Apps
There are many Apps for your smartphone to help you meditate. This list is not comprehensive by any means but covers the Apps that we use and recommend. If something is not on the list, it doesn’t mean it’s not good, it probably just means that we haven’t used it yet. However, these are all excellent in slightly different ways.
This is by far the most used meditation App in the world. It is an extraordinary platform which allows teachers to upload their guided meditations so that there are thousands of different meditations to choose from. And the vast majority of them are free. There are plans for Insight Timer to start charging for a premium set of courses and meditations, but they vow that the main part of the App will always be free. There is an addictive timer that keeps track of all your meditations as well as related activities such as Yoga or Tai Chi. You can then keep track of how much actual meditation you are doing and it gives you tiny little rewards by way of stars for certain milestones such as ten days in a row, or for every fifty days you have done. When you finish your meditation you find out how many other people were using the App at the same time and it’s not quite the same as being part of a meditation community but it is oddly encouraging knowing that you were meditating with several thousand people from all around the world.
An excellent App with terrific guidance from Andy Puddicombe, a former monk with a nice English accent. There are brilliant animations to introduce the concept of meditation and the first ten days are free. The rest of the App opens up with an annual or lifetime subscription. The paid for version is well worth it as it helps to build your practice and has specific meditations for various topics included such as health, sports, or anxiety, but as Puddicombe himself says, you can do the first ten days over and over as many times as you like for free.
ABC News’s Dan Harris was so inspired by his discovery of meditation that following the success of his book by the same name he formed a meditation company – 10% Happier. His App is a little different from others and has a more interactive teaching component to it in so far as many of the topics are introduced via Dan’s interviews with various experts including George Mumford (who taught the Chicago Bulls how to meditate), Sharon Salzberg, Oren Sofer, and Jeff Warren.