YH December 2018 | Page 35

price, Insight Timer is your app. The tradeoff here is that Insight Timer is an open platform for seemingly anyone to post a meditation. It is up to you to choose wisely. The brilliance of the open platform is that there are literally thousands of meditations to choose from and many of those are extremely high-quality. A premium version of Insight Timer allows you to download your favorites for offline use and the app also offers premium 10-day courses ranging from "Learn to Mindfully Manage Stress and Anxiety" to "Heal Through the Power of Sound." The Goodness: The best app around for a large selection of guided meditations without the premium design and handholding. The Goodness: For guided mediations, they're beautifully effective for a combination of ease-of-use and quality. The Drawbacks: Pricey compared to other options. Perfect for you If: You are looking for a meditation app which provides a curated, high-quality guided meditations for adults or children, and you are not particularly price conscious. Price for full version - $12.95/mo for Calm, $12.99/mo For Headspace. Insight Timer: (https://insighttimer.com/) If you are a fan of guided mediations, but don't enjoy paying the premium The Drawbacks: Requires a bit more investment of time to get what you are looking for. Perfect for you if: You are looking for high quality guided meditations and don't mind spending some time searching for teachers or meditation guides that suit your tastes and needs. Insight Timer is entirely free for the basic version. Premium -- $4.99/mo and 10-day courses are $4.99 each. Vibe: (https://vibe.me/) The Vibe app takes a different approach to mindfully enabling your device. This app focuses on providing daily guidance in addition to meditation. The company has recruited a fairly impressive group of 'thought leaders' in mindfulness and spirituality who guide users with "light touch messaging" throughout the day. The messaging includes a daily post, short meditations and periodic reminders of the daily post called "Vibes," which pop up a few times during the day. According to the app's website, this method of integrating a single mindfulness principle into your life each day can have profound effects on happiness, wellbeing, even quality of sleep with minimal time commitment from the user. The app also includes a basic meditation timer for those who already know the basics of meditation. The Goodness: Perspective-changing daily guidance from thought leaders in mindfulness and spirituality. The Drawbacks: It would be great to see a solid library of guided meditations with this app. I understand the guided meditations will be coming soon. In the meantime, perhaps combine with Insight Timer for guided meditations. Dec. 2018 www.yogicherald.com 33