reminders to put down the mouse and get your butt on the cushion; and additional 99-cent meditations from leading teachers. A smart feature is the timer showing no numbers but only a circle of dots that slowly move around to 360 degrees, so the math part of your brain doesn鈥檛 have a chance to obsess.
Best Host: Headspace
Andy Puddicombe: first off, best name among wellness practitioners. (I鈥檓 talkin鈥 to you, Deepak.) Puddicombe is a minor celeb in Britain, where he consults for the government and appears on BBC. A former Tibetan monk, he now preaches the merits of taking ten minutes every day for mindfulness. This Take 10 program is the centerpiece of the Headspace app. Puddicombe鈥檚 guided meditations are intelligent and thought-provoking and offer what the best teachers can鈥攊nstilling enthusiasm while speaking to you at your own level. The design has a few odd, clunky moments, but it makes up for it with excellent graphics.
Best Free Meditation Apps and Tools
These apps offer specific features for those who don鈥檛 need a guide but do want tools to facilitate their practice.
Breathwork
For breath training (a great skill to develop not only for relaxation but also for yoga and increased VO2 max), try , which gives you visual and aural cues to inhale and exhale.
Relaxation
Relaxing sounds can provide a great backdrop, particularly at the office or if you live in a noisy city. Apps like , , and, well, offer sounds like waves on a beach or songbirds that put you in the mind of a rainforest, and you can also use them as an alarm clock if you鈥檇 rather wake up to a thunderstorm than to Apple鈥檚 default 鈥淥pening鈥 tone (the one that sounds like that song in American Beauty).
Duration
Finally, there are meditation timers that serve one simple purpose. My favorite is , an elegant design that allows you to set a specific duration and drift off, without overthinking it. (Bonus: it also tracks your progress, helps you build a routine, and includes several free guided meditations added daily.)