Mental Health Wellness apps have revolutionised self-care to improve mindfulness, bringing health and balance to the palm of your hand. Offering a diverse range of features, from guided meditation to mental health support, these apps empower users to prioritise their well-being on their own terms.
Some studies1 suggest that meditation may induce structural changes in the brain. For instance, the practice has been associated with increased grey matter density in brain regions related to memory, learning, and self-awareness.
Mindfulness meditation and relaxation techniques associated with meditation can contribute to better sleep quality as some research2 suggests. Improved sleep, in turn, has numerous benefits for overall cognitive function and mental health.
The top 3 mindfulness apps
We searched for 3 of the best mental health apps to help you. Scroll down further to see how I incorporate it into my daily routine:
Most popular: Headspace
Headspace is a leading meditation and mindfulness app designed to help individuals cultivate a sense of calm, focus, and balance in their daily lives. With over 70 million users across the world, it is a user-friendly interface, offering guided meditation sessions, mindfulness exercises, and sleep aids, making it suitable for users of all experience levels.
Pros:
- Intuitive to use for beginners, some options for kids
- Choice in terms of time, teachers and meditation themed sessions e.g. grief, work, sleep, parenting
- Monitors progress to help you achieve your meditation goals
- Meditation teachers
- Offers 14 day free trial
Cons:
- Limitations on choice of teachers
- May seem repetitive when using app everyday
Price:*
- Student plan $12.99 AUD /year
- Family plan with 6 accounts $137.99 AUD/year
- Check it out here
Good all-rounder: Calm
Similar to Headspace, Calm is a well rounded mindfulness and relaxation app. It also has a user-friendly interface offering variety of guided meditation, sleep stories, breathing exercises and calming music.
Pros:
- Suitable for beginners through to advanced practitioners
- Greater variety than Headspace with celebrity and popular media personnel guiding meditation and sleep stories (and more!)
- Tracking on completion of activities
- Offers 7 day free trial
Cons:
- Limited options on free membership
- No student plans for Australian students
- Unlike Headspace you can’t easily select a time for how long you want to run your meditation session for
Price:*
- US student plans through Amazon prime $8.99 USD/year
- $79.99 AUD/year
- $549.99 AUD billed once, app for life
- Check it out here
Best free-mium: MindShift CBT
Mindshift CBT App. stands for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and uses scientific based strategies to help users learn to relax, improve mindfulness and provide tools to relieve moments of anxiety. It is a Canadian based not for profit organisation and charity dedicated to raising awareness and supporting anxiety sufferers. Although quite simple given it is free for users, the app. does have the basic building blocks to guide its users. It is strictly for those 18+ years.
Check it out here
*Prices quoted throughout current at time of posting. Refer to provider site for updated plans
My closing thoughts: Is it worth it?
I’ve been an avid user of Headspace for the past 3 or 4 years. I will say, it’s served me well in terms of getting me into the meditation rhythm. However I do find that the meditation sessions have become quite repetitive as I use this on the daily.
I’ve also found myself wanting more meditative music to ease me into either studying, working or doing some home admin activities. Headspace is quite limited in this regard in comparison to Calm.
I’ve recently hopped onto the Calm band wagon and am so far liking the wider variety beyond the meditation sessions.
How I personally use mindfulness apps as part of my daily routine:
Morning – whether it be a quick deep breathing exercise for 1 minute or a more longer and deeper session in the morning I find that when I do this my mind feels more at ease to tackle the day. I like to do this just before sunrise – try it, there’s nothing like a peaceful rise to the morning.
During the day – I’ll be honest, this is hard to incorporate when you have a really busy life! When I need to focus or get into the zone. This is where the meditative music comes into play which I have found to be most useful.
Evening – On those days where I’m feeling restless with busy thoughts, this is where I have found Headspace and Calm to be fantastic. I really enjoy the guided sleep meditations or sleep stories to get me into a state of deep sleep.
How do you incorporate mindfulness meditation apps into your every day life? Comment below!
Elevate your mindfulness apps routine further?
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References
- Tang R, Friston KJ, Tang YY. Brief Mindfulness Meditation Induces Gray Matter Changes in a Brain Hub. Neural Plast. 2020 Nov 16;2020:8830005. doi: 10.1155/2020/8830005. PMID: 33299395; PMCID: PMC7704181. ↩︎
- Rusch HL, Rosario M, Levison LM, Olivera A, Livingston WS, Wu T, Gill JM. The effect of mindfulness meditation on sleep quality: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2019 Jun;1445(1):5-16. doi: 10.1111/nyas.13996. Epub 2018 Dec 21. PMID: 30575050; PMCID: PMC6557693. ↩︎
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