MINDFULNESS AND MEDITATION APPS
The practice of mindfulness and meditation is effective for developing skills in self-regulation, stress relief, anxiety management, improved attention skills, and increased physical health. The practice involves allowing yourself to be aware of your body and brain – as felt through physical sensations, experiences in your sensory systems such as vision, hearing, touch, movement, as well as thoughts as they arise. Important to mindfulness is heightening awareness accompanied by non-judgment and compassion.
In this month’s resource blog, I’m excited to pass along some information on several different apps available that teach and guide mindfulness and meditation. Those in recovery from addiction find the practice helpful as they deal with urges to act out in their early recovery phases, and especially in coping with the discomfort experienced when the unhealthy “drug of choice” is removed and emotions are no longer being numbed or medicated. For the partner, mindfulness is a wonderful tool as the effects of betrayal trauma are ravaging the mind and body with huge feelings of fear and anger. Meditation and mindfulness can be invaluable as the partner copes with triggers that seem to emerge out of nowhere as the distressing pain returns.
The practice of meditation and mindfulness allows you to calm your brain, connect with your body, and find deep relaxation through awareness and self-compassion. If you want learn more about mindfulness here is a good article with introductory information. This is a great little video to explain How Mindfulness Empowers Us that I recommend anyone to watch for meaningful insight to the process.
Here is a list of apps that are available on both IOS and Android formats. Some are free, and some require subscription fees.
My top two:
Headspace https://www.headspace.com/
Great for beginners as well as long-term experts in meditation and mindfulness. Headspace contains hundreds of themed sessions on many issues from sleep to anxiety. I recommend this app if you are new to the practice. It is very user friendly and contains some teaching sessions and articles for beginners. It has several cute videos to get you comfortable with the process and some how-tos. The early stages are free, but if you want to keep using it there is a subscription fee.
Insight Timer https://insighttimer.com/
This is a beautiful app and it is totally free. It gets rave reviews and is the hub of a huge meditation/mindfulness online community. I’ve heard many therapist colleagues talk about how much they love it, with one calling the app phenomenal citing its variety of teachers and guided meditations. There are also a set of recovery talks and meditations.
More great apps:
10% Happier: Meditations or Fidgety Skeptics http://www.10percenthappier.com
A clear simple approach to meditation with best-selling author Dan Harris and other respected meditation teachers.
Stop Breathe Think https://www.stopbreathethink.com
They describe themselves as a wellness platform helping kids, teens, and young adults build the emotional strength to tackle life’s ups and downs. 5 minutes to peace.
Calm https://www.calm.com
Meditations to reduce anxiety, sleep better, and feel happier
Inscape https://www.inscape.life
Inscape is described to deliver immersive meditation and relaxation experiences by merging tradition, modern thinking, and of-the-moment technology.
I hope you’ll give one of these a try and expand your self-care skills to include meditation and mindfulness practices. If you’re already in the mode of meditating you might find more resources in some of these.