What is the Best Guided Meditation?
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The Optimistminds editorial team is made up of psychologists, psychiatrists and mental health professionals. Each article is written by a team member with exposure to and experience in the subject matter. The article then gets reviewed by a more senior editorial member. This is someone with extensive knowledge of the…
In this detailed post, we will be checking out the best guided meditation that is available in the market today for readers to explore. We have also explored the best guided meditation for choices and the best option for children.
Best Guided Meditation
The best guided meditation that users can find in today’s market is definitely that by Calm. In Calm, users can find a number of guided meditations through stories which are narrated by stars like Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba.
Calm is perfect for those who are having a difficult time in falling asleep. Apart from sleep issues, the guided meditations here can help in bringing down anxiety levels and also help in general physique by gentle stretches.
Advantages of Calm
Calm, as a guided meditation app, brings plenty of advantages and pros to anyone who is trying to make meditation a regular practice. Some of the advantages of using Calm over other guided meditations have been discussed as follows,
- Calm is a very user-friendly app and thus is perfect for those who are completely new to guided meditations. This app instructs the person in a very simple language and uses very easy cues which are easy to understand and remember for later.
- Calm also uses a great team of well-known celebrities who read out the guided meditation scripts. This is another great selling point of Calm since the fans of the celebs can enjoy relaxation through a familiar voice.
- Calm additionally updates its content and its library making this app a very versatile platform for everyone to use. Apart from guided meditation alone, Calm also offers a great catalog of relaxation exercises, breathing techniques and many more for its users.
- Apart from just guided meditation, Calm also has a Youtube channel in which the user can see visually pleasing scenarios and videos which can further help in bringing down stress and anxiety levels.
Disadvantages of Calm
While Calm definitely has its share of advantages, there are also a few disadvantages of this guided meditation app. Some of the disadvantages of Calm as a meditation app have been listed below,
- The main disadvantage of Calm is that it is a paid service and the payments need to be renewed regularly. This can be disadvantageous to those who are looking for free resources for guided meditation.
- The Calm app also seems to have certain issues when it comes to payments and subscriptions which users have complained about. For instance, the app automatically renews a user’s subscription without intimidating them.
- Many guided meditation apps allow a user to add their friends to the account so that they can also meditate together as a group. However, Calm as an app does not offer this feature and this can be disappointing for certain users.
Best Guided Meditation for Choices
If you are looking for guided meditation and want more variety every day, you can try Headspace. Headspace offers plenty of choices when it comes to meditations and allows you to choose from a large library of topics.
Advantages of Headspace
Headspace offers numerous advantages which are pretty common with other similar apps, while also offering a unique set of pros. The main advantages of Headspace have been shared in the list as follows,
- Headspace offers a large library of choices when it comes to topics and therefore users can find guided meditation for decreasing anxiety levels, for improving concentration levels and even for just basic relaxation.
- The content in Headspace is updated and refreshed every now and then and therefore, there is a lot of variety in this app for users to enjoy. The app also has a very easy user interface making it refreshing for users to search for their desired guided meditation.
- Another pro of using Headspace as a meditation tool is that the guided meditations here can differ in terms of lengths. And thus, even if the user has just five minutes to spare, they will still be able to find their preferred meditation.
Disadvantages of Headspace
Headspace is great for users who are looking for a variety of easy to follow guided meditations. At the same time, Headspace can present certain disadvantages to its users which can discourage many from using it. Some of the main disadvantages of Headspace are:
- Headspace is not a free tool and requires the user to pay for their subscription every month. While the costs for a Headspace subscription may be minimal, it can still be costly for many users especially since there are many free resources which are online.
- Another disadvantage of Headspace is that the app may be slightly difficult for people to use since the user-interface can be hard to navigate. This is another reason why people may migrate to other easy-to-use guided meditation apps.
- Headspace may be great for adults but does not offer variety for children when compared to other similar apps. This can be discouraging for parents who are looking for a meditation app to use for their kids along with themselves.
Best Guided Meditation for Children
Just like adults, children can also find immense help in guided meditation apps. These meditation apps and platforms can help children reduce their anxiety levels and help them cope with daily stress in a better manner.
The best guided meditation platform for children is definitely New Horizon. In this app, children can find guided meditation to help them fall asleep faster and also enjoy better quality of sleep. While most of the resources on this app are free, there is also a paid version.
Advantages of New Horizon
New Horizon as a guided meditation app can provide numerous benefits and advantages for its users. Some of the main advantages of using New Horizon for guided meditation have been listed as follows.
- Most of the guided meditation from New Horizon is free and therefore anyone can use this app for their relaxation needs. For those who need more variety and choices, New Horizon also has a paid version.
- New Horizon also offers a bunch of variety when it comes to resources. Here, children can find guided meditation for reducing stress, scripts and videos for helping in sleep and even stories for motivation and de-stressing.
- The language of the videos from New Horizon has been kept very simple so that anyone can understand them, especially children. The stories also use a very healing and soothing voice which can easily help kids.
Disadvantages of New Horizon
New Horizon was not originally intended to be for guided meditation and was meant to be a holistic center. However, the guided meditations from this platform became a big hit. Some disadvantages that users of New Horizon may experience are:
- Not all the resources from New Horizon are free. While many useful resources can be accessed free of cost, some unique tools and meditations need to be accessed only after payment. This can be demotivating for some users.
- While there is no set age-limit in New Horizon, it can be seen that the guided meditations here are designed for small children. Therefore teens or tweens may not like this app and the videos as much. This can also discourage certain users from the app.
- The free meditations which are offered in New Horizon come in very little variety and there are not many categories here when compared to other platforms and apps.
Conclusion
In this detailed post, we have checked out the best guided meditation that is available in the market today for readers to explore. We have also explored the best guided meditation for choices and the best option for children.
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