mizzparkerGet Stress relief at your fingertips with guided meditation apps!
My favorite 3 guided meditation apps for instant peace will help you relieve stress anytime. You shouldn’t have to pay hundreds of dollars an hour for a shrink to help with your stress. There are free to low cost tools that can really help ease pain and problems caused by stress.
I like to find all the helpful tools that can ease my journey in this thing called life. One of the best things I’ve stacked in my arsenal over the years is using a guided meditation app to create a daily meditation practice. And you can do it too!
A guided meditation app makes it way easier to start a daily meditation practice. I’ll tell you my three favorite guided meditation apps with free content that I’ve tried and love.
I really must start off by telling you that yes, you can meditate too. “But I can’t sit still for very long and there is no way that I can not think things.”, you’re saying and you are correct!
The Right Mindset
The first thing to conquer is mind-set. It can be difficult to sit with no noise and distraction but you can get used to it. Trust me you will look forward to those moments of peace and silence every day.
And no one can completely turn off the thoughts that run through our minds. That’s not really the point. We need our minds to think at all times on a conscious and unconscious level. Turning it off is not an option but we can learn to be more mindful of the thoughts we think and gain more present moment awareness.
Present Moment Awareness
Meditation teaches us how to become more conscious and aware of the present moment. When we are living in the now and not harping on the past or worried about the future we can actually feel and experience a more blissful life.
The more you practice meditation, the more you can bring that present moment awareness into your daily life. Trust me, you will notice the awesome accumulative effects of daily meditation practice and so will the people around you.
Now take a few minutes to check out 5 Tips to Start a Daily Meditation Practice for a few more pointers before you start.
3 Awesome Guided Meditation Apps
On to the apps. I just want to make sure we’re all on the same page so that you can get the most benefit from these guided meditation apps or whichever app or method you choose to start your meditation journey.
There are so many good guided meditation apps with free content but these are my top three favorites.
1. Calm App
Calm app is what I initially started my meditation journey with. It has tons of free content to get you started. You can stick with the free content which offers a timer, nature sounds, and snippets of premium content.
If you prefer to stick with the freemium model I suggest starting with 7 Days of Calm first. It’s seven 10-minute mindful meditations that are unlocked each day as you go along.
And don’t forget to allow notifications and set a reminder to meditate. You can toggle to the More setting in the bottom right-hand corner and tap Settings. Then tap Mindfulness Reminders to set your meditation time and notification reminder.
You can keep repeating the program after the seven days is up or try a different free 7-day program offered. Then when you’re ready to try it without the guide, simply use the timer and nature sounds or music and the Calm app will log your meditations to help you stay on track.
If you decide to subscribe you will get the first 7 days free to try out the premium content. There you’ll find more guided meditations with titles like 7 Days of Managing Stress, Deep Rest, Anxiety Release and many more.
Plus, Calm app offers some awesome added bonuses with its original Sleep Stories, Calm Masterclasses, Guided Breathing, Body Scans, and Calm Kids.
2. Ten Percent Happier App
This app is great for more in-depth learning on meditation with courses, talks, and a free guided meditation. This app was born from the book 10% Happier by Dan Harris.
Not a whole lot of free content here but it’s worth it for the one free video series course they do offer called Stress Better with Sebene Selassie. The series includes seven days of in-depth discussion videos on meditation and a 10-minute guided meditation included with each video. This is a great way to learn and practice all in one.
And if you’re really loving this app, you can try the premium version for free for seven days and decide if you want to subscribe to unlock a ton of helpful features. Like the option to send a message to a live meditation coach, sleep stories, and meditations of the day.
3. Simple Habit App
This app is on my favorite list because it has hundreds of meditations from five minutes to an hour-long. And they offer plenty of free meditation content that suits whatever help you may need at the moment. From Being Lazy to Eating More Mindfully there is something for everyone and every mood or situation.
When you first go into the app it takes you through an onboarding process to help it give you personalized meditation suggestions even with the free version. So you will have plenty of suggestions to help you start. And you can browse the amazing collection of guided meditations, nature sounds, and music and track your progress.
If you really like this one, which I know you will, you can unlock the entire kit and kaboodle by subscribing to a membership. You’ll get all the huge collection, plus access to coaching and audio therapy sessions taught by pros.
Free Guided Meditation
Last but not least, if you want a quick-start, you can listen to Episode 1 of Real Shift Happens: Wellness Podcast where I talk more in-depth about the amazing benefits of meditation.
Then feel free to download the Real Shi(f)t Happens 5-Minute Focused Shift guided meditation. You can take this with you on your phone and listen anytime you need a quick meditation fix.
All you need to get the free download is an email address! Plus you’ll get other fun stuff straight to your inbox.
I love the way technology can bridge the learning gap and aid us in learning the ancient art of meditation. It’s the perfect way to begin a daily practice or just relieve stress right now. Enjoy. Namaste.
