Mindfulness Apps and Resources
The following mindfulness and mediation apps can help you progress (and track your progress) doing mediations, guided breathing, and other mindfulness practices. These can guide you in your quest to pursue a healthier and calmer lifestyle. (Except where noted in the description, the following apps are all free.)
| Equanimity | This is an app for timing and tracking meditation practice. It includes a fully interactive journal, open-ended sessions, and a progress tracker. |
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| Breathe2Relax | This app is for relaxing breathing techniques, anxiety reduction, and the like. |
| Rest & Relax Meditations | This app is for guided meditations and relaxation for in-the-moment meditation support. (This app costs $1.99.) |
| Universal Breathing Pranayama | This is an app for practicing breathing. Pranayama was engineered to teach your body how to breathe properly. Babies naturally breathe diaphragmatically; however, adults often take shallow breaths. By training your lungs to breathe at their full capacity, you could experience a wealth of health benefits! (The full version of this app costs $4.99.) |
| Insight Meditation Timer | This app offers a variety of guided meditations while allowing you to feel connected to a community of meditators globally. Customize your practice by utilizing features that feel authentic to you. |
| One-Moment Meditation | This app can help you with the One-Moment Meditation. You can learn to meditate quickly and powerfully, finding balance and calm wherever you are—even if you've never meditated before. |
| Headspace | This app is a great introduction to meditation, as it offers 10-minute sessions to get you in the habit of daily practices. Headspace also provides reminders and allows you to focus on specific areas, including health, sleep, and performance, to name a few. |
| iSleep Easy | This app contains a wide variety of guided meditations to help you fall asleep and sleep deeply. You can listen to the meditations with or without choices of music or nature sounds. (This app costs $3.99.) |
| Buddhify | Buddhify offers mediation for various skill levels and is intended to fit into your busy day. (This app costs $4.99.) |
| Breethe – Meditation | This app shares simple mindfulness and meditation techniques that can be done in just 10 minutes a day. (The app is free but offers in-app purchases.) |
| The Mindfulness App | This app offers a variety of features, such as a five-day guided meditation practice, meditation reminders, personalized meditation offers, and tracking tools. This app can be integrated with other health apps on your device. |
| CALM | Calm offers a variety of guided meditations, ranging from three-minute to 25-minute sessions. Another feature is the Daily Calm, which is a 10-minute program you can follow right before bedtime or at the start of your day. In addition, it includes more than 20 sleep stories, breathing exercises, unguided meditations, and over 25 soothing sounds to help you sleep. |
| Smiling Mind | This app is for children and adults alike, so you can practice with your whole family! Meditations are divided by age group, and families can create individual user accounts and manage everyone from one app. |
| Sattva | Sattva aims to inspire its users to meditate daily. It has pre-loaded guided meditations and chants, timers, mood trackers, and challenges. It also lets you integrate with the iPhone's built-in Health app. |
| Stop, Breath & Think | This app has over 55 guided meditations—for both the start and end of your day—a daily mood tracker, and customizable chimes. |
Additional Resources
These additional resources can provide further information on mindful living.
Gratefulness
Link opens in a new windowhttps://www.gratefulness.io
With this website, receive a daily text asking you what you are grateful for. Your replies get stored in an online journal that you can access anytime and comment upon. You can also text the number multiple times a day to add things for which you are grateful. This is a great reminder of what you can be happy about on days you aren't feeling your best.
Books
- Finding the Space to Lead: A Practical Guide to Mindful Leadership – Janice Marturano
- Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness – Jon Kabat-Zinn
- One-Moment Meditation: Stillness for People on the Go – Martin Boroson
- The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation – Thich Nhat Hanh
- The Mayo Clinic Handbook for Happiness: A 4-Step Plan for Resilient Living – Amit Sood, MD
- The Mindful Way Through Depression: Freeing Yourself From Chronic Unhappiness – Mark Williams, John Teasdale, and Jon Kabat-Zinn
- Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat With Diabetes: A Mindful Eating Program for Thriving With Prediabetes or Diabetes – Michelle May, MD
- 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works – Dan Harris
Articles
Mindful Magazine
Link opens in a new windowhttps://www.mindful.org/magazine
Want to be a better leader? Observe more and react less.
Link opens in a new windowhttps://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/leadership/want-to-be-a-better-leader-observe-more-and-react-less
5 Tips for Mindful Eating
Link opens in a new windowhttps://www.trihealth.com/blogs/healthy-eating/5-tips-for-mindful-eating
Scientific Journals
Forty-seven studies with 3515 participants support mindfulness practice by showing effects are comparable with what would be expected from the use of an antidepressant in a primary care population without the associated toxicities:
- Goyal, M., Singh, S., Sibinga, E. M., Gould, N. F., Rowland-Seymour, A., Sharma, R., et al. (2014). Meditation programs for psychological stress and well-being: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine, 174(3), 357–368.
- Luders, E., Kurth, F. L., Mayer, E. A., Toga, A. W., Narr, K. L., & Gaser, C. (2012, February 29). The unique brain anatomy of meditation practitioners: Alterations in cortical gyrification. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6, 34.
Workplace Options AWARE & Schuette, B. (Ed.). (Revised 2024). Mindfulness apps and resources. Raleigh, NC: Author.
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