After a year meditating, I’m excited to share my journey and 9 mediation apps that can teach you how to meditate and help make it part of your daily routine. I’ve personally trialled all the meditation apps shared below and even got my boyfriend into mediating by using them. None of these links are sponsored. I am just sharing them in the hopes they can help your meditation practice, and make your life a little more blissful.

My Meditation Role Model

Growing up I always remember my Dad coming home from work and going into his home office to meditate. He explained it to me as a time when he closed his eyes to organize his thoughts and relax after a stressful day at the office. As a 10 years old kid this sounded kinda boring, but also pretty magical since my Dad always came out of that room happy, calm and relaxed.

Looking back, I realize that my Dad had discovered a way to beat anxiety decades before it became hip, cool and now the norm amongst many of us. Like yoga, meditation has now become mainstream, and more and more people are turning to it as a way to slow down, relax and become more present in their daily lives.

Why I Meditate

When I grew up, I started to attend yoga classes, where Shavasana (that thing you do at the end of class) was my first introduction to meditation. I loved having 5-10 minutes to shut off my brain and forget the constant to-do list running through my mind. Usually, I imagined myself on the beaches of Hawaii, breathing in-sync with the crashing waves.

Fast-forward to the present day, and now meditation is something I turn to on a regular basis, to ease my anxiety and feelings of overwhelm. This can be especially helpful in terms of work or while travelling to new countries.

In fact, this year it’s one of my new year goals to incorporate a 10-minute meditation into my everyday morning routine, as they say, it is good for memory, concentration, self-esteem, and just general health and happiness. Now that I am meditating more regularly (multiple times a week), I have noticed I am more present day-to-day, and I am able to calm down faster when moments of anxiety do sneak up. Also, I find meditation commonly brings me new ideas and helps me problem solve issues I’m having at work or in other areas of my life. Simply put, mediation is a great excuse for the “me-time” we all need every once and a while.

9 Meditation Apps to Help you Meditate

If you are new to meditation, don’t worry, the first few meditation apps can teach you the basics. And if you have meditated before and are now interested in making it a daily habit, I highly recommend using one of these apps to keep you on track, and to give you new technics or mantras to try. Just remember, there is no wrong way to meditate, although it may feel like this when you are first starting out. Just breathe, try to clear your mind, and relax.

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Headspace

Headspace does a great job in teaching the fundamentals and basics of meditation with animations. It may sound juvenile but it’s helpful when first learning the benefits of meditation. When my boyfriend, Ben, was interested to learn how to meditate, I recommended their 7-day free trial, and he loved it!

It is definitely a great app to start with, and the guy who speaks you through the meditations has an extremely soothing British accent.
If you like the app you can pay to unlock more meditations, including mini meditations (1, 2, and 3 minutes long), walking meditations, and themed packs for different situations.
Plus the app can even send you notifications to remind you to meditate daily

Price to subscribe: $129.99 per year

Calm

Personally, Calm is my favourite meditation apps, out of all the apps I have tried. And because of this, I purchased their year subscription in the hopes it will keep me dedicated to a regular practice. I like this app the most because I find the ladies voice in the meditations to be very, well, calming. In my opinion, they also have the best and most useful features and the lowest price.

Fantastically themed meditations for anxiety, gratitude, calm, focus, grief, self-esteem, and a unique daily meditation.
Some other great features including sleep stories, peaceful nature sounds, music to meditate to, informative Masterclass videos, stretch routines, and a calendar to keep you on track of your meditation sessions.
There are two narrators, to make it a better experience you. I listen to the woman’s voice, but there is also a male narrator.
This one also has a 7-day free trial period, and then you have to pay the subscription fee.

Price to subscribe: $76.99 per year

BetterMe

The BetterMe. meditation app is one that was recently advertised to me on Instagram. I am always curious to see what different meditation apps offer, so I decided to download it and do the free trial. As soon as I started using it, I knew this app was not my favourite.

Firstly, the guided meditation voice is quite monotone and robotic, not to mention makes me feel more anxious while listening to it. #ironic
Plus some of the themed packs are for very specific purposes like quitting alcohol, smoking, gaming, boosting sexuality and attracting men. Now, these might be perfect for some users, but they aren’t something I need. However, they do have more useful theme packs that I haven’t seen on any other apps including meditations for depression, relationships, balance, motivation and weight loss.
Otherwise, the app has relaxing nature sounds to work & listen to, breathing exercises, bedtime meditations, and mindful activity meditations when you cook, travel, eat, or walk while listening to them.
This one also has a 3 or 7-day free trial period, and then it will automatically start charging your credit card depending on the plan you have picked.

Price to subscribe: $120 per year.

*Tip: Try the free trials for the three meditation apps above before committing to one. Personally, I feel more relaxed using the Calm App, whereas Ben enjoys Headspace more. It is all personal preference for what works best for you!

Insight Timer

Another app I am new to, but from my experience so far I think it’s fantastic. And it’s FREE! On the Insight Timer app, there are tons of resources and features that I love, including:

Create your own personalized meditation preset with music, nature sounds, bells, or Tibetan bowls. I love this feature, but I also think this would be perfect for yoga teachers.
Guided meditations by experts all over the world
Courses on spiritual practices & self-development topics (small extra cost)

Spotify

Once you have learnt the basics of meditation, you can do it on your own. I usually set my phone timer for 10-15 minutes, and then I put on a meditation playlists on Spotify. These two playlists (here and here) are great, and I have now compiled my favourite tracks into my very own meditation playlist, which you can listen to here.

Audible

I am a huge Audible fan (an app for audiobooks), especially for all our road trips and long drives across Europe! Recently, I notice they have a new section with guided meditations and exercise routines free for members. So if you use Audible, or are considering it, this is a fantastic new feature to try out.

Also, if you are really interested in meditation, I highly recommend listening to The Untethered Soul and The Power of Now.
If you are interested to try out their membership for 30 days, click here. You will have access to their meditations, exercise routines and 1 free audiobook. (Not sponsored, I just love Audible).

Brain.fm

Although this app is made more for brain concentration at work than meditation, there is still a meditation option that you can use and set a timer on. Also, I should mention Brain.fm is free for your first couple of sessions, and then you have to pay to use it. Personally, I haven’t paid to use this app because it isn’t worth it for me.

Youtube

Another great resource for meditation music. Or if you prefer guided meditations, then simply search “guided meditation” and try some different ones. Once you find your favourite guides, save them into a new Youtube playlist for future use. Personally, I really like Boho Beautiful’s channel with guided meditations and yoga classes.

Instagram

Although I haven’t found many meditations through Instagram, I do think it is a great app to find accounts that talk about meditation and inspire various spiritual practices. Since I follow lots of life coaches, authors and podcasters that speak about meditation, I have come across a couple guided meditations on IGTV. Here is one you should try on worthiness!

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Getting Started

I do want to mention that sometimes mediating can be incredibly relaxing, and in other times it may feel like you can’t get the mind to shut up! This is normal, in fact, it is part of mediation for this to happen. Meditation is about allowing thoughts to come and go, and not attaching to them. This was and still is really hard for me. Overall, some sessions will just feel more natural than others and will leave you feeling relaxed, while another session may surprise you with a great idea!

*Tip: Have a piece of paper or a meditation notepad beside you so you can write down ideas or revelations that may come to you after your meditation. (You can also use your phone notepad.) And if you don’t have any ideas come to you during your meditation, that’s ok too. Like I said, expect every session to be different!

I hope you find these meditation apps and tools helpful in learning how to meditate or improving your practice. The best part about all these apps is they can travel with you, wherever you go and wherever you need them. Whether it is on the plane, in a new country, while you are out for a walk, or at the office. Meditation is a fantastic tool we can all use to lower our anxiety and raise our bliss! Happy meditating, my friends.

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Do you use any of these of these meditation apps, or are there any others I should try? And if this blog post inspires you to meditate for the first time, let me know how you find it! Share your thoughts in the comments below.