ADVANCING WOMEN IN BUSINESS

Best mindfulness apps to pay attention to

Topic: Leadership

Regularly unplugging from technology has a rejuvenating effect on even the most stressed out employee, making you a greater conversationalist who sleeps deeper, engages more with others, comes up with better ideas and even stands up straighter.^[i]

But technology is a fact of twenty-first century life, and the very antidote to information overload might just be a swipe or two away. Enter the world of mindfulness apps, whose creators are hoping will make digital detoxing a thing of the past…

1. Stop, Breathe & Think by Tools For Peace

Created by a non-profit organisation that runs a global kindness and compassion programme, this app was originally designed for the course’s students only. But it caught on to the tune of over one million downloads and remains one of the App Store’s most popular items in the health and wellbeing category.

Its strapline ‘Get meditating in 5 minutes. Easy’ is reflected in a friendly and simple user interface with a personal feel. You check in as regularly as you’d like and record how you’re feeling in order to receive personalised meditation tips and a series of guided meditations for various ailments – sadness, anxiety, low confidence to name a few. The personal tracker records fluctuations in your moods and keeps count of your meditation time, helping you to set your own goals and feel a sense of achievement each time you receive a reward sticker.

2. Calm by Calm.com

This app is the smartphone version of the desktop meditation guide popular with the employee who doesn’t have access to a candlelit meditation room and a boss who advocates for hourly breaks (i.e. everyone who doesn’t work at Google). You simply log in at your desk, select whether you want a two, five, ten, 15 or 20 minute meditation, choose your moving image of choice (of the 25 on offer are rolling waves at sunset, an Alpine lake and a journey through fluffy white clouds) and opt for either a guided meditation or a nice soothing tune. The app does all of the above, plus offers a free, seven-step guide to achieving blissful calm.

3. The Mindfulness Training App by Sounds True

Meditation devotees looking to take their practice beyond ten minute bliss-outs will love this library of resources created by some of the world’s leading mindfulness gurus, including the movement’s founder Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn himself. You’ll discover free guides to everything from the neuroscience of meditation to introductions to some of the more complex rituals, drawing on Shamanic, Tibetan and Kabbalah practices, and practical steps for honing your own meditation. Each is offered in video, audio or written formats to suit a range of learning styles.

4. Headspace Meditation by Headspace

Endorsed by #HeForShe campaigner Emma Watson, this app is an extension of Headspace’s online programme, which promises to teach you how to meditate in return for a commitment of ten minutes of practice per day. Many of the functions are for paid subscribers only (such as the buddy system which allows you to motivate friends along the journey with you), but the free ten-day introduction course gives you a solid foundation in how to meditate, and the accessible, down-to-earth and often humorous guided audios are perfect for meditation newbies and sceptics alike.

5. Calmeleon by Trellisys

Whether you’ve wholly bought into the adult colouring trend or the idea of sharpening real-life colouring pencils isn’t for you, this app is a chance to totally indulge your inner child while on the go. There are over three hundred mandalas to choose from, and the simple-to-use digital palette will totally absorb even the least visual minds. After you’ve exhausted the free collection, you can either pay to unlock more designs, or download the companion apps Colour Therapy, World Mandalas and 1000 Dot-to-dot.

BEST OF THE REST

FOR INSOMNIACS

Sleep Easily By Shazzie claims it will send you off to sleep in 26 minutes or less, and judging by its devoted followings, it’s living up to that promise.

FOR THE DESKBOUND

Walking Meditations is perfect for multitaskers (and the time and/or space strapped) who want to combine their practice with their walk to the office or the sandwich shop.

FOR PAYING IT FORWARD

Children are the world’s greatest mindfulness gurus, able to become completely absorbed in the moment. But that doesn’t mean young people don’t get stressed, and if you know one who could do with some chill out time, Smiling Mind is designed specifically for them.

FOR WORKING MOTHERS-TO-BE

Mind The Bump coordinates its meditation tips and guides with the particular physical and emotional demands of your stage of pregnancy and your journey into motherhood, from conception through to the toddler phase.