We’ve been hearing it a lot these days, but what exactly is mindfulness? According to Mindful.org,

Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.

While mindfulness is something we all naturally possess, it’s more readily available to us when we practice on a daily basis.

Whenever you bring awareness to what you’re directly experiencing via your senses, or to your state of mind via your thoughts and emotions, you’re being mindful…

The goal of mindfulness is to wake up to the inner workings of our mental, emotional, and physical processes.

When we’re mindful, we reduce stress, enhance performance, gain insight and awareness through observing our own mind, and increase our attention to others’ well-being.

- What is Mindfulness and Getting Started with Mindfulness

You can read both articles on Mindful.org for more details if you’d like (click on the links).

In summary, mindfulness is something that we are all capable of doing and should practice on a daily basis, especially if and when we encounter stressful situations. As Headspace puts it,

Practicing mindfulness meditation can be a great way to manage stress and boost compassion, focus, empathy, patience, energy, and ultimately, happiness.

- Practicing Mindfulness Meditation

Deep Breathing

I was first introduced to mindfulness when talking with a school counselor when I was in my masters degree program. One simple way to practice mindfulness, without spending a dime, is deep breathing. Whenever you’re feeling anxious, angry, or overwhelmed, you can take a couple of deep breaths to help calm down. You can do it anywhere, while in your parked car, washing the dishes, cooking, or taking a shower. Luckily some major smartwatches offer some type of breathing app to help guide you during deep breathing exercises. For instance, Fitbit and Apple Watch both have guided breathing apps. However, as I stated before, you don’t have to run out and buy a smartwatch to practice deep breathing.

Mindfulness Apps

Since many of us have smartphones, we have access to tons of information, websites, and apps. If you search on the Apple App store, you’ll find many different kinds of mindfulness apps out there. I’d be lying if I said that I tried a bunch of mindfulness apps, so I’ll share the ones that I have used and found beneficial.

1. Headspace

   Headspace was the first mindfulness apps that I used. The school counselor that I mentioned earlier was the one that introduced it to me. Over the years, they’ve introduced new meditations to help with various challenges we may face (i.e. anxiety, stress, and sleep issues). You’ll need to make an account with them, however, they do offer a FREE trial. If you are unemployed, Headspace will offer you a one year Headspace Plus subscription for FREE! For subscriptions, you can either pay $12.99/month or $69.99/year.

   
   
   

2. Abide

   Abide is the main mindfulness/meditation app, and my person favorite, that I currently use. Abide is a Christian meditation app that has a variety of meditations for sleep, conquering depression, managing stress, etc… What I like about this app is that it implements the relevant word of God into its meditation topics. Prayers are also included in nearly each meditation and some prayers are geared towards deliverance from certain things.

   The app has some other cool features. It includes a journal, where you can type down anything that comes to mind during your meditations or how you are feeling. There are also “guides”, which are basically topic driven devotionals for the many facets of our lives. For instance, one guide I’m currently going through is “Balancing Rest with Busy Living”.

   Abide has a FREE version, which gives you access to a decent amount of meditations, and a year subscription ranging from $29.99/year to $39.99/year. The premium subscription obviously gives you unlimited access to all of its content.

   Out of all of the apps I have listed, I’ve personally experienced the best sleep and management of stress using the Abide app.

   
   
   

3. Soulspace

   Two good friends of mine, who use Soulspace, recommended it to me. Soulspace reminds me of Headspace, since the meditations usually start off with a calming voice and deep breathing exercises; however, Soulspace is a Christian mindfulness/meditation app while Headspace is not.

   Similarly to other mindfulness apps, Soulspace has courses on various topics (such as anxiety, peace, acceptance, etc…). The FREE version offers up to six minutes of one meditation per course subject, including lullabies, sleep scriptures, and bedtime stores. To have unlimited access to all of the material, you’ll have to purchase a premium subscription for $19/year.

   
   
   

4. Calm

   I briefly used the Calm meditation app before they implemented a free trial to use it. Out of the all of the meditation apps that I mentioned, Calm has the nicest interfaces with calming water stream playing in the background when opening the app. Like other mindfulness apps, Calm has meditations for various topics and breathing exercises. They do have sleep stories (for both adults and children) and music (for adults and children) to help relax and/or sleep. It looks like, as of recently, they’ve added various artists to their music feature. There is also a "Mood Check-In” to keep track of how you are feeling.

   As I mentioned earlier, you can get a FREE 7-day trial before paying for a subscription. A premium subscription for Calm costs $69.99/year.