In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, we're sharing some of our favorite mindfulness apps. Mindfulness is the ability to be fully present by observing and identifying thoughts, feelings, and sensations in your body. Cultivating a mindfulness practice can be a great way to boost your mental health. Here are some of our team’s favorite apps.
This app was developed by the Mindful Awareness Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, a leading national mental health organization. It features about a dozen meditations in English and Spanish that help you focus on your breath, body, or sounds to work through difficult emotions or challenging situations. The app is available for iOS and Android and is free to download.
This app boasts a huge library of content including 80,000 free guided meditations and more than 10,000 teachers who have lessons on topics such as stress, relationships, and sleep. You’ll get the sense that you are part of a larger community as the app shows how many people were meditating at the same time after you’ve finished a session. The app is available for iOS, Android, and web, and is free to download.
Headspace has a very large, organized library of meditations you can choose from. There are courses on everything from tackling pre-interview jitters to addressing self-esteem. The app is available for iOS and Android and costs $70 for a year’s subscription.
If you already have a meditation practice, Calm might be the best app for you. It has guided sessions and free-form exercises so you can choose which strategies work best for you. It also records your stats which allows you to track your mood over time. Calm is available for iOS and Android and costs $70 per year.
After you download Healthy Minds Program, it prompts you to take a survey that gives you a score on four key categories: Awareness, Connection, Insight, and Purpose. From there, you can choose teachers, adjust your course length, and track your progress. The app is available for iOS and Android and is free to download.
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