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10 Best Meditation Apps for iOS to Give Your Mental Health Some Love

Increasingly we are being told by science that meditation not only makes us feel better, but can make physical changes to the composition of our brain that permanently improve our cerebral and mental health. With so much to gain, what are we all waiting for? Well, for the millions of people who have attempted to start meditating only to find it extremely difficult, we know that it is difficult to do on your own. Thankfully, there are now a wide variety of apps available on the app store specifically to help beginners learn to meditate and guide us through the early stages of the process.

Why not start your journey with one of these ten great meditation apps available on iOS.

Meditation by 10% Happier

We often feel like we need to make big changes in order to change our lives, and then give up when we fail. But in reality, we only need to start with the little things. Imagine increasing your income by 10%, having 10% more time for you, or eating 10% less. What would it feel like to be 10% happier? This award-winning app aims to do just that, make you 10% happier through guided meditations that will help you sleep better, be more open in your relationships and silence that critical inner voice.

This app is free to start with so that you can see if it will work for you, and then offers in-app purchases for you to boost your progress.

Customer Reviews

I find this program to be rich with workable options and opportunities to learn about (and manage, bit by bit) my mind and entrenched mental habits. It has helped me in several ways, maybe because it gets straight to a point without any pseudo-spiritual “fluff”.

 After one week, I am sold… If I can feel this way after only a week, I can only assume the benefits of making it a regular practice. So very glad I was introduced to this app, and I highly recommended it!

Headspace: Meditation & Sleep

This app helps you apply meditation and mindfulness principles to improve your life. Whether it is getting more sleep, reducing stress, reframing negative thoughts, or finding that bit of motivation to exercise more, this app can help. The app guides you through exercises that should only take a few minutes, which means you can use the techniques throughout the day when you need them, without making a big time commitment.

This is another free app which lets you decide if the programme is for you before committing further through in-app subscription purchases.

Customer Reviews

I absolutely LOVE how easy it is to use Headspace. I’m still in the beginner series, but all I do is open the app. I push play. I sit, and voila! Ten minutes later I feel so centered, and grateful that someone made an app for people like me who need that extra push in the right direction. 

I’m a speech language pathologist and love this this app for both personal use and as a recommendation to patients. A growing body of research is showing correlations between practicing meditation and better health outcomes for individuals recovering from traumatic brain injury.

Tide: Sleep. Focus. Meditate.

This all is for aspiring meditators who find peace and calm in nature. The app uses the sounds of nature to help you find calm and focus in the middle of your busy life. The app is particularly focussed on improving sleep – as the quality of our sleep has a profound effect on every other aspect of our lives – and finding focus in a world full of distractions competing for our attention. It is designed to integrate into your day, with a work mode that supports you to focus on the task for 25 minutes, and then relax for 5 minutes, and inspirations daily quotes that will show up on your phone’s home screen.

Explore the app by downloading for free, and then gain access via a monthly or annual subscription.

Customer Reviews

This app is amazing it has helped me so much. I have gotten to truly know me and I’m really enjoying this app. I love that you can set reminders and I also love the quotes it has every time you open the app.

It has been one of the most useful apps I’ve come across and I use it every day!

Calm

Calm is a meditation app designed for anyone who struggles with stress and anxiety. It helps you get your emotions under control through better sleep, focussed breathing, stretching exercises and relaxing music. This app is designed to grow with you, and fit into your busy schedule, offering meditations as short as three minutes and as long as 25, depending on what works for you. The app also works to make you feel comfortable by bringing you stories from personalities you recognise such as Elizabeth Gilbert and Stephen Fry. The app also has in built features that let you track your progress so you can visualise your improvement, even when it is incremental.

The app is free to download, and content access is managed by a monthly, yearly or lifetime subscription.

Customer Reviews

This app has had an incredible impact on my mental health and overall quality of life. It has changed my perspectives and state-of-mind in ways that have been beneficial to every aspect of my everyday life and well-being, in a countless number of ways.

I use CALM daily in my mindful journey. I’ve developed techniques that help me combat a busy and destructive mind and I continuing to learn how to balance my thoughts.

Zen: Meditation & Sleep

One of the more established meditation apps, having been included on the App Store’s list of best apps in 2016, that does not mean that the content is stale. This app has been continually developed based on use and feedback. It offers guided meditations for relations, deep sleep, mood improvement, anxiety relief, stress reduction and increased focus. As well as encouraging you to find a dedicated time to meditate, the app recalls your focus to mindfulness regularly throughout the day with reflections, inspirations quotes, proverbs and motivational messages.

The app is free to download, and you can access content through a monthly or annual subscription.

Customer Reviews

My first experience with meditation was nothing short of a life-altering journey! I was overwhelmed with emotion and gained amazing insight in such a short period of time. I was forced to stop and focus on myself.

Zen has helped me grow in a tremendously, every time I use Zen I feel a great shift in my life. This app brings me an abundance of joy, love, inspiration, motivation and so much more. Zen has helped me build my self confidence and has allowed me to believe and stay connected to higher power and my inner being.

Meditopia: Anxiety, Motivation

This app is specifically designed for people who feel like they would use a bit of extra motivation in life. It has meditations designed to help you tap into your inner strength, while keeping debilitating stress and anxiety at bay. It has more than 250 quality meditation sessions on topics such as self-confidence, acceptance, compassion and gratitude. Once you have become more experienced, it also has open meditation options that support you on your personal journey through the sounds of nature. The app is also designed to work offline so you can still meditate when you aren’t connected.

Meditopia is one of the more affordable apps on this list, which is again free to download and offers content access via a monthly or annual subscription.

Customer Reviews

I’ve been stressed recently and woke up every morning feeling horrible, but upon using this app, I’ve never felt fresher or more energized to start the day!

I feel so much better when I take this meditation and drive my day to be more successful and to be more in control of myself.!

Oak – Meditation & Breathing

Oak helps you take control of your mind by supporting you to clear your thoughts through mindful breathing, and giving your mind the space it needs to recuperate through better sleep. Once your have mastered these practices, you can start developing your own meditation practice where you can focus on mantras in order to bring the things you desire into your life through intension. Once aspect of this app that is great is that it allows you to track your progress in a way that will motivate you to keep with it in the long run, until this project is a natural habit.

Download the app for free and try it out, then tailor your meditation journey with in-app purchases.

Customer Reviews

I have tried numerous medication apps, but I wasn’t happy with any of them. For the first time I can see I am truly enjoying a mediation. The app is super clean with a beautiful design.

I absolutely love this app. There is no subscription that you have to buy to use it. There is an in app purchase but that’s besides my point. I absolutely would recommend this app. Whenever I’ve had a stressful day I can always count on this awesome app to help.

Meditation Studio: Find Calm

Specifically designed for both adults and children, no matter which part of your life you think could benefit from a boost, the Meditation Studio has something that can help. It offers more than 500 guided meditations developed by 50 expert teachers, including monks, yoga, instructors and life coaches. This app is ideal for beginners who know that they want to make a change, but aren’t sure where to start. Start slow with meditation as short as one minute, and build up to 40 minutes if that suits your lifestyle. Deal with stress, reduce anxiety, improve your sleep and just feel calmer and happier.

The Meditation Studio offers an affordable monthly, quarterly and yearly subscription package that can be used with the free app.

Customer Reviews

 This app is on a whole other level. I am relaxed in such a way that once I start a meditation it’s almost as if I have floated off into some peaceful dream as my anxiety melts away.

Many topics – the most important to me, and why I keep returning to this app, some of the meditations are more like coaching sessions— geared towards moving through difficult or stressful moments in life. Its not only about “clear your mind” from distraction, but equally important to help when emotion is in the way.

Primed Mind – Focus & Sleep

This app is all about building your focus so that you are primed for any challenge, whether it be personal, sporting or business. This app is like having a mindset coach in your pocket, keeping you on track when you let doubt, stress or negativity pull you off course. The app traches you how to channel your emotions, even challenging emotions such as stress and anxiety, into your life to generate achievement.

The free app offers some basic content for you to try, and then full content can be accessed via subscription.

Customer Reviews

Primed Mind is great because it has a lot of interesting visualizations that help you get relaxed or motivated etc. I’m a visual person and often find myself doing visualization during “normal” meditation anyway, so I really enjoy the ones in this app. It also gets really motivating and intense during some of the motivation ones, which will energize you and get you ready to go for your goals.

I love this app. I try quite a few different mediation apps and I really like the topics and focus of the app. The pace and rhythm is great. It’s not flowery, there are some good concrete mediations.

Moment: Meditation and Breathe

Moment starts from the beginning, with a 7 day programme designed to teach you the basics of meditation and mindfulness. You are then ready to harness this as an effective self-care tool through guided meditations, breathing exercises, story therapies and sleep music. Meditation techniques, when paired with mindful breathing, can been shown to lower blood pressure and heart rate, relax muscles, and make you feel happier and more energised through the release of endorphins.

This app is free to download, but content is accessed on a subscription basis, which is monthly or yearly.

No English language reviews available, but this app has a five-star rating on the app store and is sure to take off soon!!!

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