The health benefits of meditation are vast. Research shows it can reduce the risk of heart disease and lower blood pressure while relieving anxiety and depression. It can even help with pain management and improving mental focus. Herbert Benson, MD, founder of the Mind/Body Institute at Harvard Medical School’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center says, “The relaxation response [from meditation] helps decrease metabolism, lowers blood pressure, and improves heart rate, breathing, and brain waves.” So wouldn’t it be great to have a meditation app?
Despite the known benefits of regular meditation, we find it challenging not only to fit into our hectic schedules, but to actually do it in the first place. It’s pretty hard to quiet your mind and let everything go without a little guidance and encouragement. For this reason, we’re grateful that some of the latest technology helps us meditate. Recently, there’s been a surge of smartphone apps with the sole purpose of helping us disconnect and refocus through meditation. Here are 12 of the best meditation apps to help you take the mystery out of meditating.
1. Mindfulness Meditation (Lite, Free or Pro—$16.99 yr)
This meditation app has a Lite version for free or you can purchase an annual subscription. It was developed by Stephan Bodian, author of Meditation for Dummies and Wake Up Now. He’s also the former editor-in-chief of Yoga Journal magazine so we’re pretty sure he knows what he’s doing and can teach us a thing or two.
Read Related: How to Practice Mindfulness; Meditation On the Go
