Have you ever tried to meditate and found it incredibly difficult and even frustrating? Or maybe you’ve heard of the benefits of meditation but are not quite sure how to start?
I’ve written about my own frustrations with meditation in my post why is it so difficult to meditate which I posted when I had just started a regular meditation practice just over a year ago. I still consider myself to be a beginner but it’s definitely become a lot easier over the last few months.
Today I’d like to share with you 3 free meditation apps that have helped me on my journey:
Headspace
Headspace is probably the app which gets the most publicity at the moment due to its founder Andy Puddicombe, who is a meditation and mindfulness expert and a former Buddhist monk. He has made it his mission to make meditation accessible which I think he has certainly achieved with the Headspace App.
There is a 10 day introduction to meditation which I found incredibly useful and his voice is just amazing! The app and introduction are free of charge and it’s still accessible even after you have done the 10 days. The downside is that everything else beyond this 10 day intro is for subscribers only and will cost you £9.99 a month so not cheap which is why I would also recommend to download the following two apps.
I have recently started to use the paid for version, however, and I absolutely love it! If you’re serious about getting into meditation then this is your app!
Welzen
This app has just had a complete revamp with some exciting changes. Even before this update I enjoyed using it as I liked the simplicity and the calming voices with British accents.
On that note it’s worth mentioning that I find voices incredibly important but it also comes down to personal preference. I generally prefer male voices (just find them more calming for some reason) and British accents (which is what I’m used to living in the UK!) 
Welzen has a 5 day introduction to learn about meditation which in my opinion is not as good as the one from Headspace but it’s still useful and free! With the update of the app a lot of the additional meditations disappeared unfortunately but there are still a lot of 5 minute guided meditations to choose from. They are in categories like “manage stress”, “increase focus” and “enhance creativity” so you can pick and choose your emphasis for the day.
Again anything beyond those free features is for subscribers only. At £3.99 per month Welzen is a lot cheaper than Headspace.
Insight Timer
This is at the moment my favourite app which I use on a daily basis. It’s actually more than just an app. It’s a social network for people who enjoy meditation and mindfulness. There are free forums to ask questions and hundreds of free guided meditations by all sorts of people including some famous ones like Eckhart Tolle!
What I love about it is that meditations are in different languages and they come with reviews from other people. The only downside is that there is almost too much choice so you might have to try a few before you find one that you like.
My favourite feature is the timer option where you can set your own background sound, start and end sound and interval bells. The interval bells are really useful. I usually set them to every 5 minutes which means I get a reminder every 5 minutes to stay present and not start to think about all the things I need to do!
Have you tried any meditations apps? Which one is your favourite? Let me know in the comments if you would consider using them and which ones you found useful!
Thank you Christine for your review of Welzen. We are honored! – 5 days of welzen is getting a complete revamp. We have additional meditation categories coming soon such as Sleep, Kids, Gratitude and Performance as well as some other cool features like background sounds and bells.
Excellent! Look forward to see the new features!
I hadn’t heard of insight timer until a few days ago, but I must have been meant for me to do so, and I hear it here again. I normally (when I manage to slot in meditation!) just set a timer on my phone and go for it, but I like the sound of that one. Thanks for sharing. Xx
Thanks Alice! I also only used a timer before but I really like the 5 minute reminders. It helps me to stay focused 🙂
Thanks for sharing these, I’ve love using meditation apps but I’ve not seen these ones before, I’ll be sure to check them out. I also love using a chakra app to to help me balance my chakras, so they are well worth looking at too.
oh that’s great! I must have a look.