When your stress is at an all time high and you need to find a way to manage your stress before your stress manages you, meditation is the tool that you want in your toolbox. When you meditate, you to tap into the power within by focusing, quieting your mind and becoming more mindful of your thoughts and feelings as they relate to your everyday life .
Meditation isn’t always easy, especially when you’re just starting your practice. I know that when I started out, concentration was hard – with a capitol H! My mind was always going like a thousand miles a minute because I was thinking about all the other things I should be doing or needed to do. So I created a simple process to help myself really engage with and stick to this new practice until it became a habit. What I did was:
1st Started off slowly, instead of trying to meditate for 30 minutes, I did 5 and then 10 and so on.
2nd Turned to guided meditation as an easier way of beginning my meditation practice.
Stop, Breathe & Think is one of the many apps that I’ve used in my guided meditation sessions. In this post, first I’m going to talk about guided meditation, then the rest of the post will be a review of the app.
What’s Guided Meditation?
Guided meditation allows you to visualize images, places or events based on the prompts you’re given. It’ s an easy way for those (like me) who have a hard time meditating silently.
In a guided meditation session, your focus is on the images that the narrator describes. The great thing about this (especially for people like me who always have a thousand things on their mind) is that, your focus is taken off of all of those other things. Put guided meditation in your self-care toolbox to help you manage your stressors. It’s all about making time.
Stop, Breathe & Think App Review
Upon opening Stop, Breathe & Think, you’re greeted by a fluffy white cloud. That cloud starts your journey by offering you the ability to check in and monitor the state of your body and mind and to choose the emotions you’re feeling at that exact moment in time.
Once you’ve checked in, the app provides you with suggestions of meditations and deep breathing exercises that suit your mood. For instance, you could choose that you’re feeling great, good, meh or bad. If you choose the lower vibration feelings, you’re given meditations that will hopefully lift your mood, while you’re presented with meditations that will help you maintain your feelings if you pick higher vibration feelings. Of course, you’re able to skip the check in and go straight to all available meditations.
There are meditations for a wide variety of situations. From a collection of 10 meditations to get you started to meditations to meditations for people of color and even meditations to help you better appreciate your pets Stop, Breathe & Think has you covered.
Quite a few of the meditations give you a choice of a male or female voice and in the case of the full version, a choice of session length. Additionally, some of the meditations are in Spanish.
One of my favorite meditations is for three minutes and is called Mindful breathing. This session connects you to your breath and allows you to observe your thoughts and feelings without being bound by them. And as a tea lover, another one of my favorite meditations is a mindful moment that helps to remind you to savor your cup of tea as you drink.
Another cool feature of Stop, Breathe & Think is its Mindfulness 101 series. For those just getting started with meditation and mindfulness, it provides daily bite sized chunks which gives you a quick walkthrough of what mindfulness is and ways to incorporate it into your everyday.
Most meditations open with a pleasant, gentle voice asking you to find a comfortable place to either sit or lay down while you center yourself and prepare to meditate.
In general, the app's meditations vary from approximately 1 -10 minutes long. Which means if you’re living a super busy and hectic life, it’s still quite easy to fit in a quick meditation session.
If you upgrade to the full version on the app, you have access to all of the meditations that Stop, Breathe & Think has in addition to a journal, a program to help relieve stress & anxiety, and even yoga and acupressure videos!
The free version of the app includes approximately 55 unlocked meditations, stickers that you earn as you complete certain activities within the app and tracking to let you see your meditation streaks and other stats. You can even connect the app to Apple's health app if you have the i-phone. If you’re interested in listening to more meditations, you can opt to unlock the full version of Stop, Breathe & Think via three payment methods of which entitles you to access the entire app. As of the date of this post, payment plans are $9.99 monthly, $58.99 yearly (which is half off) and $249.99 lifetime.
I love this app, so I give this app a YAY! With 4.5 out of five stars. Even just using the free version gives you access to a wealth of tools to help you easily incorporated mindfulness and meditation into your life. It does what it says it will do – giving you a quick moment to Stop, Breathe & Think when things are a bit too much. You can find the app in the Apple store and on Google Play and it’s created by Stop, Breathe & Think, PBC.
Pros
Narration is pleasant and soothing with a choice of narrators (in the paid version)
Simple & easy to use.
The scenarios are easy to visualize and include ones pertinent to this time of Coronovirus.
Cons
Can be a bit pricey if you choose not to utilize the lifetime purchase option.
Let’s talk! Let me know in the comments section if you’ve used this app and if so, what do you think of it?
# meditation #selfcare #stressmanagement
Cassandra Martin-Himmons is a trainer, wellness coach and consultant who believes in empowering her clients and providing the tools that they need to make positive changes in their lives to manage their stress and increase their self-care. In her spare time, she enjoys papercrafting, volunteering and travel. Connect with her on Instagram or Linked/In