Top 5 Meditation & Mindfulness Apps for iPhone
Toggle Dark Mode
The science is in: meditation is an excellent way to reduce stress, improve concentration, memory, brain neuroplasticity, increase self-awareness, happiness, and even boost your cardio and immune health.
Of course, most of us probably don’t have the time or money to invest in meditation classes or learn from a personal meditation teacher. Luckily, your trusty iPhone can be an excellent tool to start or continue a meditation practice. Chances are, it’s always with you, so you can achieve a little zen whether you’re at home or on-the-go.
Here’s some meditation apps that we recommend.
If you’re new to meditation, Headspace is an excellent — and free — way to break into the practice. The app is friendly, easy-to-use, and completely free of any New Age-y or mystical undertones. Put simply, it’s “meditation made simple,” according to its creators.
The guided meditations are broken down into categories like “foundation,” “health” and “performance,” so you can focus on any area that you want.
To start, Headspace offers a series of easy, 10-minute meditations for free. Once you get the hang of it, you can purchase a subscription from the app to access more features and courses. There’s also feature that lets you and a friend buddy-up to track each other’s progress.
Calm is the perfect way to find some peace during your busy day. When you first open the app, you’ll be greeted by a peaceful nature scene (which you can pick from a variety). The app offers a handful of guided and unguided meditation programs, such as “7 Days of Calm” or “7 Days of Focus.”
While the app itself is free, many of the programs can be bought individually or as part of a subscription.
The app also has a “Breathe” feature that helps you pace your breathing (and track deep-breathing sessions). Additionally, there are unique and calming “Sleep Stories” that the app guarantees will lull you into a peaceful rest.
For the more intermediate meditation student, Meditation Studio may be your cup of tea. One of Apple’s Top 10 Apps of 2016, Meditation Studio is chocked full of mindfulness features.
The app costs $3.99 to start, but that nets you unlimited access to meditation collections ranging from “Be Healthy” to “Be Awesome.” There are also meditations specifically geared to specific careers and people: moms, kids, veterans and first responders among them.
The app features over 25 meditation teachers and 200 guided courses to learn from. There’s also a scheduling option, as well as the ability to easily connect to the Health app. You can also build a personalized library with your favorites that you can access any time — even without a data connection.
For those who prefer a more modern approach to meditation, there’s the beautifully designed Buddhify. The playful and practical app provides mindfulness-based meditation practices, focused on topics ranging from traveling to being online too much.
The app, which costs $4.99 on the app Store, features over 80 guided meditations ranging in length from 5 to 30 minutes. That’s over 11 hours of content that focuses on 15 different parts of your day. For experienced meditators, the app also has a solo meditation timer so you can track your sessions.
If you’re skeptical about meditation, this app promises to change your mind “all for the price of a cup of coffee.”
Omvana is another free meditation app and an great choice for Apple Watch owners, since it offers a watchOS app, too.
The app’s practices, which range in length from 3 minutes to an hour, are categorized on different topics, such as mindfulness, stress, wealth & abundance, and spiritual growth. The app connects to HealthKit, and can recommend meditations based on your current stress level and state of mind.
Omvana also offers a unique background music mixer, letting you tweak your meditation sessions to create the perfect atmosphere to find some zen in your busy day.
