If you’ve decided it's time you focused and prioritised your health and mental wellbeing, meditation could be a fantastic activity to start. This is why we've collated some of the best meditation apps to help you find peace.
Find clarity and zen in your daily life through this mindful practice, playing close attention to the sensations in and around you, letting your busy thoughts rest and focusing on the here and now. It’s a skill that takes practice, just like learning an instrument, and consistency with your sessions will make it much more relaxing and beneficial to you. Soon you'll even be able to meditate at work!
A meditation app is a great way to stay on track with practice, as well as providing some handy resources. Using a meditation app can help guide you through breathing techniques, mindfulness and guided meditations that’ll make sure you take the time out of your schedule to focus on you.
Just as mindfulness isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, you might find you prefer certain apps to others. Try some of the options we’ve listed below to find the best meditation app that’ll allow you to practice peacefully and get the most from the experience.
What can meditation do for me?
If you're feeling stressed, tired or distracted, a gentle meditation could make all the difference. By taking the time to relax the mind and body, meditation can help improve your mental and physical health.
Studies at the National Centre for Complementary and Integrative Health have found meditation to help ease psychological symptoms of anxiety, depression, insomnia, stress and pain related to it.
Stress causes the sympathetic nervous system to spike and negatively affect the body triggering pain, ill symptoms and higher blood pressure.
Reduced stress levels can help improve heart rate and oxygen levels, resulting in better immunity, more energy and a happier mood all round!
Whether you’re a beginner or practice it regularly, meditation is a wonderful piece of arsenal to keep in your toolkit and therefore have you feeling you best, inside and out.
So position yourself comfortably, and let’s begin…
Best meditation apps with great free content
Insight Timer
Tackle the day with meditations for anxiety relief, stress, and then sleep soundly with calming bedtime stories and serene music.
They also have live events that you can attend where you can connect and engage with the world’s best meditation teachers for free.
This app is free to access with over 75,000 guided meditations, thousands of music tracks and even a customisable meditation timer to name a few.
The Member Plus, which does have a fee, is an option that gives you additional access offline to 360 courses for everything from overcoming obsessive thinking to creating a conscious morning ritual.
Click to download on iOS and [Android](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spotlightsix.zentimerlite2&hl=en&gl=US Timer).
Smiling Mind
Smiling Mind differs from others on this list as an app geared towards children as well as adults – great for sharing with the grandkids.
This free app has over 5.4 million app downloads and comes from a 100% not-for-profit organisation. This app is a handy tool for practicing daily meditations and mindfulness exercises with popular programs for stress, sleep, attention, wellbeing, performance, relationships and even sport.
Simple Habit
Simple Habit’s mission is to empower humans to stress less, achieve more, and live better – something we can definitely get on board with. With a range of meditations for resilience, self-care, spirituality, happiness and relaxation to name a few, you can choose a topic tailored to exactly what you need and get access to lots of these for absolutely free.
To get access to the full 2,000+ meditations in the Simple Habit library that can be accessed anywhere and even offline, subscribe for £11.49/month.
Best free trial meditation apps with premium subscriptions
Headspace
Headspace seems to be the sung hero for meditation and rightly so. As the best-known meditation app on the market, their mission to improve health and happiness in the world has even expanded to our screens with their new Netflix show.
The app itself has an amazing collection of guided meditations and is great for beginners with the essentials covered in a free Basics course and easy to follow, zero jargon practices.
Try one of hundreds of meditations or bite-sized mini meditations when you’re short on time to help with everything from stress, to focus and sleep.
Give the first week trial a go and if it’s the app for you, sign up for premium access at £9.99/month.
Calm
Calm is a great all rounder for sleep, meditation and for helping calm anxiety. Try their daily calm for a 10-minute guided meditation to make sure you practice your mindfulness even around a busy schedule. They have quick and easy short meditations to suit your emotions and mental fitness exercises too to help with resilience and focus.
Enjoy a 7-day free trial to get a taste of what’s in store and pay the Calm Premium subscription (£29.99/year) to get unlimited access to the full Calm library. This includes new content every week, sleep soundscapes, sleep stories to help you unwind and relaxing music.
Ten Percent Happier Meditation
With the Ten Percent Happier app, you’ll discover over 500 guided meditations and practical teachings you can carry anywhere and everywhere with you.
Based off of the book by Dan Harris, the news anchor who suffered a panic attack on live TV and found meditation to be his saving grace, the app is for skeptics who might find similar solace in the benefits.
Whether that’s to be 10% happier, more relaxed, more focused, less stressed, kinder or simply better at meditating, the variety of content will guide the way.
Set daily reminders and try the single guided meditations, sleep meditation talks and even contact coaches with any burning questions you have.
Try the 7 day free trial before signing up on the monthly subscription at £12.99/month.
Aura
Aura is a fantastic app to help relief anxiety and any daily stress. It provides personalised meditations and you can find thousands more (guided and unguided), life coaching, and stories from top coaches and therapists from around the world.
Meditate according to your mood or your meditation experience with beginner and advanced options available. Use this tool as a positive way to frame your day, waking up feeling refreshed and able to manage difficult emotions more easily.
Try the Aura app for free for a three-minute meditation a day. If you’d like access to more and longer meditations, subscribe to Aura Premium for £7.99/month.
Meditation to be inspired everyday
If you’re new to meditation and would like to see if it's right for you before downloading your app of choice, check out our Facebook live stories with Certified Life Coach Karen Heras-Barrett for some useful tips designed to support you in everyday life.
How to be more mindful in daily life
While meditation is a great first step in ensuring you embrace a happier and more mindful sense of self, there are other healthy habits you can incorporate in your daily life alongside your meditation app:
• Enjoy moments of quiet and take deep belly breaths
• Go for walks outside and exercise your body
• Get arty! Try engaging in something arty to boost your creative thinking, whether it’s painting, knitting or pottering
• Be conscious and aware of your thoughts and feelings – journaling these might help make sense of them all
• Try to avoid mindlessly scrolling through your phone. It’s easily done so try to stay engaged or try reading instead when you notice yourself slipping up
• Eat mindfully – savor every mouthful and enjoy the yummy food on your plate
• Do things that make you smile and leave you feeling good!