Life is crazy: The best meditation and mindfulness apps to help

The importance of mental wellbeing & emotional health has never been clearer. We keep trying to chase an elusive work-life balance, but the to-do lists are always overflowing. Naturally, then, we’re overwhelmed with the sheer number of things we wish to accomplish, the social commitments we wish to attend to and the side hustles we plan to undertake. 

Even when everything is going reasonably well, a pandemic can upend your life. The uncertainties are infinite and it’s very easy to slip into a constant state of worry over such uncertainties. Thankfully, we’ve tools that can help us manage or control our anxieties. Here we‘ve rounded up the best meditation apps you can try for a moment of calm.

Headspace

Headspace makes sure you have a clear mind all day long with its guided meditations & mindfulness techniques. It also provides calming sleep music for a gentle night. You can choose from various modules on Restfulness, Managing Anxiety, and many more.

Headspace has an element of customization so it enables you to learn the ins & outs of the meditative practices.

Calm

As the name suggests, the Calm app aims at creating a sense of calm & peace through a variety of exercises. These can be breathing exercises, body scans, walking meditations, among other things.

Kids & teens have a separate section called the Calm Kids section. It consists of meditations for kids between 3 & 17. It’s worth a shot for people of all ages. After all, who doesn’t love customized services? You can also sync Calm with your Apple watch & develop a mindfulness routine – from breathing exercises to walking meditations – accessible right from the watch!

Liberate

Created by Julio Rivera for the Black, Indigenous, and people of color communities, Liberate takes an intersectional approach to meditation. The meditation exercises create space for the lived experiences of these communities, which are not represented in mainstream meditation apps & spaces.

If your therapeutic journey includes healing from the traumas & micro-aggressions of living in the margins, Liberate is for you.

Aura

Are you always on the run? If yes, then Aura is the perfect app for you. Hustlers often forget to pause & reflect on their life, so Aura provides you with the tools & reminders to do so. Whether it’s a professional engagement that’s getting on your nerves or your personal life that’s driving you anxious, Aura sessions can be great anxiety busters.

Inscape

Inscape, built to simulate the experience of the eponymous wellness studio in NYC, does a good job of offering meditation exercises at home and on-the-go. Mindfulness exercises are not the only tools in the app’s library. The soundscapes & playlists are worth checking out, too.

Insight Timer

What sets Insight Timer apart from the other apps on this list is that it offers 30,000 guided meditation sessions, including affirmative talks & narrations by Lalah Delia, Russell Brand, psychotherapist Anthony DeMello, among others.

Simple Habit

Simple Habit works as a stress relief & anxiety management tool for those with busy schedules. It provides meditative techniques for highly specific instances & emotions. The best part about Simple Habit is that it looks at mindfulness holistically. That’s why it also provides meditation support for those living with chronic conditions & invisible illnesses like chronic pain, Fibromyalgia, etc.

Simple Habit recently introduced a module on Mindful Movement that helps you identify a way to check in with your body to choose physical activity based on what your body is asking for. This feature, too, aligns well with the app’s holistic approach towards mindfulness.

Buddhify

The Buddhify app embodies the clarity & calmness of mind it claims to bring to the user. The meditation sessions are tagged for each specific circumstance: whether you are on a short break from work, going through a break-up, feeling lonely, battling disorderly sleep . . . the list goes on.