4 Meditation Apps - The Best Meditation Apps, Review and Comparison.

Something I've begun to integrate into my daily life is meditation. It is helping me learn how to manage my feelings, become more mindful, and calms my nerves. As it's such an important part of my life, I thought I would share my favourite meditation apps, and their pros and cons to help anybody who fancies giving it a try

Headspace

Headspace was the first meditation app I ever used and where I learned the basics of meditation. The meditations are all guided by Andy, whose voice you soon become familiar with. The app is great for learning about why meditation is important, and to help you understand how your mind works. There are instructive animations which make the process of meditation and it's importance easy to understand.

There is the option of different courses on this app, from Reframing Loneliness, Creativity, Managing Anxiety and more. The courses tend to have 10, 10-20 minute meditations to complete over 10 days. There is also the option to do the meditations or view the animations as one-offs.

There is a sleep section of the app, with different sleep sounds, and meditations to wind down before sleep.

You can also add buddies and track your progress.

A lot of the features are available for free, however, to unlock all of the meditations you can either pay £74.99 per year, £9.99 weekly, or £399.99 for a lifetime.

This app has a friendly feeling to it, it's inviting and easy to use.

Happy, Not Perfect

Happy, Not Perfect is my current favourite meditation app. I find the graphics across this app are aesthetically very pleasing, which just make it nice to click on, and inviting to explore. 

Alongside the meditation tool, there is also the option to do a mind 'work out', which contain 7 steps to help manage your thoughts and feelings. Some steps in the work out include keeping a gratitude journal, writing down what is bothering you, playing a soothing game, a quick meditation and more. It doesn't take long, which makes it very easy to integrate into day to day life.

There are many different meditations featured including sleep well, break up S.O.S, crush comparison and more. The meditations have many different guides who are experts on the topics (you can also read more about the guides on the app). The meditations themselves last different amounts of time, so you can choose what will fit best into your schedule. You can 'heart' your favourite meditations to make them easy to find again.

There are also many other tools, such as some games which are good for the mind and the option to send good vibes. 

To unlock all of the meditations and features it's £52.99 per year.

Stop, Breathe, Think.

I mainly use this Stop, Breathe, Think when I've not got much time as there are tonnes of great 1 minute meditations.  On many of the meditations, it gives you the option to choose which voice you'd rather hear it in and there is often the option of longer or shorter versions of the meditations. The app asks you how you're are feeling both mentally and physically, and recommends several meditations based on this. I've always found the recommendations to be suitable, and it saves the hassle of scrolling, wondering what would be best. You can then record how you are feeling post-meditation so you can see the impact of the practice. There is also the explore option if you wish to choose your own meditation. The meditations are sorted into sections including One Minute, Fresh Start Challenge, Heal and Forgive, Pregnancy and more. I find this app has fewer features than the others, there isn't much beyond the meditation feature and the tracking of your feelings and meditation habits. You can also earn stickers which encourage you to meditate more often. To unlock all of the meditations on this app it's £54.99 per year or £9.99 a month.

Calm

I'll be honest, this is the only app I've included which I don't regularly use. The main reason I don't use Calm all that much as there aren't very many features available on the unpaid version of the app. 

I really love how this app looks, it feels as though it transports you to a whole different place. There is also the option to change the background scene and sound effect which comes with it if you wish, personally, I'm happy with the mountain scene and sound of the water. 

Alongside meditation on this app, there are tabs for sleep and music. Under the sleep tab, there are tonnes of sleep stories told by different narrators. There are stories such as The Velveteen Rabbit and The Little Mermaid or soundscapes such as Symphony of Rain. The story narrators include Stephen Fry, Matthew McConaughey, Leona Lewis and more. 

The meditation section of the app contains many 7 day courses, such as  7 days for Calming Anxiety, and 7 Days of Happiness.

The meditations are sorted into categories such as Beginners, Less Guidance, Relationships and Personal Growth to make it easier to find what will work for you at the time. There is also the option to heart your favourite meditations, and have them appear in a 'liked' sections so they're easy to find. 

The music tab of this app contains different types of relaxing music and soundscapes, such as Piano Healing and Great Ocean. Again it's sorted into categories to help find what is right for you at the time. The categories include Nature Melodies, Focus, Lullabies and more.

The app cost £34.99 per year to unlock all of the features.

 I hope this was useful! Please let me know if you've used any of these apps before and how you got on with them!

Love C x

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