Meditation Suites

By: Yasunari Ramon Suarez Taguchi Although it can be challenging to perfect with all of life’s distractions, meditation is an excellent way for one to better recharge and refocus.

Buddhify

Widely hailed as one of the best guided meditation suites out there, Buddhify features over two hundred targeted meditation guides that help users find the meditation technique that works best for them.

It features a “wheel of meditation” that basically simplifies the process of picking out meditation goals based on a specific need, like improve relaxation, promote sleep, improve focus, alleviate anxiety and more.

Apart from standing out as a well-guided mediation suite, Buddhify also holds a reputation in being the best “family oriented” meditation app there is. It features “Buddhify Kids”, which, as implied by its name, features meditation guides that’re oriented to help kids develop a meditation regimen that doesn’t bore them.

Calm

As a meditation suite, Calm highlights a huge library of calming sounds that make for effective meditation lessons and sessions. It features a “Sleep Stories” feature that helps those who have difficulty sleeping improve their sleeping habits, which highlights voice narrations by celebrities like Matthew McConaughey, Stephen Fry, Eva Green and more.

The suite also highlights a lot of individual meditation exercises and guides that promote better focus, the reduction of anxious thoughts, and exercises that’re aimed to reduce stress levels via its “Calm Body” lesson series. The lessons are basically 10-minute meditation guides that are designed to work to the advantage of meditation beginners.

Its pim of meditation guides also covers breathing and stretching-inclined guides, and it also offers medication guides that’re geared to inculcate mindfulness and self-compassion.

Generally defined as the practice in which a person uses mindfulness and focus-oriented techniques to achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm frame of mind, a meditation regimen – as various studies have shown – can be beneficial in reducing stress, anxiety and depression.

But as highly regarded as meditation is as a means to better cope with the challenges of the times, not many are privy to its benefits – mostly because meditation classes and sessions tend to be costly.

Luckily, there are a range of app-based meditation suites that offer guided meditation sessions that can be done practically anywhere, anytime – apps like the following:

Headspace

Available in versions for Android and iOS, Headspace is a meditation suite that’s designed to work for different people of varied ages and lifestyles.

Poised as a science-backed meditation and mindfulness tool, it was co-founded by former monk named Andy Puddicombe, and provides users access to hundreds of meditation guides that promote mindfulness, better sleep/sleeping habits and reduced stress for beginners and those with meditation experience.

Among its more noteworthy highlights are guides that’re geared to help users cope/better deal with external sounds – external noise, if you will. It has been downloaded over seventy million times in one hundred and ninety countries, and its operational dynamic is driven by its proponents’ mission to improve the mental health and overall happiness levels of people.

InsightTimer

Although its name doesn’t exactly peg it as a meditation suite, InsightTimer is a popular meditation app that works on Android and iOS devices.

Its more notable highlight is its library of meditation guides, which rounds to over one hundred and fifty thousand guides which users can peruse. Complementing is expansive library is an intuitive search function that allows users to find and filter guides based on what they need, say guides to improve sleep, improve self-esteem and the like.

The suite also features community-based group chatrooms like “Be Here Now” and “Loving Kindness and Compassion”. Like the search feature for its library of guides, the app’s chatrooms can be searched/ filtered based on certain topics, which covers the likes of relationships, nutrition concerns, weight loss concerns and more.

Ten Percent Happier

With features like podcast-like programs and expert-led talks, the Ten Percent Happier suite has been earmarked by many as an effective meditation app for those who have difficulty dealing with stress and sleeping.

It is mainly directed for meditation beginners, and its guides are intentionally designed to not take up a lot of time, but the duration of sessions with the app can be increased as a user develops his/her meditation habits.

The nifty thing about Ten Percent Happier is that it is designed to teach meditation practices in a fun, easy and candid way – which means that it is the ideal go-to app for those who consider themselves as the “non-meditation type”. This aspect to the app, however, may not be ideal for those who are already adept with various meditation techniques and modes.