Meditation has been considered the royal road to relaxation in Buddhism for centuries. But meditation is not only for relaxation and deepening the ability to concentrate. In Buddhism, meditative immersion is also considered the most important method for getting to the bottom of the destructive workings of the human mind. In the beginning, the meditator only observes the breath. Sitting quietly on the cushion, he notices how thoughts and feelings come and go. In meditation he registers the fleetingness of thoughts over a long period of time and studies the human readiness to react. Again and again it happens that someone goes off on one of the thoughts. The mind wanders off and forgets that he wanted to pay attention to the breath. Long years of meditation experience cause us to stop acting out our feelings all the time and to recognize them as fleeting and often meaningless impulses in the mind. Attachment to ingrained thought patterns, judgments, feelings or opinions often tempts people into neurotic behavior. Attachment to certain opinions, perceived slights, or destructive thoughts can produce lovesickness, envy, possessiveness, impatience, anger, hatred, or a desire for revenge. From the Buddhist point of view, the whole range of human drama originates in the mind. Consequently, it must be recognized and combated there as well. Meditators can learn to calm the overly reactive mind through meditative exercises. In meditation, they learn to stop reacting to everything that arises in the consciousness as a thought, sense impression or feeling. The longer someone practices meditation, the easier it is to relax and let go. Nevertheless, constant self-observation and intensive meditation training are required to avoid constantly falling back into old patterns. Thanks to the latest technological means, there are now also various meditation apps that can help incorporate brief relaxation into everyday life.
Meditation: the little island of calm in everyday life
In more recent times, meditation has also established itself in the West as a small island of calm in everyday life. It is more and more often torn from its original religious context. Also in Christianity or in psychology one works today with meditative exercises. For many people in civilized societies, meditation is considered a simple relaxation exercise from the esoteric context that anyone can use. In addition to the classical Buddhist breathing meditation in silent sitting on a cushion, there are now many different forms of meditation. Many of them were developed in Buddhism. However, without expert guidance and regular training, the interested person cannot practice many of the forms of meditation known today. Deeper states of absorption carry certain dangers that everyone should be aware of. The newer forms of meditation mostly originate from non-Buddhist contexts. For example, dynamic forms of meditation were developed under Bhagwan Rajneesh (later Osho) in Poona. In America, Jon Kabat-Zinn developed non-religious meditation forms intended for clinical uses. On a smartphone or tablet PC, meditation beginners or advanced meditators can make use of a meditation app. Several aspects are problematic about a meditation app: First, most meditation apps are free only in the basic or trial versions. They become chargeable after that, sometimes with larger sums. Second, meditation apps can’t do nearly what a knowledgeable teacher can do. They are merely an introduction or a reminder. Those interested will discover plain meditation timers or somewhat more complex apps that do much more. A major drawback from the user’s point of view is that most of the meditation apps offered are only English-language. In view of the visual and content-related diversity of the apps offered, it is recommended to test several of the free meditation apps over a longer period of time. For advanced meditators, however, most meditation apps are likely to perform too little.
Relax at the touch of a button
Can someone actually relax at the touch of a button? It certainly works, if the user puts their mind to it. A novice meditator, for example, could use the meditation app in a doctor’s waiting room or on a long train ride instead of boredly flipping through a magazine. But the question is what the meditation app offers and to what extent the user can adapt it to his or her individual needs.In addition, a meditation practice requires a certain amount of silence for a defined period of time. As advanced users, many manage to immerse themselves in any place. A beginner, however, will not succeed. Another question is whether the meditation app offers spoken texts and/or visuals, detailed instructions or meditations of different lengths for different occasions. Here, the apps sometimes differ enormously in what they offer. The menu navigation and the spoken text blocks may be in English for free meditation apps. The app content can be arranged in an unclear manner and intuitively operable, but also presented in an unclear or not very user-friendly manner.
The best free meditation apps
Considered the best – and with limitations free – meditation apps:
- 7Mind
- Buddhify
- Headspace
- Calm
- Zazen Meditation Timer
- Stop
- Breathe and Think
Deep content the user should not expect. However, depending on the app, he can benefit from various uses or use a timer to take a meditative time out. The app “7Mind” offer various basic meditations in different lengths plus theme meditations. The German-language app blocks incoming calls during the meditative timeout. The meditator can switch on a gong. The simple but appealing design of “7Mind” matches the content. It can be operated intuitively. Interesting: user suggestions are incorporated by the app designer. The beginner app “Buddhify” offers 80 different mindfulness exercises and meditations. The user can use a timer. Meditation suggestions can be used for different situations. The app offers English-language texts. It has an appealing and user-friendly design. “Headspace” offers several hundred meditation variations at once, which are also available offline and as a gamification app. This playfully designed meditation app is also English-language. The easy-to-use app sees itself as a “gym” for the mind. Only the ten-day introduction is free of charge. After that, “Headspace” costs around ten euros per month. “The better version of Headspace is thus the most expensive meditation app. The meditation app “Calm” offers several meditation modes in English in the permanently free basic version. The meditation units are accompanied by nature sounds and photographic backgrounds. Compared to Headspace, Calm is clearly more esoteric. The German-language “Zazen Meditation Timer” is aimed more at meditators with experience. There is no speaker here, but only meditations introduced with gongs. The length of the meditations is determined by the user. The desired meditation sessions can be saved together with the desired gongs. It is possible to mute the phone during meditation. The design of the user-friendly “Zazen Meditation Timer” is rather simple. It is currently only available for Android devices. The English-language app “Stop, Breathe and Think” differs from the others in that it queries the user’s mood. Appropriate meditation units are then offered. However, the user can also click on his or her favorite meditation. The intuitive operation of the meditation app is easy to manage and visually nicely laid out. There is a free basic version of “Stop, Breathe and Think”. This includes some free bonus features such as a switchable timer. Other additional features cost one or two euros in fees. In several tests or customer reviews, other meditation apps such as the “Buddhist Meditation Trainer”, the relaxation app “Take a Break” or the “Simple Meditation” app performed poorly. A comparison test of all apps is worthwhile.
Short time-outs strengthen well-being
Short meditative time-outs strengthen well-being. The user of a meditation app can lower his stress level at any time, quiet his swirling thoughts in a conflict or simply relax. This benefits blood pressure, heart rate and other health conditions alike. Meditation apps offer a short or longer pause in the middle of everyday life. They decelerate the thoughts and calm the pulse. Users can learn to stop reacting to everything and develop inner serenity.
