Helpful Information
Resources
A collection of resources to help you on your journey.
The Art of Meditation
Meditation is one of the tools we use when practicing mindfulness; it helps capture a sense of calm and focus. It is both a skill and an experience that can positively impact our overall health and happiness. Research shows mindfulness can help manage stress-related physical conditions, cultivate positive emotions and reduce anxiety and depression.
When we meditate it broadens our conscious awareness and over time this practice helps us develop the ability to be present and in the moment throughout each day. By focussing on the flow of our breath we can observe our thoughts and emotions and let them pass without judgement.
Helpful Meditation Resources
To help support us on our meditation journey there are an overwhelming number of meditation/mindfulness apps available on the market currently.
If you are starting out on your mental wellness journey you may not want to invest in a subscription-based app, so we have researched a small number of popular meditation apps which offer zero cost to the customer.
1. Mindfulness Coach
Mindfulness Coach is a totally free meditation app which offers an instructive resource for anyone looking to learn about and incorporate mindfulness as a healthy coping strategy and lifelong skill.
It was created by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)’s National Center for PTSD, with the aim of teaching mindfulness to veterans, service members and anyone who wants to give mindfulness a try.
2. UCLA Mindful
The UCLA Mindful is a zero-cost app.
It was born from UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Centre and offers the best in research-based mindfulness meditation.
The app offers guided wellness meditations to help you through personal struggles from chronic pain to stress management.
3. Smiling Mind
Smiling Mind is a beginner-friendly evidence-based, not for profit free meditation app.
It offers 300 meditations and mindfulness programmes for both adults and children.
It is a beginner-friendly app which includes research-backed programmes by category e.g. for the family, at work, for adults, or by themes such as concentration, sleep, stress and attention.
4. Health Minds Programme
The Healthy Minds Programme is a non-profit, donation-based app that became freely available to all users in 2020. It is the brainchild of Healthy Minds Innovation (HMI) (affiliated with the Center of Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison).
This free app offers podcast-style lessons and guided meditations. It turns neuroscience into everyday tools that train your mind to unlock the four pillars of well-being, based on decades of research by HMI: awareness, insight, connection and purpose.
5. Insight Timer
Insight Timer offers a huge collection of more than 100,000 free guided meditations including meditation music and a meditation timer that allows you to practice unguided complete with ambient noise and a soft ending bell.
This app requires no subscription or membership, although does offer an optional premium membership which includes offline listening, meditation courses, and other features.
Do your Research
As mentioned earlier there are hundreds of apps to choose and the above are only a selection of the zero-cost ones available. Please do your own research to find out which one appeals to you.
There are also many popular apps which you may be familiar with which offer a free trial period with access to free basic meditations.
Once the trial period ends a monthly or annual subscription to access more content is offered.
Below are links to the websites which explain more about the content offered on these particular apps.
Disclaimer: The Positive Medicine Institute takes no responsibility for the apps you choose to download.