Top Mindfulness and Relaxation Apps
Wouldn’t it be nice to take some time out for yourself now and then? The long forgotten art of self-appreciation and healing has taken a backseat to the very frantic and hectic paces that our lives are forced to be today. It seems the more any of us try to get anywhere, the more we’re falling behind in terms of our ability to manage our expenses and still enjoy what life has to offer. We need to take a break for ourselves and we need to do it pretty soon.
With so many of us leading high-stress lives today, it’s no wonder that an increasing amount of Android and iOS users are looking towards relaxation apps to help take the edge off of life. It is one of the fastest rising segments of health applications on the market today and many mindfulness and relaxation apps dominate both the paid-for and free app scenes on both operating systems around the world.
Taking a bit of a break from life is something we should all be looking to do, but the following are the apps you need to consider right now in order to make the most of whatever free time you have to dedicate to yourself:
Headspace: Meditation and Sleep
Headspace is an app that promises to let you “make time for a calmer mind”. It is a guided meditation program that trains those who are completely new to the process of meditation towards having an effective meditation session. Various topics included in the app include calming the mind, focusing on breathing pace, and how to improve sleep hygiene. All of these are things many of us have forgotten in our fast-paced lives today and even taking a moment to remember how to guidelines of effective sleep can be a life-changing result for many.
Headspace has already had a recent redevelopment to include more mindfulness topics when approaching other facets of our lives. The app allows users to engage with topics related to personal growth and improving their interpersonal relationships, but it also includes focused areas applicable to people such as athletes, students, and new parents. There is also a well-developed “physical health” section that encourages us to be more mindful of our eating, pain management techniques, and eliminating unnecessary cravings once and for all.
Headspace is a truly comprehensive solution for just about everything related to mindfulness and is well-worth considering. John from sellmyphone.co.uk found Headspace particularly useful for its one-stop approach to personal growth and development. Today, he reports he’s far more relaxed and guided in his day to day life because of the simple, guided approach to mindfulness contained in this app.
Calm: Meditate, Sleep and Relax
Calm is one of the leading apps specifically designed for meditation. It allows users to discover the life-changing benefits associated with regular meditation practice and highlights such personal health benefits as decreased stress and anxiety along with more restful sleep.
Calm has a specific focus on sleep for those who experience insomnia and other sleep-related issues. The app encourages users to use guided meditations in lengths ranging from three to 25 minutes depending on their personal schedules and cover a variety of topics including anxiety reduction, stress management, and achieving a deeper sleep. It also comes bundled with a “sleep stories” section of spoken word that allows users to drift off into a restful sleep without necessarily focusing on any sort of meditation practice. For those who prefer, the app also has a bundle of nature sounds if users find them more useful over the spoken text found in the sleep stories.
Calm is one of the more regularly updated meditation apps and has a 10-minute guided session added to its library daily. For this reason, users would be wise to have a large data plan or be connected to WiFi when updating the app to access these daily meditations as the downloads will soon add up over time. However, the app is held in extremely high regard with its users having achieved an average score of 4.5 out of 5 on the Google Play Store.
The Mindfulness App: Relax, Calm, Focus, and Sleep.
The Mindfulness App holds Editor’s Choice status on the Google Play Store. It is loaded with professional guided meditations and helps guide users towards a more rested, peaceful state of mind. What’s particularly useful about The Mindfulness App is it allows local storage of its guided meditations. This means users needn’t have data or WiFi access when on the move in order to access their favourite recordings. While users will need to download and store their chosen meditations on their devices, it does go a long way to saving quite a bit of data when on the move and streaming the same recording regularly.
There are over 250 guided meditations on the app and its content claims to be from some of the world’s most influential writers. While it is perhaps one of the lighter apps when it comes to its content availability, this is not by sacrificing its overall quality.
The ability to take a step back from life and relax is something that shouldn’t be understated. With an increasing rise in mental health issues around the established world today, it seems that we’re increasingly forgetting to make “me time” for ourselves and are subsequently feeling the negative consequences. Add one of these apps to your phone today and achieve inner peace and tranquillity!
