App For Mindfulness

After a stressful week, we normally call a close friend to pour anxieties over the phone. The friend has no time to be our counselor that day, but sends a link to download an App – The Mindfulness App. We been hearing this word, but now it has an App? Interestingly, mindfulness is handy word used across all platforms.

Psychologists use this term to make us “mindful” or “thoughtful” of our over-indulgence with emotions teaching us techniques and skills to manage our mental state. They use the informal non-meditation practices as therapy for healing the patient. Traditionally, mindfulness has originated from the eastern meditation traditions, which teaches us to maintain our awareness from moment to moment. It helps us stay in the present moment with our complete attention. This gives us clarity to see things as they are, with no judgements! This directs our brain to focus on just the present moment. Thus, the brain does not have to carry the clutter of the past and future thoughts.

Clinical psychologists have based their therapy programs to prevent depression, stress and other mental state disorders. Meditation practices use different techniques to keep our attention in the present moment and doing everything with awareness. Various examples are watching the breath, body scan to note the body sensations and many more.

We all approach mindfulness with our own “mind”. There are various apps for mindfulness, with different content. The best way to choose is to go deep within to explore what we are looking for. Here are a few suggestions –

1) Mindfulness Training App: For Absolute beginners who don’t know where to begin.

2) Daily Mindfulness App: Helps you get into a daily Mindfulness routine. It tracks how consistent you have been with your practice.

3) Mindfulness App: They have names like Aura, Calm, Stop, Breathe and Think, Simply Being, Take a break etc

4) Mindful Eating Apps: Helps one to eat food with more awareness and develop healthy eating habits.

5) In The moment: Helps you decide if you are actually hungry or we are eating to fill some emotional gap within us.

6) Targeted Mindful Apps: These Apps are targeted for specific groups like parents, mothers, couples etc. For example – Quality is for Mothers, Mindfulness Coach is for Veterans.

7) Mindfulness Aid Apps: These help to enhance the practices of people who are know how to practice mindfulness with relaxing melodies, meditation music etc.

.8) Mindfulness Reminder App: This for people who need reminders, as they tend to get lazy!

There are over 500 mindfulness Apps. How do we make the right choice? We also need to be aware of the cost. A lot of them are offered free for a limited period, after which there is a fee per month. We should spend some time to reach to see the best fit App for our own personality. These Apps have different types of guided meditations, awareness of breath, attention to the different sensations in our body, letting go of thoughts and emotions.

Each App has its own voice, style and meditation techniques. You have to be attracted to that App to allow you to maintain awareness in the present moment, without dwelling in the past or worrying about the future!