As recommended by readers of Electric Speed in December 2023
Meditation Music - Relax, Yoga by Maple Media for Android. It comes with so many stock meditation music options, but you can further customize every single one by either adding or taking away music and/or sounds. And you can just have it play or set a timer for the music to stop after a certain amount of time. There are paid options for music sounds, but with the amount of free options and customization, there really is no need. —Tammy Cox
I’d like to recommend Calm as meditation app. I first downloaded it when I needed to flatten the curve of my anxiety during a double family crisis in 2020, and soon learned to find comfort in my breath. I love their dailies, series, soundscapes, and travel-oriented sleep stories. It’s a life saver. —Claire Polders
I’ve been using Headspace for a couple of years. I love the three minute breathing meditations to regain some peace during a stressful day; the ten minute videos of nature to bring me off the ledge by reminding me that the world is bigger than troubled politics; and the sleepcasts really help me unwind at night. Highly recommend! —Gale Massey
I’ve used the Calm meditation app since 2019. I credit it for saving my life (maybe literally) when I was so depressed and anxious, I didn’t see any point to living. My psychologist recommended it and I gave it a try. Just learning to focus on my breath and calm my mind, along with many of the lessons that Tamara Levitt teaches during the Daily Calm lessons were (and are) so helpful, it got me back to center. I recommend it to everyone. —Jenn Pike
Although I’ve meditated on my own for close to 40 years, I love Insight Timer for yoga nidra guided meditations (Jana Roemer is one of my favorites) and “brain” music to help me focus, create, or concentrate. There are so many choices and it’s one of the few apps I use almost every day. —Barbara Boyd
The meditation app I love is Ten Percent Happier. I'm a person that likes to keep track of what I do, it makes me accountable by tracking how many I've meditated. There are specific courses taught by well known meditation gurus and the sleep meditations are the best I've found. —Annette Thies
I currently use Calm. I subscribed to several others before Calm, but I’ve been with them for several years now. I love the many options they offer. Every morning, I do the short wisdom lesson/meditation with Jay Shetty, the Daily Trip with Jeff Warren, check in on how I’m feeling, write an intention for the day, and list three things I’m grateful for. That takes about a half-hour, and I feel equipped for the day. At night, I use the sleep stories to put myself back to sleep when I wake up. —Patricia Charpentier
I haven't used any meditation apps, although I've been learning the Trust Technique for my dog, which helped me reach that zero thinking state. (Trust Technique was something I learned about from Jule Kucera's newsletter.) —Nancy Bertulfo
Plum Village is a very good app. It has guided and timed meditations as well as dharma talks. One of things I use is their beautiful bells which I have ring once an hour to remind me to breathe into the present moment. —Bobbie O’Connor
I’ve meditated most every morning for years for 20 minutes, but I jump around in apps, using my iPhone for the Mindfulness app, the Oak app, the UCLA app and Christiane Wolfe’s website. And once in a while I throw in a 20-minute recording of coqui frogs made in Hilo, HA—they are very expressive, but you can lose yourself in their calls. —Tom Bentley
Stephanie Kojec meditations' on YouTube. These are guided meditations led by Stephanie who is from New Zealand, I think, and has a beautiful voice. The meditations vary in length, from 11 minutes to 25 mins, and I find them very empowering. —Marie Rowe
I use an app called Dawn. It is Christian and combines a short biblical confession, guided prayer video with beautiful images and music, a longer Bible passage (maybe 2-4 verses) and a journal prompt at the end. The app also provides longer content like devotionals, other music and printable encouragements. All in it takes about 10 minutes daily though you could easily linger longer with the additional content. —CC Robinson
I use the Calm app. It’s worth the price for the daily dose of Jay Shetty, even if that’s all you do. After each mini-session, I think if a person could only do one thing to improve their life, it would be to read or listen to Jay Shetty. Okay, maybe I have a slight crush on his beautiful exterior, but his brain is even better. —Sharon Wagner
I use Relax+ by Andrew Johnson who comes from my prt of Scotland. Now I finally see why everyone says my accent is relaxing. Ahhhh! —Julie Duffy
I love K.A. Emmons’ Writer’s Retreat Meditation Journey playlist on YouTube. It's a collection of meditations specifically for writers and they are wonderful! —Dori
I have difficulty with meditation which asks you to clear your mind. I understand that you're supposed to be accepting of your mind wandering, but I'm terrible at it. The Pray As You Go app, however, has helped me start a daily practice of contemplative prayer. It starts with music that is varied but always lovely. A soothing voice reads a bible verse once, questions are posed, and then it closes with the bible verse being read again. It is a variation of the age-old practice of lectio divina. And, it only takes about 10 minutes. —Stacy
I began using Lectio 365 this year, and love it. It slows me down at night, and prepares me for the day ahead in the morning. It is bible based, so not everyone's cup of tea. There's always a psalm - the poetry of the bible. Its positive and invites a look at yourself and where you are in your journey. —Carron Stevenson
I am an absolute die-hard Calm user. I tried many different apps and platforms at the beginning of the pandemic and settled on Calm. I've been using it ever since and love, love, love everything about it. It has helped me consistently make space for mindfulness because it is designed to help develop consistent habits and has a wealth of options for when you need something outside of your everyday routine. When you set up your account initially, you answer a series of questions to help customize the experience. Then, from there, there are "Dailies" that users can choose from, ranging from "The Daily Calm" to "Daily Movement." There are also "Mindful Tools" that user can employ as a part of their routine, such as a gratitude journal, mood check-in, daily reflection, and sleep check-in. I love these because they have helped me develop healthier habits and monitor my mental health on a daily basis. Perhaps the best thing about Calm, though, is its extensive library of background sounds, meditations, sleep stories, music and nature soundtracks, and breathing tools that allow the user to target specific issues as they arise. There have been multiple times when I have tapped into this resource. For instance, I was struggling for a while with insomnia and used Calm to address the issue and get back to better sleep. Another time, I needed to build movement breaks into my writing routine, so I set a reminder through the app and employed mindful movement into my writing routine. Calm is, by design, user-centric. The entire app is about providing tools and resources to support users in their individual mindful/mental wellness journeys. It's also super user-friendly, so it's easy to explore and find what works for you. —Angela Gascho
Here are the ones I have used in the past couple of years. I will say, I go back and forth with using an app and mediating on my own in silence. It all depends on how I am feeling during that time.
Insight Timer feels a little random and disorganized to me. Calm does not have much in their free version so I never got too far into it but I have a friend that swears by it and loves their sleep stories to help her sleep at night. I really love the structure and organization of Headspace and I like that it also has something on Netflix that can be helpful when visuals are a good support. I like Ten Percent Happier because I like many of the practitioners there that I have followed for a long time, Joseph Goldstien, Sharon Salzburg, etc. Healthy Minds is my favorite right now. It was created by neuroscientist, Dr. Richard Davidson. He has worked with the Dalai Lama and actually was part of a Ten Percent Happier program with the Dalai Lama. (One of the things that is free on the Ten Percent Happier app) This is part of Healthy Minds Innovations which is an external, affiliated nonprofit dedicated to supporting the mission of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. —Katie Seitzer