If you’ve spent much time around me (or read much of my writing) you’ve probably heard me bang on about how amazing meditation is for you – all the benefits, all the studies, all the goodness.

One of the questions I get asked all the time is: What’s the easiest way to start meditating?

The quick answer? Just start!

It can be that easy (honest!) but I get it. I know how daunting the idea of sitting quietly, trying to control a crazy monkey-with-ADD type brain can be.

I’ve found that the easiest way for lots of people – myself included – to start meditating is to begin by listening to guided meditations.

Guided meditations are recordings where someone speaks to you throughout your meditation session – you focus on their voice and follow their instructions.

They may talk about visualising things, feeling sensations in certain parts of your body – there is a huge variety.

The easiest way to get your hands on some good guided meditations to start with is with an app that you can listen to wherever it suits you, on your phone or iToy.

I’ve tried a whole lot of meditation apps – some are great, some… not so much! But I’ve pulled together a list for you of my top 5 meditation apps to check out…

1 – Calm

This is my favourite! I love it so much I happily fork out for my yearly subscription and don’t think twice about it. There’s also loads of free content that you can access without having to pay for a subscription. I love the ‘Daily Calm’ which is a new meditation uploaded each day, and the 7-day and 21-day courses.

You can find out more here: Calm

2 – Headspace

Another great app – Headspace gives you a free 10-day beginners meditation course, along with other meditations and mindfulness exercises to try out. It’s a great one for the whole family with a series of meditation for kids focussing on different aspects of life, and for different age groups.

Access headspace here: Headspace

3 – Smiling Mind

Smiling Mind is great! I love that it’s a not-for-profit organisation who are providing free mindfulness training to schools and that they’re Australian (and the meditation voice-overs have Australian accents!) There’s a huge number of tracks and classes – including kids courses, and courses specifically for health professionals.

Read more about Smiling Mind here: Smiling Mind

4 – Omvana

Omvana have a huge library of meditation tracks and classes you can access. They cover everything from happiness & joy, to better sleep, clarity of vision and focus and productivity.
It provides personalised recommendations based on what you’ve listened to and lets you create your own meditation tracks by mixing existing tracks together.

Check it out here: Omvana

5 – Insight Timer

This is a really popular app with over 70,000 free guided meditations to choose from. You can pick your meditation track by music, origin (traditional faiths or science), the benefit you’re looking for, or the type of practice you want to engage with – very cool!

Have a look at all the different options here: Insight Timer

I hope at least one of these tickles your fancy and gets you meditating. If nothing else – give them all a try (I think I have all of them on my phone at the moment) and see which one clicks for you.

Let me know in the comments below if you’ve got any other hot meditation app recommendations.

xx