Apps for mindfulness and meditation

Evidence supports the effectiveness of meditation in managing various common conditions. These apps can guide practice.

If you’re hearing mindfulness and meditation more and more in your patient discussions, you may be curious or have been asked about how to practise it e­ffectively and whether there is any evidence of it supporting the management of health conditions.

What is it?

Mindfulness is a type of meditation in which you focus on being intensely aware of what you’re sensing and feeling in the moment, without interpretation or judgment.

Practising mindfulness involves breathing methods, guided imagery and other practices to relax the body and mind and help reduce stress.

Is there any evidence to support it?

Meditation has been extensively studied in clinical trials. The overall evidence supports the effectiveness of meditation for the improvement of the management of various common conditions, including: stress, anxiety, pain, depression, insomnia and hypertension.

More recently, preliminary research indicates meditation can also help people with asthma and fibromyalgia. Meditation can also help you in your daily practice as a pharmacist by experiencing thoughts and emotions with greater balance and acceptance, improving attention, decreasing job burnout and improving sleep quality.

As with all treatments, the benefits received by patients are significantly better when consistently practised, not just from occasional engagement. Those who benefit most incorporate it into their daily routine.

App: SMILING MIND

Background: Run by an Australian non-pro­fit organisation, Smiling Mind has been developed by leading psychologists and mindfulness experts with an aim of democratising access to practical meditation guidance and expertise.

Key features:

• Daily statistics recording and goal tracking
• Free unrestricted access to age and stage speci­fic programs with varying time commitments.
• The only platform to tailor meditation programs for narrow age brackets of young children.

Session types: Guided only

Age appropriateness: Ages three and up

Minimum session length: 2 minutes

Cost: Free

Why is it the top recommendation? It has the lowest barrier to entry and is suitable for most uncomplicated patient groups.

When to recommend? If your patient is very time poor and requires various session lengths to keep their meditation practice consistent.

App: HEADSPACE

Background: Founded in 2010, Headspace has an ever-growing library of themed sessions, including for pain management, coping with cancer and more.

Key features:

• Visual and auditory engagement in mindfulness techniques.
• Largest range of session types and styles
• Deepest basic level education and introduction to meditation
• Peer accountability.

Session types: Guided and self-directed meditation sessions

Age appropriateness: All ages (free and paid)

Minimum session length: 1 minute

Cost: Free for a 10-day basic course, then $US12.99 a month paid monthly, $US7.99 a month paid annually or $US399 for a lifetime subscription.

When to recommend? If your patient requires a tailored meditation program for their speci­fic health conditions, for example: coping with cancer, sleep, anxiety, pregnancy, pain management or insomnia.

App: CALM

Background: UK-based and founded in 2012, Calm is the world’s most downloaded meditation app.

Key features:

• Daily statistics recording and goal tracking
• Largest range of session lengths.
• ‘Breath Bubble’ to allow those with only 30 seconds to spare to catch their breath and relax.

Session types: Guided and self-directed meditation sessions

Age appropriateness: The paid version has sessions for children aged three and up, while the basic version is only suitable for adult audiences.

Minimum session length: 30 seconds

Cost: The basic version is free, while the paid version is $US59.99.

When to recommend? If your patient is time poor and requires various session lengths to keep their meditation practice consistent.