Free app to learn meditation

[Cactusflower]

A few folks have asked how to meditate.
Healthy Minds is a free app that generates it's content for you, based on a few questionnaires you answer about where you are at in your head. It asks about your self-perception and your ability to deal with stress and begins by teaching skills and exposing you or suggesting to you a variety of ways in which you can choose to do the meditation.
You can download the app to any smartphone using your app down loader.

 

[JanAtheCPA]

Thanks for this recommendation, @Cactusflower!

This is a very interesting non-profit mental health research organization: Healthy Mind Innovations - and the Healthy Minds Program app looks very nice - really good reviews for the Android version.

I found these excerpts from their historical timeline which nicely explain their focus and goal - very cool:

2016
First version of the Healthy Minds Program mobile app utilizing the ACIP (Awareness + Connection + Insight + Purpose) framework developed. “What we do is based on a comprehensive framework for well-being. It’s not a mindfulness platform. The analogy I use most often is you would never go to the gym and just work on your upper body. If you did that it would be good for your upper body for awhile but eventually it would lead to imbalance. And the same is true for mindfulness.” – Dr. Richard Davidson

2020
Healthy Minds Program App becomes donation based, in line with our vision and mission. The decision to make the app freely available to individuals is based on the generosity of our donors and the guiding principle to put our well-being tools in the hands of as many people as possible, not just a privileged few. “I really feel a moral calling [to help people develop well-being as a skill], because I feel most people would agree that the trajectory we’ve been on is not a particularly healthy or sustainable one. Everyone has a role to play in this, everyone can be a participant, just like with climate science. Everyone can play a constructive role in helping the planet heal.” – Dr. Davidson
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Note: Free, and no ads, either! It's an educational program supported by grants and donors.

 

[Cactusflower]

There is also a new 10 min. meditation for learning to just "be" with chronic pain symptoms and a bit of an explanation similar to Pain Reprocessing.

 

[JanAtheCPA]

I completed the questionnaire and have listened to several intro lessons and completed some of the meditations, which are all very short - Just 6 or 7 minutes each. Perfect for someone with a brain that is resistant to making a commitment. I thought the meditation was really excellent for absolute beginners. I'm no beginner, but I very much appreciated seeing how the lesson unfolded - plus for me, any meditation that I actually do is great The questionnaire did not ask about meditation experience, which is probably a good thing. As someone with a brain that is very resistant to making this commitment, in spite of the fact that my rational brain completely believes in the value of meditation, starting at the beginning is necessary - and this app makes it easy. You can also set up daily reminders, of course!

I have Calm (free with my Kaiser health plan) and I subscribe to Ten Percent Happier (which I appreciate for many different reasons) but the problem with them is they present you with too many choices when you open up the app. On 10%, the introductory course is daunting, with lengthy sessions that require setting aside significant chunks of time. And so many choices of many topics and wonderful teachers - I go immediately into Freeze, and just set it aside for "later" which never arrives.

This feels like a very well-designed program - a lot of thoughtfullness as well as research has gone into it.

 

[Shagall]

Bringing this one back up because I'm curious if anyone else has tried using the app for managing anxiety. I love that it's free and based on donations, but I'm also wondering how it compares to other apps like Calm or Headspace. Are the short sessions enough for deeper meditation, or do you find them more suitable for quick, daily practices? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

 

[Cactusflower]

There are THOUSANDS of meditations, and the length you choose depends on you and your experience with meditation. There are practices that are heavily guided, more minimally guided and some that are only music or other meditative sounds. There are movement practices: yoga, walking meditations, somatics etc. and some for sitting or laying (or whatever you choose). It's free and you can just go and explore it yourself.
I would say I do not "Manage" my anxiety - I face it head on and meditation allows me to both feel the sensations of anxiety without fearing them. I feel like the "Managing" of anxiety is when we fear the sensations and tuck our anxieties away, trying not to face them because we fear and dislike the associated sensations and thoughts.
There are a ton of great guided meditations and also classes and lessons that explain how meditation helps you soften your reaction to your anxieties.