33+ Best Mindfulness Apps Australia
Updated
January 9, 2024
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Updated
January 9, 2024
Wondering about the best mindfulness apps to start your day right?
What's your morning routine like? Do you jump straight into work emails before you've even had breakfast, sometimes even skipping the meal due to work pressure? But think about it – if you tackled those tasks a bit later, would it really throw your whole day off? Often, we stress over things that aren't immediately urgent, leading to anxiety and restless nights.
That's where good mindfulness apps come in handy. They can bring a bit of calm and balance into your hectic life, proving you can still enjoy the peaceful sounds of nature without missing out on your deadlines. Whether you need a gentle start with best morning meditation apps, are looking for more advanced meditation apps, or need help unwinding with sleep and meditation apps, there's something for everyone.
Below are our meditation apps for Aussies live a life of love, laughter, and joy.
Thanks to readily available information on the Internet, there’s greater awareness surrounding guided meditations, with people no longer considering it hokum. Although no physical labour is involved, this ancient technique to train the mind helps improve physical and mental health.
Everything is linked to our thoughts - if you think positively, you feel great and are likely to have a good day. Similarly, overthinking or not knowing how to process negative emotions properly affect your mental and emotional wellbeing.
That’s why mindfulness apps for better mental health have become popular to help people live in the present and achieve mental peace.
Mindfulness.com stands out for its focus on improving sleep and overall well-being through mindfulness and meditation. Their approach is practical, offering a variety of resources, including over 1,800 meditations, sleep-focused content, and calming music. The platform is particularly beneficial for those struggling with sleep, as it provides specific techniques to alleviate stress and tension.
With daily mindfulness video meditations, hundreds of courses, and tools to manage anxiety and stress, it caters to a wide range of needs. The 30-day Mindfulness guarantee adds an extra layer of trust, ensuring customer satisfaction. This Australian meditation app commitment to accessible and effective mindfulness practices makes it a valuable resource for anyone looking to enhance their mental and emotional health.
When you visit the Calm website, you will find 5 ways this meditation app can help improve your life.
Further research will reveal that it is rated the best app for meditation, sleep and relaxation, with more than 100 million downloads and 1.5 million 5-star reviews. In fact, the Center for Humane Technology regards this as the “world’s happiest app” where people can change their lives through meditation sessions and wake up energised.
There are even videos on gentle stretching and mindful movement, coupled with expert audio advice from some of the world’s best mental health professionals.
If you are looking for free guided meditations, few apps are better than Insight Timer as it helps you sleep better, reduce anxiety and de-stress. There are sessions for individuals, companies and the marketplace, while you can take popular meditation courses, read up on different topics, choose your preferred music and playlist or perform yoga.
At present, 6 million people are using the app, but the company hopes to grow to 50 million. Despite not having a large budget, it still hires over 3,000 meditation teachers and aims to become a sustainable company in the coming years.
Have you heard the phrase - smiling mind? It refers to a healthy mind by achieving inner zen by focusing on breathing. Most people take shallow breaths without realising it, but to reduce stress levels, it’s essential to feel the oxygen filling the lungs.
That’s why Headspace helps people relax their minds by improving their breathing with a 10-day program. This ensures you can sleep better and find even a few minutes daily to be grateful.
There are several blogs on meditation, sleep, stress and mindfulness, with the app receiving 4.9 stars and 70 million downloads.
Most people who fail to get the required meditation practice will say they find it challenging to make time in their busy schedules. That’s where Ten Percent Happier comes in, where you can practice guided meditations and gain practical knowledge from world-renowned experts on the go.
Many people claim that this meditation app is life-changing, with the company publishing a variety of podcasts on daily challenges and opportunities to improve mental and physical health. It also has a newsletter to help people stay more connected.
You can try the app for completely free before choosing to subscribe full-time.
The Unplug meditation app helps you stay calm amidst the chaos with live stream, in-person, and structured programs on demand. This ensures you can relieve stress to thrive in any professional or personal capacity, stay relaxed even under pressure and sleep better.
Over 1 million customers use the app and feel that it helps…
You can enjoy short 10-minute sessions and learn how to meditate in just 7 days.
Android and iPhone users can use this meditation app to learn meditation tips, engage with experts and enjoy the benefits of this mindfulness practice. Several blogs on the website ensure people of all age groups can ace the meditation journey.
You can say goodbye to sleepless nights with even 5-minute meditation exercises every day, curated by well-known experts. Overall, there are 2,000 short guided meditation courses and audio sessions to deliver practical knowledge.
People spending sleepless nights can also take the sleep assessment and become a Sleep Reset member to get their life in order.
The Healthy Minds Program is available for iPhone users, but that’s the only downside of this guided meditation application. You can follow the courses to inculcate the necessary qualities for developing a healthy mind, while the guided programs will develop your skills.
Moreover, thanks to its easy-to-do exercises, you can practice mindfulness anywhere and on the go or listen to a wide selection of podcasts. Best of all, users can track their progress and see how they have improved after a couple of weeks.
You can even measure the current level of wellbeing and set reminders for practice.
How often have people told you to take deep breaths and just breathe when you are in a stressful situation? Our Breethe app review discovered it helps with that, as its wide array of content calms the mind and promotes healthy sleep.
You can listen to its curated playlists, nature sounds, sleep stories, calming videos, hypnotherapy sessions, breathing techniques, and guided meditations for a smiling mind. Moreover, New York Times best-selling personal growth experts and mindfulness expert Lynn Goldberg have recorded inspirational talks and guided mindfulness programs to help you feel more confident.
Long story short, this app promises to ensure you live happier and healthier more often.
Another mindfulness app available only for Apple users is the Breathe+ Breathe Exercises. It’s one of the few apps that help visualise how you breathe, promoting greater relaxation and several breathing exercises.
Depending on your convenience, you can customise the guided sessions between 1 and 60 minutes while adjusting the exhale and inhale lengths from 1-32 seconds. The best part is that you can alter the settings even during a session and track your performance through graphs, streaks or total time spent.
It’s even possible to link the app to HealthKit and record daily sessions.
If you want more than just a meditation app, try Waking Up to change your perspective on life and the surroundings. With advice from leading guided meditation experts and scholars from around the world, you will gather secular wisdom while learning everything from time management and sleep to happiness.
The app was developed by Sam Harris, a best-selling author and neuroscientist, to help people in their meditation journey. He has included only those principles that he found life-changing and developed a 28-part introductory course to help first-timers understand meditation better.
Overall, it offers a comprehensive guide to meditation and mindfulness programs.
A popular meditation and mindfulness app that encourages loving-kindness with guided and unguided sessions is Oak. Each guided session ranges from 5-30 minutes, while the unguided sessions can be 24 hours long.
Moreover, you can meditate in silence or opt for background tracks and soothing tunes to help relax your mind and body. Close your eyes and transport yourself to the land of the Tibetan Buddhist Monk, thanks to the 10-day Mantra meditation course.
There are also exercises for sleeping and breathing, thanks to animated instructions and options like Deep Calm, Box Breathing and Awake Sessions.
Instead of taking mental or sleep meditations seriously, Meditation Studio puts the fun back into meditation with its unique app that has over 200 guided courses. You can study a meditation topic in detail or follow a guided session based on your needs.
Some topics will also help you improve specific aspects of your life, and these include -
Whether it be restful sleep, reducing stress or managing anxiety, The Mindfulness app will leave you with a smiling mind, thanks to its multiple courses. Users can pick a course based on their mood, experience level and time of day while listening to them in 10 languages.
The app records personalised statistics that you can review later but best of all, the sleep stories ensure much-needed rest after a taxing day. You can also set personalised reminders for meditations ranging from 3-99 minutes, and there are multiple background noises, such as rain, waves or forest sounds.
The Smiling Mind app was rated the best in Australia in 2018 and is supported by over 6.1 million users. It is one of the few free meditation apps with programs for children and 2-minute episodes to encourage emotional and social development.
Unlike other mindfulness apps, Smiling Mind refers to the Australian Wellbeing Index to improve people’s emotional health and create a generational change. The tools included in this app develop mental fitness and resilience from a young age based on proper research and evidence.
Smiling Mind believes that even 10 minutes of guided meditations daily will help you live a quality life.
Just as people work out in the gym to strengthen their core, the Core Meditation app helps strengthen the mind. It promises immersive guided meditations, thanks to audio, lighting and dynamic vibrations produced by the app.
The app has a meditation library, whereby you can learn about breathing exercises before taking part in long or short guided sessions, depending on your schedule. Moreover, selecting the vibration pattern, duration, and musical or ambient soundscapes is possible.
By regularly using the app, you can stay calm and focused while tracking your progress with historical graphs. The only problem for some people is it’s not free, and you will have to register for an annual subscription.
One of the most personalised meditation apps is Aura which focuses on peace, sleep and mental wellbeing to transform your life. The app has repeatedly been featured in New York Times, Forbes and other well-known magazines, commanding a community of 5 million subscribers.
This all-in-one app can help with -
You must share your needs and interests to help the algorithm create personalised meditation exercises to make the most of it. You can choose a favourite coach and track to practice daily self-care for the best results.
The unique aspect of Exhale compared to other apps is that it’s curated for and personalised by Black, Indigenous, Women of Colour. Dealing with mental health and crazy thoughts is challenging, but it’s important to realise that men and women have different experiences.
That’s why Exhale stands out among meditation apps in Australia by helping women of colour breathe better, get expert coaching and uplift their life through positive affirmations. Some common topics of interest include -
These will ensure you can overcome the physical and mental hurt, replacing them with rejuvenation and rest.
When it comes to mental and physical health, people usually think about work or personal life crises. But for women, getting pregnant and having a child can be quite nerve-wracking.
To help mothers before, during and after pregnancy, Expectful is an app catering specifically to moms. With proper research, it reduces the chances of depression or stress so that the baby remains unaffected.
Moreover, daily content and weekly plans offer holistic support for the mind and body. You can even get on-demand courses focusing on pre/postnatal fitness routines for a smooth experience.
This rare mindfulness app delivers an approximate estimate of how much your anxiety and stress levels will reduce after using it. Thanks to Emotional Freedom Techniques, you can experience 41% improved emotional wellbeing while overcoming fear or pain to get a better night’s sleep.
Overall, there are 10 million meditation sessions on the app, ranging from 5-20 minutes based on how much time you have. Some top medical professionals recommend this app, and people have found themselves more relaxed after regular meditation.
If you struggle with negative emotions and want to lead a quality life, this app promises to deliver the desired results.
Meditation practice becomes easier with the Balance app, and 4 million verified users have experienced reduced stress and better sleep patterns after regular use. The app has customised meditation sessions, and users don’t need to pay any money in the first year.
All you need is to download the app to have access to a personal coach who will guide you through the meditation goals, experiences, and personal preferences. If you share more with the experts, the chances are your sessions will be more fulfilling.
You can also curate the duration of each session, focus on mindful eating, get a basic body scan done and improve breathing.
This app helps improve the body and mind by combining meditation with fitness exercises. You can use it at home or consult some of the best online teachers with classes based on various stages of life, preference, and need.
Registered users can learn advanced techniques like the vinyasa flow or brush up on the basics of yoga to connect with their inner selves. Various courses, such as prenatal strength and mid-day calm, also help you ace every situation.
The best part is you can live-stream classes, choose your preferred music, and create personalised collections.
Since meditation is an ancient practice, what better way to enjoy its true benefits than through the Vedic principles of meditation? This includes the sounds and music available on the app that Sanskrit scholars have curated for tapping into the inner workings of the mind.
For beginners, the courses start from 6 minutes while you can set goals and reminders, depending on your proficiency. In all, there are 100+ guided meditations, complete with mantras, chants, and guides to help track daily progress.
Especially pleasing is that the curated sessions eliminate the hassle of deciding what to meditate on, irrespective of your feeling, mood, or time of day.
What if we told you there’s a technique of visual meditation that’s equally effective? Most people think meditation is about sitting quietly with your eyes closed and preventing your thoughts from wandering.
But thanks to the Mesmerize app, you can stay calm in any situation with its visual imagery and psycho-autistic music. This will help enhance self-awareness, increase focus, reduce pain, and promote deep relaxation, among other things.
You can even download your favourite guided meditation and listen to it in offline modes, such as on a long flight. Or choose any random category and feel self-esteem flooding in and the toxins flooding out of your life.
Meditation Nest is a simple app for daily wellness, which is suitable for all age groups and their varying needs. Using the app to meditate for even 5 minutes daily will lead to a better night’s sleep, reduced stress, improved focus, deeper breathing, and greater relaxation.
There are over 150 audio and sleep stories, but you will have to register for a subscription. These subscriptions range from 1-week with a 3-day trial and 1-year with a 3-day trial to a month with no trial period.
So far, it has received mostly 4-star ratings and allows consumers to make further in-app purchases if needed.
First-timers looking for self-guided meditation apps will enjoy using Meditation, an app recommended by doctors and physiotherapists. As you practice mindfulness daily, you will feel reduced stress and lower anxiety while enjoying more restful sleep, thanks to several features like -
The guided sessions vary between from 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 minutes, allowing you to opt for any of its 5 meditation practices -
Moreover, tracking daily progress is easy, and you can review daily streaks or the amount of time spent meditating in a week.
Sowlmate stands out as one of the few meditation apps specially designed for the LGBTQ+ community that promotes their self-care. There are contents curated for every person’s concerns, and you can track your mood, lower stress, and manage anxiety to feel good at any time of the day.
The app has an AI-based tracking system and diary to record all your sessions, along with several hours of guided meditation sessions. These specialised programs can help with breakups, coming out, self-love, etc.
You will also enjoy the 1-10 day courses that deal with specific life scenarios, but you must subscribe to the app first.
As one of the premier institutes in the world, the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Centre has developed this app to help people overcome stress-related medical conditions. Backed by scientific research, this app lowers depression and anxiety while encouraging people to live positively.
You can experience physical and mental wellbeing with simple meditation exercises, available in Spanish and English. Plus, several informative videos explain how to attain the correct meditation posture by adhering to the science of mindfulness.
There are even podcasts and a timer, so most people have rated the app 4.6 out of 5 stars.
The standout feature of the Enso app is its meditation time and bell to create the best mindfulness experience. You will find that the app isn’t crowded with features, but it has a simple design, helping you focus on the most important aspects.
Every meditation session starts and ends with the soothing chime of the bells and bowls for a calming effect. All its guides are easy to use, and the time duration can be changed based on various requirements.
Progress indicators and reports show how far into the meditation you are and how well you are doing.
Inscape Meditation and Sleep is one of the most highly-rated apps for helping people overcome anxiety and live their life to the fullest. It is ideal for people looking to enhance their health, fitness, and lifestyle to sleep better and improve their daily focus.
This is down to the multiple breathing exercises, guided sessions, sounds, and music available within the app. Moreover, you can curate personalised sessions depending on the time of day, your experience, and your health goals.
Especially pleasing is that it offers free guided meditations, so download it from the app store to get started.
The MyLife Meditation app was originally called Stop, Breathe And Think, and it still retains some of its earlier features, given their effectiveness. It offers customised meditation plans according to your current mental and physical health.
Moreover, it combines meditation with activities like yoga and breathwork to help overcome anxiety and stress in most situations. You will find multiple breathing exercises on the app that are different from traditional meditation techniques. Because as you focus on every breath, it becomes easier to manage intrusive thoughts and stay calm.
It’s also possible to adjust the timer and change the duration of each session.
For daily mental wellness, there are few apps better than Shine, thanks to its self-care courses, personalised support, and virtual community workshops. Regularly using the app will make your mornings brighter, ensuring you feel more energised.
Users can learn new meditation skills every day and read more about issues like stress from renowned experts. There are also more than 1,000 courses to choose from while you can be part of an inclusive community that will support you every step of the way.
You have the option to use the free version or opt for a subscription for unlimited access to exclusive features.
Journey is a mental wellbeing app that aims to help everyone prosper in a professional space. The apps help employees manage their work better and live happier by reducing turnover and managing burnout.
Employees enjoy the live group learning feature, comprising expert teachers who deliver a personalised experience. It has been seen that after a month, most individuals have a 38% uplift in their mood.
Other than that, 51% of employees reported fewer missed workdays, while 77% had higher energy levels by following the daily courses. After using the app consistently, it becomes easier to improve focus and reduce stress for greater productivity.
Mindfulness apps are not magic apps that will improve your life in one go. But they can inculcate the simple habit of positive thinking and help you stay rooted in the present moment to live better lives.
But for a mindfulness app to deliver the best results, you must remember the following factors.
Ask yourself what the purpose of using the app is - do you wish to overcome any specific mental condition or just want to start the day brighter? It’s important to set clear goals to know what you are working towards because you can choose the app with the most relevant features.
Just as it’s difficult to go to the gym and work out every day, practising meditation daily is tough, and you might not feel up to it. There will always be a million reasons not to do something, so choose an app with multiple mental care routines instead of looking for excuses.
Rather than performing the same exercises daily and getting bored, you can alter the timer settings and opt for breathing exercises, yoga routines, sleep meditations, mindful eating habits, etc. Also, it would be best to curate your playlist and have custom routines based on different moods.
Despite using online meditation apps, you can still get help from experts to tap into your true potential. Meditating daily can be challenging, especially when you are doing it alone, which usually makes the problems appear bigger than they are.
In such situations, having access to a community group or one-on-one sessions with experts can remove the elements of doubt from your mind. Once you see other people have improved by following the same techniques, it develops confidence and reinvigorates your self-esteem.
We recommend that you start slowly and begin with basic meditation techniques to get the hang of it. Like most exercises, it will take time to realise what methods work for your needs and which sessions don’t have the desired results.
Initially, you will find your mind wandering, and concentrating will be challenging. But with regular practice and help from others, you will see that meditation is fun and an essential aspect of modern life. It puts into perspective all that’s important and helps you connect with your inner being.
Too often, our professional goals take precedence over our family, health, or happiness, and meditation helps achieve the right balance so that you don’t feel overwhelmed. Who knows, maybe one day you can help others get in touch with their inner self and act as guides in their meditation journey!