Meditation app is smartphone application intended to provide the user with expert guidance on achieving and maintaining a meditative state.
Meditation apps can be extremely useful to people who have a difficult time sitting still long enough to meditate using traditional methods. To help transcend that difficulty the meditation app provides chants, music, guided sessions and other helpful tools.
Below we have compiled a list of 20 meditation app benefits that should help you determine if a meditation app is right for you.
20 Benefits Of Meditation Apps
1: A meditation app can enhance overall wellbeing
From the very beginning, many thousands of years ago (1), the goal of meditation has been to enable people to find a better way through mindful focus. That central goal of meditation has not changed and can be realized by using a meditation app. With practice, it will be possible to reduce your stress and anxiety levels, be more positive and forward-oriented and enjoy enhanced physical and mental wellbeing.
2: A meditation app can help improve your relationships
The amount of sleep we get has a profound impact on the quality of our relationships (2). That is true of both domestic and business relationships. Most meditation apps provide meditations specifically designed to help you get the deep, restful sleep you need.
3: A meditation app is convenient
Even in the best of times you may not be able to find the time for a conventional meditation practice. This is where a meditation app can really come in handy. You do not have to adhere to any particular schedule, leave your home, or commit one minute more than you have. Many meditation programs are just a few minutes long and do not require any special equipment or instruction.
4: A meditation app may help reduce risk factors for some diseases
Stress is a gateway to all manner of short and long term adverse health conditions. Heart disease, insomnia, high blood pressure, and more have all been linked at one time or another to stress (3). A meditation app can help reduce your stress level and clear the way for a happier, healthier future.
5: A meditation app can help you navigate a topsy turvy world
The year 2020 will go down as one of unprecedented upheaval and uncertainty. Massive job losses, the disruption of daily routines for people around the world, and the threat of illness have raised the anxiety levels of countless millions. A meditation app cannot solve all the world’s problems, but it can help you create a little island of tranquility to occupy.
6: A meditation app helps you stay emotionally grounded
Wayward or extreme emotions can be as disruptive to a person’s wellbeing as stress, anxiety, or illness (4). Achieving and maintaining emotional balance is one of the key goals of meditation. A meditation app can help you gain awareness of how emotions are affecting you. You can then use that awareness to keep those emotions in check and get on with your life.
7: A meditation app can enhance your career
Advancing in your chosen profession requires focus. You need to stay calm and in control regardless of what is going on around you. That is not always easy to do, especially in light of recent events. A meditation app can help a career by providing you that all-important focus, and by helping you get the restful sleep you need so that you are always at your best.
8: A meditation app can help relieve stress
Stress has a tendency to interfere with personal and professional relationships, to cloud judgment and undermine health (5). Fortunately, one of the principal benefits of the meditation app is its ability to relieve stress. Just a few minutes per day can improve your outlook and work performance, and help you get a good night’s sleep.
9: A meditation app can help you recover from illness or surgery
Recovering from an illness, injury, or surgery is not always a straightforward thing. There may be setbacks, months of therapy, and unforeseen complications that all need to be dealt with. A meditation app can help alleviate feelings of anxiety associated with the recovery process and help ensure it is no longer or more difficult than need be.
10: A meditation app can stop you from ruminating
‘Rumination’ is a word that used to be in fairly common use. Today, about the only place you will hear it is in the psychologist’s office. Essentially, rumination is the state of being unable to let go of a recent setback or embarrassment or mistake (6). Virtually everyone will experience it to some degree at some point in their life. And a meditation app can help you transcend it.
11: A meditation app can help you focus
Many types of meditation emphasize the here and now. That can be extremely helpful for busy people who are being pulled in a dozen different directions by work, family, and relationship pressures and obligations. Taking a few minutes to center yourself before the work day begins or before a big family outing can make a world of difference in your experience.
12: A meditation app may help alleviate symptoms of depression
Meditation can provide a person with the tools they need to back away from depression triggers (7) and maintain a more positive outlook. In other cases, it may enable a person to pull themselves out of a downward spiral by promoting awareness of their feelings and surroundings. No one is saying a meditation app is a cure for depression, but it can be a valuable tool to have in your corner.
13: A meditation app can help you sleep better
One of the primary reasons people download meditation apps is so that they can get to sleep in a timely fashion. Nothing is worse than tossing and turning at night because you are stressed out over work or family life. A meditation app can help you put any issues in perspective, restore your focus to the here and now, and get the sleep you need to always be at your best.
14: A meditation app can reduce anxiety
In dangerous situations a certain amount of anxiety is normal. But in some cases, people lose perspective and anxiety threatens to overwhelm them. Anxiety disorders have many sources and take many forms (8). And while a meditation app is not a cure for anxiety disorders, it can help put things back in proper perspective and allow you to get on with your life in a calmer, more focused manner.
15: A meditation app may help you maintain a healthy weight
Emotions play a huge role in weight gain (9) and people’s relation to food in general. Many times when a person overeats it is because they are trying to feed a negative emotion or drown out stressful feelings. By making you more aware of your feelings in the moment, a meditation app can fend off destructive overeating episodes so you can maintain a healthy weight.
16: A meditation app can help you deal with chronic pain
Millions of people suffer from chronic pain, and there are few reliable ways to deal effectively with it. By leveraging mindfulness, a meditation app can help reduce the pain and relieve the associated anxiety. There is a growing movement within the psychological community called ‘mindfulness-based stress reduction’ (10) that promotes the idea of mindfulness in dealing with various pain-related issues.
17: A meditation app can make better students
The pressure on young people to perform academically has never been more intense. At the same time, the number of distractions available to them have never been more numerous. The net effect can be overwhelming. A meditation app can help them clear away the mental clutter and become better, more focused students.
18: A meditation app can help you accentuate the positive
No one’s health is well-served by sitting in front of a computer screen all day. People need to get up and move about at regular intervals for the sake of their heart and to prevent conditions like deep vein thrombosis (11). A meditation app that stresses mindful awareness can help you remember to perform this essential health maintenance act.
19: A meditation app can help you achieve your goals
Staying focused on your life goals is not easy to do. The contemporary world brings with it a million distractions. Before you know it, you are headed down some pointless dead end, and your plans wind up in disarray. Making meditation part of your daily routine can help you keep your eyes on the prize and see distractions for what they are.
20: A meditation app is not a religious tool
Perhaps because of its strong association with Buddhism, many people believe they need to adopt a religious affiliation to enjoy the benefits of meditation. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. While there are certainly plenty of meditation studios that promote Buddhist or Taoist (12) philosophy, most meditation apps focus simply on bringing yourself back to the moment.