Social Work Tech Talk: Meditation Apps for Instruction and Self-Care

(Editor’s Note: Join me in welcoming our new technology columnist, Gina Griffin! Gina will be writing about apps and other tech tools you can use in and for your social work practice. She brings a wealth of knowledge in all things social work tech to this new column, Social Work Tech Talk.)

by Gina Griffin, DSW, MSW, LCSW

      Taking care of ourselves can be challenging in the best of times. Over the past few years, it has become a challenge that’s absolutely essential. As experienced meditators say, recent events have given us lots of opportunities to practice meditation. For people new to meditation and practicing under these conditions, it might seem daunting. The good news is that, these days, there are a lot of quality meditation apps to help you to find your way.

     I have been practicing mindfulness meditation for 25 years, and I’ve taught it to other people for 10 years. This practice has helped me to navigate some pretty difficult times. As a bona fide geek, I also love to discover new ways that technology can fortify my practice. There are myriad truly good meditation apps on the market, and I regularly try to have a nice round-up of these to offer to my clients who are beginning to meditate. Let’s review a few of these together.

Meditation Apps

Insight Meditation Timer

     I’m incredibly biased toward Insight Meditation Timer, as I’ve used this app for a long time. The app includes a basic meditation timer with a variety of bells that can be used for beginning, ending, and interval bells. There is also a wide selection of guided meditations. I am not joking at all when I tell people that the “You Are Worthy” meditation by Lillie Love helped me to survive graduate school. The app also includes a wide variety of meditation courses, sounds for sleep, and instruction for beginners. As with many apps, there is a free level of use, and a paid version that unlocks additional courses and features. For many people, the $59.99 a year is worth it to be able to download courses and use them when offline. For me, it’s generally about being able to download my own meditation data, and to play with it when I’m working with code.

Calm

     Calm is another powerhouse app that has been downloaded millions of times. It offers you the opportunity to focus on tracks such as sleep quality, stress and anxiety, focus, and self-improvement. Again, there is a basic free level, as well as the option of an expanded level with a yearly cost of around $69.99. The feature that intrigues me most is the inclusion of recordings of Bob Ross, from The Joy of Painting. Apparently, many people find his voice very soothing, and these are included to help induce sleep, via the app.

Headspace

     Headspace has been going strong for quite a while now. The app focuses on similar subjects as the others, such as sleep, stress, and mindfulness—but it also adds the area of work. The graphics and animations included in the app are noteworthy, and I’ve always enjoyed them. One of the things that I’ve found most useful related to Headspace is that it offers a series of eight episodes on meditation, through the Netflix platform. The recordings are brief (from around 2 minutes to 20 minutes), and they include titles such as How to Let Go, How to Be Kind, and  How to Deal With Anger. I have found that these episodes have been exceptionally useful when introducing mindfulness meditation to anxious beginners.

JKZ (Jon Kabat-Zinn)

     A very nice contender is the JKZ app. JKZ is Jon Kabat-Zinn, who set the world of clinical mindfulness in motion through the creation of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. According to documentation online, there were previous apps that have now been consolidated into one app. I was previously disappointed that there was very little offered for free—only one meditation per subject area. However, the yearly subscription is $34.99, which is less than the paid versions of the other apps that we have reviewed. This includes live videos of Kabat-Zinn, and meditations on stress, everyday life, lovingkindness, and a basic timer. As a Kabat-Zinn fangirl, there was no scenario in which I wasn’t going to try this app. Overall, I am not disappointed.

Mindfulness Coach

     Perhaps you didn’t know this, but the VA offers a series of useful apps that cover a wide spectrum of care. One of these is Mindfulness Coach. The app is simple and easy to use, with a bright, clean interface. Features include mindfulness training, a meditation timer, and a feature that helps to track practice over time.  

World Christian Community of Mindfulness

     The World Christian Community of Mindfulness app is an example of a religiously-oriented mindfulness resource. The work is centered around the teachings of John Main, a leader in contemplative Christianity.  The website offers a free membership, which includes activities such as discussions and attendance at events. There is also the offer of a supporting membership, which offers access to the full digital library. A supporting member helps to provide free services for everyone. Suggested donations range from $14-$27 a month. The website includes a simple timer that works within your browser. The WCCM app includes another basic timer with a choice of bells, guided meditations, and connection to other meditation resources through WCCM.

Plum Village

     Plum Village, in France, is also connected to another of the older and widely respected meditation communities. The community began with the work of Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese monk who was exiled as a result of his resistance to the Vietnam War. His work has since become respected worldwide. He is a prolific writer, and his books are available in many translations. The Plum Village meditation app is a nice piece of software. I honestly didn’t know it existed until a client told me about this. I have not downloaded this one myself. But the documentation reports features such as guided meditations, video sessions, a mindfulness bell, and contemplations. There is also the notation that the app is “completely free to download, and all of the content is free.”

Ten Percent Happier

     I’ll round out my reviews with Ten Percent Happier. This began with the work of Dan Harris, a TV news anchor who started his journey with mindfulness meditation when he had a panic attack on the air. He wrote a book named Ten Percent Happier, which focuses on his own search to use mindfulness to improve his life experience. There is also a podcast of the same name. The app lists features such as guided meditations, daily meditations, sleep meditations, and world class teachers, such as Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein.

     I’m hoping that you find some of these apps useful. I also hope that you’ll share some of your favorites with me. At the end of the day, I’m happy to sit with a bell and silence. But I also want to try every new app when it’s released.

     May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you be at peace.

Dr. Gina Griffin, DSW, MSW, LCSW, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. In 2012, she completed her Master of Social Work at University of South Florida. And in 2021, she completed her DSW at the University of Southern California. She began to learn R Programming for data analysis in order to develop her research-related skills. She now teaches programming and data science skills through her website (A::ISWR) and free Saturday morning #swRk workshops.