Best Meditation App for Beginners
Photo by Omid Armin on Unsplash.
By Marnie Kunz
If you’d like to start meditating, the best meditation app for beginners can help guide you through the process. After testing out several meditation apps, I came up with this list of my top picks. I have a short attention span and haven’t meditated regularly in a few years so I think I qualify as a beginner. As someone with anxiety, I have found meditation to be very useful in helping combat stress and lower anxiety but I have not been consistent with meditating over the years. Meditation apps are helpful to get motivated to meditate, track your progress, and offer guidance.
What Does a Meditation App Do?
A meditation app guides you through meditation exercises. They often include different topics and lengths of meditation. Breathing exercises are common for beginning meditators, and introductions to different forms of meditation. Whether you’re interested in sleeping better at night or dealing with the stress of work and daily life, meditation apps can help.
Many meditation apps require paid subscriptions and some are free. For this guide to the best meditation apps for beginners, I tried both paid and free apps that are available in the iOS and Google Play stores.
Benefits of Meditation
There are many scientifically proven benefits of meditating regularly, including:
Reduces stress
Improving focus and attention span
Decreasing anxiety
Improved emotional health
May reduce age-related memory loss
Improves sleep
Can help fight addiction
Decreases blood pressure
Can improve sports performance
According to the American Psychological Association, meditation changes our brain and biology in positive ways, improving mental and physical health. With so many benefits of meditation, you’re probably ready to get started.
Best Meditation App for Beginners
The best meditation apps for beginners have clear instructions and easy-to-follow exercises for beginners. These are my top picks for the best meditation apps if you’re just starting with meditation:
Calm App
The Calm app is my favorite meditation app that is easy to use and full of different meditation exercises. They have mini meditation courses you can take to help you learn the basics of meditation as well as courses to delve deeper into areas that you may need particular help with such as sleep, self-confidence, or anxiety. I like the Calm app’s daily meditation, which is usually about 10 minutes, and find the narrator’s voice (Tamara Levitt) very soothing.
If you need help sleeping at night, the Sleep Stories have lots of different places and narrators to explore. Starting my day with the day’s meditation in the Calm app has helped me reduce my stress and become more in-tuned with my thoughts and emotions. Overall, I recommend the Calm app as the best full-service membership app for beginners. The variety of content and soothing voice of the main narrator make the app beginner-friendly.
Cost: $14.99 a month or $69.99 a year. The meditation app offers a 7-day free trial.
Best Free Meditation App
Healthy Minds App
Healthy Minds is my top choice for the best meditation app for beginners that is free. The Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin Madison is the non-profit behind the app, which offers extensive meditation exercises and guidance. I like the narrator’s soothing voice as well as the easy-to-follow, guided meditation exercises in the app. The app will give you a short quiz to help personalize your experience and offers short meditation sessions that make up larger sections of the app. Lessons include deep breathing, sitting meditation, training the mind, and active meditation. As a runner and walker, I enjoy the active meditations in the app, which offer a great way to get in some meditation while moving.
Cost: Free
Honorable Mention
Headspace App
The Headspace app is another popular meditation app for beginners. The app has beginning meditation exercises and lessons to ease you into the habit of daily meditation. You can find sleep meditations, breathing exercises, and guided meditations in the Headspace app.
Cost: $12.99 a month or $69.99 a year. The Headspace app has a 14-day free trial.
Tips for Getting Started with Meditation
To find the best meditation app for beginners that suits your needs, I encourage you to try different apps until you find one that you like. Everyone has different preferences for the narrator’s voice and the types of meditation exercises in an app. When you find an app that you enjoy, you’ll be more likely to stick with your meditation.
Here are some tips to help you begin a meditation practice:
Set aside the same time every day to meditate. Right when you wake up or before you go to bed are popular times to meditate. You can set your intentions for a great day ahead with morning meditations or unwind at night with sleep meditations. I like to start the day with a morning meditation (now that I got back in the habit!) and then if for some reason I can’t meditate in the morning, I can still do one later, before bed.
Be patient. Our minds are often jumping all over the place, with short attention spans due to social media, phone notifications, and modern life. Go easy on yourself and don’t get discouraged if it’s hard to focus, especially starting out. Just like with workouts, we all have easier days where everything flows and more challenging days, but we keep at it.
Start slow. Just as with workouts, it can be easy to get caught up in the excitement of a new program but if you try to do a lot all at once, you may get burned out. Take it slow and start with just a few minutes of meditation - or one meditation exercise in an app - to get started.
Other Tools for Meditation
If you prefer a less guided approach to meditation, there are plenty of soothing soundtracks available on streaming music apps and meditation apps. YouTube also has relaxing soundtracks that can be the perfect backdrop for some breathing exercises.
Have you tried meditating? What do you think is the best meditation app for beginners? Comment below or tag @Runstreet on Instagram to share your wellness journey and get cheered on.
Stay calm and breathe on!
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Marnie Kunz is a NASM-certified trainer and USATF- and RRCA-certified running coach, Brooklyn resident, Akita mom, and the founder of Runstreet.
