Meditation…

Let’s see, what are our top reasons for not already having started to do it?

I mean, we all know it’s beneficial to our social and emotional well-being. We also know it’s good for our spiritual and physical well-being, as well. 

So why aren’t we already meditation masters? Here are a few possible reasons...

1. How exactly do I meditate?
2. Do I need to go to a guru or a yogi?
3. When do I have time to meditate?

Let’s work backward from those reasons.

You probably don’t have a lot of free time. Nurses, frankly, are burning out all over the country. We’ve got very little work/life balance. While there are a few nursing fields where work/life balance is truly valued — such as long-term care private duty nursing!! — most nursing fields are squeezing every last drop out of their nurses.

This is why we created NursePower Empowers Nurses! We have to help take care of each other. 

Time is our most precious resource right now. We don’t have enough and because we don’t have enough, we don’t think we have time to do the things we need to do to take care of ourselves.

We’re all real good at taking care of other people but pretty terrible at taking care of ourselves. 

But meditation doesn’t take hours to do or even one hour to do — when you know how to do it, you can do it in just a few minutes. And you can do it throughout the day whenever you need to de-stress.

But how do you learn how to do it? 

Sure a yogi or guru could train you, but again — who has time for that? You could take classes in person or online — same problem: time.

Fortunately, there are so many excellent meditation apps on the market today that you can, literally, start meditating the second you’re finished reading this. (Wait! Don’t go yet!)

Because there are so many to choose from, we’ve decided to share a few of the top-rated meditation apps as reviewed by experts so you can save time and get started immediately.

MyLife Meditation

If you’ve never meditated before, then this is where you should start. 

While most apps expect you to dive right into meditation, MyLife Meditation takes a more deliberate approach. 

MyLife intentionally introduces you to meditation essentials for beginners, explains the neuroscience and physiology behind meditation, and offers guided introductions to making meditation a part of your daily routine.

This free app is a great place for you to begin your meditation journey.

Insight Timer

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If you’ve got the meditation basics down and now you’re looking for a greater variety of meditation sessions, then you should try Insight Timer.

Even as a free app, Insight Timer offers you a huge library of meditation sessions — over 80,000 guided meditations from over 10,000 teachers. And when you find a teacher you like, you can follow that teacher for his or her latest meditations.

Another cool feature of this app is that you can see exactly how many people are participating in your session in real-time. Enable location and the app will tell you who in your immediate vicinity is in your session.

Okay, so one person’s cool is another person’s creepy, but there is something comforting to know that you are part of a community seeking peace and clarity at the same time. 

Calm

One of the most popular meditation apps, this one has earned tremendous praise for it’s “bedtime stories.” If you anticipate being a bedtime meditator, this might be the perfect app for you.

However, Calm also offers a variety of guided meditations focused on a variety of life areas, such as stress, lack of sleep, and anxiety.

This app does have a price tag but it’s nominal: $70 for a year subscription after a free 7-day trial.

Exhale

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Created by Katara McCarty, Exhale is a meditation app created specifically with BIWOC (Black, Indigenous, Women of Color) users in mind. 

This free app includes guided sessions not only for stress and focus, but also for targeted issues such as microaggressions, grief, childhood trauma, and more than fifteen other topics.

This app has earned tremendous praise for offering sessions that address the nuanced experiences of women of color.

NursePower Empowers Nurses!

If you’re reading this on your phone or tablet, then head to your App Store right now and download one of these meditation apps immediately.

Go on, do it now!

I know I’m being pushy here, but sometimes we need to push each other to take care of ourselves. 

Your mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being is too important to me. We all need this in our lives. So go ahead and down one of these apps now and take five minutes to meditate.

Promise me you’ll do this for yourself?