Mindfulness and Meditation Apps

We know there are things to improve our own mental health, such as exercising, proven to decrease anxiety and feel more relaxed; communicating, in person and virtually helps us to feel connected and supported; and listening to mindfulness meditation, which studies show can decrease blood pressure during stress and help increase our overall well-being.
Too Busy to Meditate? Don’t Worry!
There are many apps to download to your smartphone or tablet that focus solely on mindfulness and meditation. Most are easy to use and in many cases, they are free to start. Even if you take just a short time-out each day to hit the reset button or to help unwind for a better night's sleep, or search for an app to help you and your students, consider these picks.

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Simple Habit
This app nicely pairs with your first cup of coffee because you can get started in five minutes! Simple Habit is a meditation app has thousands of short sessions taught by mindfulness teachers to guide you and your students. Easy to find. Easy to use. Simple!

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Headspace
If you want a focus on being and staying present and less on spirituality, Headspace offers a series using proven meditation and mindfulness techniques that could help you reset your mind, reduce anxiety, and sleep better. Consider this app if you are trying meditation for the first time or want to have more structure with short sessions. There are meditate, sleep, move, and focus features, which give you plenty of choices regardless of your experience.

Calm
The free version of the Calm app has a variety of offerings, such as guided meditations of varying levels, lengths, and focuses, sleep stories, breathing exercises, and nature sounds. The app has content designed for beginners as well as intermediate and advanced users with guided sessions from 3 to 25 minutes. There are a variety of topics, such as managing stress, deep sleep, and breathing exercises, along with options to track progress with gamification elements.

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Ten Percent Happier
Ten Percent Happier offers clear and simple meditation lessons.
A New York Times bestselling author and an ABC News anchor, Dan Harris, leads the app. He suffered an on-air panic attack in 2004, which prompted him to write the book 10% Happier. The app features quick meditations, which you can do whenever you have a spare moment, from many respected teachers.

             10% Happier | Dan Harris | Talks at Google | 50 minutes

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Share Your Ideas
Special thanks for the inspiration and good ideas from Trine and Julia. Trine Bourke, our Fitness Center Director, shared a multitude of mindfulness resources in the last Mindfulness and Hydration Challenge. Our CTLA Office Assistant, Julia Glodoski, highlighted meditation tech tools in the December 2022 blog.
For upcoming Tech Tuesdays, we will be calling on you to share your experience and examples. If you cannot wait to share, please contact us at [email protected] and [email protected].
Your Faculty Liaisons, Jen & Vanessa