I don’t know how many people had to tell me to try mindfulness or meditation before I actually tried it. My therapist, sports coach, doctor, acupuncturist…the list goes on. The handful of guided meditations I tried in the past didn’t work well for me. I couldn’t picture “the red ball growing and shrinking, growing and shrinking.” This summer I finally realized that my mind was a mess and my coping strategies needed some work, so I gave meditation an honest try.
I have endometriosis, a medical condition that caused me 10 years of chronic abdominal pain. Chronic pain, no matter the source, can cause all sorts of problems, including mental health struggles. For me, these struggles came from years of being dismissed and misdiagnosed, attempting to carry on my life as usual despite daily pain, and the already high-stress environment of graduate school. But you don’t need to have any mental health struggles to try mindfulness, you simply need to be a person who is open to trying something new or different.
The first meditations I tried were Kaiser Permanente’s audio meditations for health. I listened to the meditation for pain relief and some of the meditations to help with stress. I liked the speaker’s peaceful voice and reminder to take slow, deep breaths. After closing my eyes and listening for as little as 3 minutes, I felt calmness wash over me. It was great and I vowed to stick with it.
…I didn’t. I’m motivated by deadlines and commitments. I go to an expensive gym with structured classes and I’ve never skipped a class because I didn’t feel like going or because I forgot. It’s all because I paid for the class and I told the gym I would be there. For that reason, I wanted something to make me commit the next time I decided to try meditation. That is why I signed up for the Calm app. Calm is a little bit expensive, the most expensive in my list below, but I tend to reserve my spending money for things that will make me healthier, and hopefully therefore happier. With the student discount, I paid about $42 (USD), which comes out to about $3.50 per month. I set a small and attainable goal for myself that I wanted to meditate once or twice a week, but a minimum once per month to make the subscription worthwhile.
Shortly after I signed up for Calm, I was also invited to join a class for people with chronic pain. The class focused on coping strategies and touched on a few different types of meditation that are helpful for some people with chronic pain. There are many types of meditation, arising from a rich tradition across many religious and secular groups. A few that I have tried so far include focused attention, body scan, guided imagery/visualization, loving kindness, and mantra meditation (here’s a great list of descriptions of common meditation types). I like some types and some meditations more than others, and it has been interesting to try new ones and see what I like and don’t like.
Most of the apps and websites that offer guided meditations offer several types of meditation, you don’t have to pay top dollar to find good recordings. However, Calm does offer some additional features that I enjoy. Although meditation can help you relax, mindfulness meditations are not meant to make you fall asleep. If you do want help sleeping, Calm offers Sleep Stories as well as music and soothing sounds. One of my favorite stories is “Wonder,” by Chris Advansun. Who doesn’t want to be lulled to sleep by the soothing sound of narrator Matthew McConaughey telling you a story about the starry night sky?
I want to add that I don’t meditate every day, I’ve taken breaks where I don’t open the app for several days at a time. Oddly enough, the times when I notice my meditation progress most are often when I am not meditating. If I miss a day or two, I notice that I feel more anxious than usual. If I miss more than a couple of days, I feel myself slipping back into old thought patterns and I struggle to accomplish the tasks that I plan for each day. Once I sit down and meditate, it feels like someone has pressed a reset button, like my head is clear enough to accomplish a task. I am not your resident expert on mindfulness and meditation. But I am thoroughly enjoying it and I think it is worth trying out, especially with all of the free options that are available.
Here is a list of apps and websites that offer guided meditations. I want to note that this is a very U.S.-centric review and list. I am only fluent in English and all of the meditations I have tried are from US companies in spoken English. I would absolutely welcome the perspectives of women from around the world. Have you found certain apps or websites to be better? Have you found some you recommend that aren’t on my list? If so, please share!
Mindfulness Apps (prices are in USD)
Free
Created by the US Dept of Veterans Affairs, designed for veterans and servicemembers but generalizable to public
Some content targeted to post-traumatic stress
Free
General mindfulness, created by the University of California, Los Angeles Mindfulness Awareness Research Center
60,000 free guided meditations
Option to purchase additional content
Coronavirus coping content available
Free
Focus on diaphragmatic breathing
Free
Teaches you to take moments to meditate throughout your day
You can give their strategy a try with this 5-minute YouTube video
Annual subscription: 7 day free trial, then $69.99/year
Monthly subscription: 7 day free trial, then $14.99/month
Apple users can switch to monthly, but it’s $14.99/month
Students get 40% off by registering through this link
Annual subscription: 2 week free trial, then $69.99/year
Monthly Subscription: 1 week free trial, then $12.99/month
Websites with free guided meditations
Mindfulness-based stress reduction
American Chronic Pain Association
4 meditations
Specific to chronic pain
Audio meditations for health
Some condition-specific (physical and mental health) meditations, some more generic
