Putting your practice right at your fingertips
Mindfulness is a great tool for managing anxiety and helping you know yourself better. Having an app on your phone can be an easy way to access mindfulness practices that help you reach your goals whether they be to get more in touch with your emotions or simply to give you time to pause during busy days filled with chaos. These are my 2 favorite mindfulness apps and how they can help.
Insight timer
This app is a great resource and has a plethora of mindfulness practices that can help with anxiety. The app is easy to use once you get used to how it works. It is a free app, however you also have the option to make donations directly to the practitioners and/or pay for a premium membership. You can favorite the practices you love, search practices based on length, type, etc. and follow practitioners you delight in.
How can InsightTimer help with Anxiety?
Person preparing to use mindfulness app for anxiety
Insight timer can be a great app for anxiety as it also shows you how many people also took that class or a class while you were on the app. This can increase your sense of community and knowing that you are not alone. It’s been my experience that anxiety can feel a little less weird when we are reminded that others are also be experiencing it.
Insight Timer also allows you to search for practices that focus on anxiety or different techniques that you have found helpful such as a restorative yoga practice. More on how yoga can help here.
My Favorite part about Insight Timer: This app offers live sessions so that you can practice with others in real time. It can be a great way to feel connected and increase a sense of community by sharing a practice with like minded humans.
The potential downsides: There are a lot of practices and a lot of new and shiny things so it is very easy to get distracted and lost. You might find yourself scrolling and looking for quite some time and getting overwhelmed without ever finding a practice to delight in. Which means that you may miss out on the benefits of a practice by getting lost in the details.
In case you missed it 
Introduction to mindfulness: what is that?
UCLA Mindfulness
This app is so simple and free, which are great qualities, especially if you are new to a mindfulness practice. This app is straightforward so you are given a clear path to creating a practice. Another wonderful part of this app is the timer. The timer allows you to set a time to guide yourself through your own mindfulness practice.
How UCLA Mindfulness can help with anxiety?
This app is also great for anxiety as it starts you off with the basics and clearly lays out what the next step is. The app provides a brief video on mindfulness, its benefits and the basics to get you started. On the app is also a tab labeled Hammer Podcasts and drop-ins which offers a new meditation session weekly. UCLA Mindfulness app offers an extensive library of sessions. You are able to bookmark your favorite ones so that you can come back to them again and again.
Many great things but my personal favorite is: Best of all the practices are offered in several different languages. This makes mindfulness even more accessible and inclusive.
The potential downsides: There are not a lot of options on this app so if you are wanting to meditate through tai chi, yoga, etc. then this is not the right app for you. There are not any ready meditations longer than 20 minutes. If you are wanting a longer guided practice then this may change your mind about using this app.
You can download both of these at the App Store or on Google Play.
Ready to get even more tools to help with anxiety?
Apps are a great start and if this is enough for you to heal your relationship with anxiety, that’s great. If you are ready for more then, take the next step then book your free discovery call with me. Let me help you uncover the transformative potential of anxiety counseling when guided by a clear plan and the expertise of the right therapist can help you now, tomorrow and well into your future.
I look forward to hearing from you and hope this helps you as you take your own powerful and transformative journey. Per usual take what fits for you, leave what does not, and join me next time. Until then let’s stay social 
