So, a few weeks ago I wrote about the power of positive thoughts and I mentioned that I had downloaded two different apps to practice meditation and positive affirmations. I have tried to use and listen to them daily this month and I want to share my thoughts and experience with these apps so you can decide if they might be of use to you.

*I am in no way getting compensated for my recommendations – just sharing my personal thoughts with you!

(Headspace) The first one I downloaded is called “Headspace.” It is really a great app to practice the art of mindfulness. If you aren’t familiar with the concept of mindfulness, there’s a great definition from psychologytoday.com:

Mindfulness is a state of active, open attention on the present. When you’re mindful, you carefully observe your thoughts and feelings without judging them good or bad. Instead of letting your life pass you by, mindfulness means living in the moment and awakening to your current experience, rather than dwelling on the past or anticipating the future.

Great things about this app: the speaker in this app has a lovely voice and British accent – his voice is pleasant to listen to as he guides you through your meditation sessions. Each session does a great job of telling you how to meditate, so even if you’ve never tried meditation before, you will be able to feel like you know what you’re doing. Headspace also has great animation videos that explain different concepts and are fun to watch.

You can set the length of time that you want to meditate each session, ranging from 3 minutes to 20 minutes. I tried to do 10 minutes most sessions. There are even some super-short sessions called “minis” if you only want something for 1 minute.

Headspace also has packs of sessions with different themes to choose from (such as “Anxiety,” “Depression,” “Pregnancy,” “Happiness,” “Motivation”…) HOWEVER – you can only access a limited number on the free version, which is what I used this month. The “Basics” pack is 10 sessions and is totally free to use – besides that the app will let you try a few of the other sessions, but not really much else without paying. You can redo the “Basic” pack over and over, which is what I ended up doing – it still gets you in the habit of practicing mindfulness each day, which has many benefits.

The one-time subscription fee (for life) was WAY too much for me to justify paying – but there are options to subscribe monthly ($12.99) or yearly (averages to $7.91 per month). I also have gotten many emails from the app offering me 40% off a year’s subscription, which I am actually really interested in doing. The way I look at it, if you can justify paying more than that for Netflix each month, you can probably find that much to use an app that will benefit your mental and emotional health.

(ThinkUp) The second app I downloaded I ended up loving so much! It’s called “ThinkUp” and you basically get to create your own playlist of positive affirmations and record them in your own voice. The free version, which I initially started out with, lets you choose about 5 different affirmations and you can listen to them on a loop with preset music in the background. I loved the idea of it, but I didn’t like that I could only choose 5 affirmations to listen to on a loop over and over. There were so many other affirmations I wanted to choose, so I decided to do a paid version.

There are two ways you can pay – you can pay month to month for a very small price, like $4 – or you can go ahead and pay a **one-time fee of $25 (**price has increased since the initial publication of this post!) to get access to everything and have an unlimited number of affirmations. For me to really use and get the most out of the app, I knew I needed to have at least 15-20 affirmations. And I while I could have tried out the app for a month or two before going all-in, I decided that in the long run it would save me money if I just jumped in and paid for a lifetime subscription. So, I went ahead and did that mid-way through January.

I love that you can look for different affirmations based on categories such as “motivation,” “new career,” (important for me!), “self-esteem,” and “stress relief.” So even if you don’t have anything motivational to say off the top of your head, you can browse the app’s affirmations and find plenty of good ones!

Some of my affirmations include things like:

• I choose to fill my mind with positive, nurturing, and healing thoughts
• I choose happiness no matter what the circumstances are
• I give up being perfect for being authentic
• I am a good mother

I have also created playlist of my favorite Scriptures that I can listen to – I think this will be really great to listen to first thing in the morning each day! Any verses you all recommend? Many of you may have already responded to my post on Facebook regarding this…

The one downside I have found to this app is that you cannot change the order of the affirmations. You can decide which affirmations go into a specific playlist, but for some reason the order inside that playlist is not flexible. When I added more affirmations, for some reason they went to the beginning of the playlist instead of adding them at the end, (which would be more logical in my opinion). Not a huge deal, but something I am marginally annoyed with.

Overall, this app is great if you’re willing to get the paid version. If you wanted to create your own affirmation tracks and set them to music you probably could, but I like how simple it is to use and that everything is in one place.

More Resources:

I recently came across a blog post talking all about positive affirmations and giving 50 different examples. Here’s the link: https://www.thirteenthoughts.com/50-positive-affirmations-for-more-abundance-happiness-and-success/

Calm is another app I have heard is good – I have not tried it but know a few friends who have recommended it.

If you’re more of a book person, this book was one I read (recommended by my counselor) when I first was looking into the concept of mindfulness.

Thanks for reading.