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There are tons of meditation apps for moms to choose from. Narrow down the list of options with this guide from an app addict.
I have a confession to make.
I am an app collector.
Yep. Me. I’m constantly encouraging you to get rid of all of your stuff and make your life as simple as possible, and yet I have the iPad equivalent of a hoarder’s house.
I am always on the lookout for the app that will make my life a little easier. A little more elegant. A little more fun.
Meditation apps for moms are no exception.
I’ve tried dozens of them, and I’m excited to share my favorites with you.
You (Yes, You) Should Be Practicing Meditation
First of all, if you are not doing it already, please consider starting a meditation habit. There are loads of benefits for moms, and the apps I’ll mention here make getting started easy.
Yes, you’ll suck at it at first. Your mind will wander. You’ll be looking at the clock after a few short minutes. It’s worth pushing through, though, for the increased peace you’ll find on the other side.
We mamas could all use a little peace, am I right?
Starting out without a framework is a sure recipe for disaster, though, so I definitely recommend you take advantage of one of these apps.
All the Meditation Apps for Moms I’ve Loved Before
Headspace: The App That Taught Me to Meditate Regularly
Headspace was the app that helped me (and thousands of others) start a meditation practice. It’s amazing for beginners. There’s a free basics course to make getting started easy for non-meditators.
The interface is slick and fun to use. You can easily target an issue you’re experiencing—from anxiety to insomnia—and find a guided meditation (or several) to help you. I loved the mini-meditations that I could use when I needed to quickly cool my anger or calm my stress.
Andy Puddicombe (Mr. Headspace) has a wonderfully calming voice, and I found him a pleasure to listen to. Headspace is great, but it does cost money. Currently, it’s $12.99/month with 7-day free trial or $69.99/year with a 2-week free trial.
Waking Up: The Best App for Serious Beginners
After decades of practice meditating, Sam Harris has created the app he wished he’d had as he was learning, and it’s simply wonderful. Though I’ve been meditating for years, I’m enjoying starting over as a beginner using the Waking Up app.
The app is divided between the theory of meditation and the practice of meditation. So you’ll find lectures and interviews explaining why meditation is important along with an introductory course on the subject and a library of additional meditations.
There’s also a unique meditation that unlocks every day for those of you, like me, who like to keep novelty in the practice.
This app is fantastic for building a meditation practice on a really solid foundation. I especially like that Sam Harris focuses on the science-backed reasons for meditating rather than the woo-woo ones.
I also loved the option to receive mindful moments. Although I typically hate notifications on my iPad, I liked these pop-up reminders to practice mindfulness.
A subscription for Waking Up costs $99.99 per year, but a free year of the service is gifted to anybody who requests one. Yes, really. No questions asked.
Waking Up gives you a very clear path to follow as you develop your meditation practice. One meditation naturally moves onto the next in a very defined order. This is great for finding focus and direction in your practice, but it also leads to my only complaint about the app.
Sometimes, I want to use my meditation time to concentrate specifically on combatting anxiety, building confidence, or boosting my motivation. Sam Harris doesn’t organize his meditations in this way. For themed meditations like this, I move to the next app on my favorites list.
Insight Timer: My Old Standby
I have been using Insight Timer for years–ever since I decided my regular practice was established and I no longer needed the structure or expense of Headspace. Although I’ve played with dozens of apps, I always come back to this one.
Insight Timer is an absolute behemoth of a meditation app. It has a basic timer and access to over 70,000 meditations. And the best part? Although they offer a paid membership that has some nice features, Insight Timer is 100% functional on the free plan.
I love the amazing variety of teachers and voices that I have access to on the app. There are masters like Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. I have discovered new heroines like Sarah Blondin and Liza Colpa whose meditations and live events I always seek out. Oh yeah, they have live events where you can meditate at the same time as folks all over the world.
Although the content (which also includes lectures, stories for kids, and music) is easily searchable and filterable, I feel like Insight Timer might have been a bit overwhelming for me when I was just starting out as a meditator. There’s just so much good stuff (and some less than good stuff) to dig through. It’s challenging to know where to start.
I do make a playlist of 10-minute-or-less morning meditations for my readers every month on Insight Timer. You can always find the latest one by clicking here.
Two New Favorites Designed Just for Moms
MamaZen
I recently started using MamaZen, and I am super impressed by it. It is absolutely unique in that it combines meditation, mindfulness, and hypnotherapy.
MamaZen was created by husband-and-wife team Irin and Jake Rubin (MA, CHT). When Irin suffered a near breakdown in 2017 due to the stresses of motherhood, she asked Jake, an expert in Mindfulness Meditation and a Board Certified Hypnotherapist, to help her as he helped his clients. He did, and MamaZen was the result.
All of the meditations on MamaZen cover specific issues mothers might be experiencing. And when I say specific, I mean that meditation titles include:
- Patience for Never Ending Bedtime
- Increase Milk Supply While Breastfeeding
- Don’t K*ll My Husband/Partner
Although I am out of the “trenches” of new motherhood, when I think this app would have truly been a lifesaver, I have enjoyed using my free 30-day trial and even decided to purchase another $14.99 month to continue the work on a couple of long-standing hurdles I’m trying to overcome as a wife and mom.
Mindful Mamas
Another meditation app designed just for moms is the gorgeous Mindful Mamas app. Although it includes over 200 meditations on loads of different themes, it doesn’t just encourage you to practice mindfulness during the 10 or 15 minutes each day that you meditate.
Instead, there are reminders to practice mindfulness throughout your day. It’s got mantras you can repeat, relaxing and rejuvenating breathing exercises you can do, and mini-pauses available throughout your day.
These mini-pauses might encourage you to mindfully connect with other moms when you’re up feeding the baby at night, or experience all the of the pleasurable details of drinking your first cup of coffee in the morning.
When signing up, you select your level of meditation experience, meditation goals, and the ages of your children to get a customized experience.
I love the interface, which makes it easy to see what meditations you’ve completed already. When searching among the guided meditations, I can choose to focus on specific issues such as sleep, self-discovery, or resilience. I also love that I can customize the background sounds and images and even record my own mantras for a truly customizable experience.
The Mindful Mamas app costs $11.99/month or $79.99/year after your one week free trial.
So which meditation app should you choose?
Every app gives you the option to play with it for at least a week completely free, so it’s worth downloading each and seeing which you prefer. However, here are my opinions on which might be a great choice.
If you are truly serious about learning the practice, Waking Up is a natural choice. I believe it provides the most thorough education, and you can get it for free if the cost presents a hardship.
If you are struggling with one or more specific issues in your motherhood journey, try MamaZen for a month, and see if hypnosis doesn’t help them improve.
If you want a slick interface and don’t mind spending a bit of money, Mindful Mamas is a wonderful choice. It costs just a little more than Headspace and provides a similar experience that is specifically geared towards us mamas.
Finally, if you don’t mind digging through good stuff and bad, and you already have a pretty good idea of what you’re doing and what you’re looking for, Insight Timer is a wonderful free option.
No, I don’t want to encourage you to be an app hoarder like me, but any (or all!) of these meditation apps for moms would be wonderful to help you build your mama mindfulness practice.
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