Top 5 mediation apps for Indian users to be more mindful in your daily life-Part 1

Editor’s Note: This story is part of a series on mindfulness, its concepts and variations, in partnership with the 2nd Mindfulness India Summit, taking place on 30-31 October 2019. You can find the  full list of stories under the series here . 

Mindfulness is the seemingly-elusive ability to stay aware of your surroundings and your thoughts and accepting them as they are, without letting it affect your mental and emotional state of mind. A mindful person likely knows there is no right or wrong way of thinking and feeling.

Being mindful means we accept things and people for what and who they are and stop forcing them into a mould or box of our choosing. It’s only when we follow this practice of letting go of control that we are truly free of our conditioned, biased thoughts and actions to rise above our human troubles. Much of the stuff we stress about are only stressful because we think whatever is happening is wrong – because we’ve been told that it is wrong. Once we realise that there is no wrong and only different, that is when we are truly living our best life.

Mindfulness can be practised in the way we think about ourself and about others, it can be practiced in the way consume our meals and the shows/books we watch and read. It is a constant process of being aware and mindful of what we allow to touch our body and soul.

Being mindful has been shown to offset the tendency that many of us have to spend an obscene amount of time planning and problem-solving, which can be stressful.

Mediation and yoga usually go hand in hand but not everyone has the time to sit and practice it. However, that does not mean we need to forgo the feeling of connecting with our mind and body. A few minutes of meditation practiced daily, on the train to work or on the bus can help calm the mind and prepare you for the day ahead. If you choose to do it at night, it can also relax you in order to get a good night’s sleep.

Apps for mindfulness and meditation on-the-move

Calm

Calm was a heavily-marketed mindfulness app, and you might’ve seen an ad or two in your social media over the past several months. When I tried it, I was pretty bummed out to see that a free, seven-day trial ended in a paywall (boooohooo).  The app is interactive and has a lot to offer than the other apps out there if you can afford the annual Rs 3,600-membership fee.  

Calm has a mix of spoken meditation sessions and calming music and nature sounds.  Unlike other apps, you can also download your meditations to listen to them offline.  There are also dedicated sessions for children as well as stretches that will help you relax your body.

Say you have trouble sleeping, there are a host of recordings that can help put you to sleep. Feel like a bedtime story, narrated by a calming voice to put you in that sweet, deep REM sleep? They’ve got those too. Calm even has an option where you can time your session to automatically switch off once you are sound asleep.  

But if you, like me, mind the paywall to assisted-meditation, read on.

Headspace

Fair warning: I might be a tad biased in recommending this app, since it got me started on my own meditation journey.

Headspace is accepted by many as the go-to, best mindfulness app out there. It has a very calming and very animated feel, starts you off with a personal ‘get-to-know-you’ quiz, but fairly limited in choice of responses.

The app itself radiates positivity – like a ball of sunshine. Who doesn’t love that? There is a premium part of this app and once you complete most of the sessions, you start wanting more advanced sessions. You can either choose to pay the price or switch, which is what I did.  

It has guided sessions and little animated videos that are brilliant for beginners.  

Simple habit

As the name suggests, this app is a simple way to inculcate meditation in our lives. It has a clean interface with lots of options for sessions that is designed to suit most of your needs. It is uncomplicated and is not cluttered with extra features that you might not even use.  

Smiling mind

This app is a personalised meditation app that can help you practise mindfulness in various sectors of your life.

You can begin your journey by first trying a sample mediation. If you are happy with it you can continue to make your account and answer a few simple questions so that the app gets to know you better. It first asks you at what level is your mediation skills — if you are a newbie, someone who has dabbled with meditation before or a hardcore practitioner. It will then ask you your age and what do you want to do with the app — if you are a teacher looking for more advanced mediations if you are an individual who just wants moments of calm or if you are a parent and you want to practise meditation with your child which is unique from the other apps. The last question is the things you are interested in doing — managing stress, mindful eating, at work, improving relationships or if you need help in sleeping. etc.    You will get recommended meditation sessions based on your needs and skills.

Something that is different in this app is that they also have mediations in different languages — Kriol, Ngaanyatjarra and Pitjantjatjara. In addition to the recorded sessions, they also have animated videos that provide short explainers.

The app will also keep a track of your mood before and after your mediations through its ‘body scan’ option which also helps you see a visible difference in your minds and body.

Smiling mind is perfect for beginners and for advanced practitioners alike. Its guided meditations are easy to follow and is very relaxing on the whole.

Tide

If listening to someone talk through your meditation is not your cup of tea, this Tide is an app that only has calming music with a few sporadic instructions that come on the screen. They are usually little reminders to breathe or encouraging words and sometimes even lines of poetry. It has a range of music that will suit any of your mood and likes.

Is it too hot outside and you are craving the calm and peace that comes with a cold, stormy night? Select the sounds of the rains and cosy up with a book. Do you miss the winters and have not got to experience a live-fire crackle? Why wait when you can hear if you want to hear it on Tide? You can select the duration you want to listen to these calming sounds.

If you want to disconnect from your phone, turn on their immersive mode and let your mind wander. You can select the apps that you use the most (read: get most distracted with) and it will remind you to be more mindful of your app consumption and to limit the time you spend on your phone.