These days, it seems that no matter what you want to do, there’s an app for that. Well, that is true for meditation as well. Last month, Spirit prompted me to write about recommitting to our spiritual paths. Looking at your meditation practice may be an excellent place to start.  Like people often do, I had gotten a bit lazy in my practice. I was forgetting or finding excuses to sit and when I did, I found the quality was poor because I’d be sneaking regular peaks at the clock to see if I had dutifully sat long enough. To help me get back on track, I began playing with a number of free meditation apps on the iPad to see what they had to offer. Here is a sampling. Timers I found timers really helpful. The bottom line was that if the timer hadn’t gone off yet, I wasn’t done! I could stop peaking at the clock and more fully focus with the timers. Once you try them, you may find after a while that you no longer need one. Or you may decide only to use them on those days that you feel particularly unfocused. Zazen Zen Meditation Timer and Mindfulness Bell: This app is a simple digital timer with mindfulness bell that can be set at intervals. There is a single bell choice. The mindfulness bell is helpful for folks whose mind wanders (and that would be pretty much all of us!). The bell reminds you to come back to your meditation. UJI Timer by Orange & Black Consultancy Ltd.: This simple digital display timer can be set for any length of time up to 60 minutes and includes three different bell styles. The World Community for Christian Meditation App 2 by Adriano Massi: The WCCM app is a timer with so much more. It also contains weekly readings and teachings from a variety of sources, a meditator’s blog, an opening prayer and readings for before and after the meditation. The timer is a digital display and it has several sounds to choose from to mark the beginning and end of your session. Visual Display Timers All of the digital timers above have visual displays, but the grouping of below is different. All have some unique visual display as well. Samsara Meditation Timer by Bart Jacobs and i-Qi Meditation Timer by Alphadock Technologies GmbH: I really like these timers. Both show the outline of a circle on the screen. The passage of time is indicated by the slow highlighting of the outline with Samsara, and the draining of the color from the outline with i-Qi. Although I prefer i-Qi’s graphic, I like that with Samsara you can remove the digital number countdown and simply see the circle. I-Qi can be set for up to 24 hours, while Samsara times up to 60 minutes. Timer Zen by Calm Design: Timer Zen is great for a quick break. It shows dropping balls hitting a rotating single line at the bottom which sends the balls off in different directions. It provides an ever-moving visual distraction to draw you out of your thoughts. There are 1, 3 and 5 minute displays only. ClockFlow by Dukour LLC: ClockFlow is very different from the rest. As it counts down the time, different colored lines crawl across the screen like inch worms. The mode can be changed to show squares or circles flowing across or plus signs randomly appearing on the screen. The digital timer can be set for up to 60 minutes. Breathing Meditations There are many apps available to help you to quiet your thoughts by focusing on your breath. Health Through Breath by Saagara: This app provides instruction in pranayama, or yogic breathing. It “uses music and animated visuals to guide you to slower, deeper breathing.” There are three levels and you can create your own sessions with customized breathing patterns. It has four styles of music, a countdown timer and logs your practice for you. I enjoyed the animation of the person breathing with you, showing you what to do instead of telling you. Breathe Well by Complitech: With Breathe Well, a voice talks you through inhalation, breath hold and exhalation. You can turn off the voice if you desire and just watch the screen for counts.  It has three levels and you can make adjustments to the repetitions and background sound. Relaxation Apps These apps are designed to help you relax, not to meditate, per se, although they can be very helpful for those who feel like they need a distraction to help quiet their mind. You may try using these apps at first, to get yourself used to sitting quietly, then progress to something like a timer with no background noise. Nature Space Relax Meditate by Holographic Audio Theater: Six sounds are included free with this app, including daybreak songbirds, riverwind dreaming and rain into water. It is great for falling asleep, with a long timer that you can set to stop the sound once you have (hopefully!) fallen asleep. Deep Relax by App Camelot: Deep Relax comes with twelve free sounds, including beach, birds, cavern and—my favorite—cat purring. I loved that you could combine sounds with this app, like pairing birds chirping with the cavern or a crackling fire on the beach. You can use a timer and have the sound fade out when you choose. All sounds can be unlocked and binaural sound can be added for $3.99. Guided Meditations There are many apps that come up under a search for guided meditations. I eliminated all that were specifically for hypnosis, like those for weight loss, manifesting money or lucid dreaming. Complete Relaxation Lite by relaxiapps: This was a good, straight-forward progressive relaxation app that lasts for 25 minutes—enough time to calm body and mind. Kindness Free Guided Meditation for Inner Peace by Ivan Kramer: This is a fairly standard loving-kindness meditation. It lasts for only just over six minutes. I wish it was longer and that the pace was slower, allowing me more time to send the loving-kindness vibration to all of the places and persons mentioned, but if you are not familiar with this type of meditation, it is a good place to start. Then you can lose the app and guide yourself through the steps. Mindfulness Meditation Guided Mindfulness Meditation by Hector Rodrigues Fornies: This app includes a seven minute work break meditation and a longer thirteen minute stress relief meditation. Both have accompanying nature sounds or music. The voice is calm and soothing. All of the apps mentioned were free versions, but many of them have extended or advanced versions for, typically, a small cost. If you feel like you need some assistance with your practice, I recommend experimenting with a number of these apps and finding the ones that work best for you. If you find something you like, you may want to search the app store for an expanded version. Whatever it takes to get you meditating…get to it! Wendy Joy is the author of Clear Channel: A Guide for the Newly Awakening, available at www.wendyjoy.net. “Like” her on www.facebook.com/wendyjoyauthor for FREE distant energy work on the 9th of every month and a message from Spirit on the 10th.  Learn more about private sessions via Skype or phone at www.wendyjoy.net. ]]>