Best Guided Meditations

If you live with anxiety, adding one more thing to your day is enough to trigger thoughts of worry, stress, and panic. The good news? Calm offers guided meditations specifically for anxiety, and they only take three to 25 minutes.

The meditations are perfect in the morning to help prepare your mind for the day ahead or at the end of a hectic day to help ease stress and anxiety. There are lessons that focus on body awareness and deep belly breathing as well as ones that focus on calming racing thoughts. The meditations often pause to let you just focus on breathing (while listening to waves), which can be useful for someone with anxiety.

If you’re looking for a deeper practice that also feels like you’re getting a dose of therapy, then Tara Brach is for you. Brach, who has a doctorate in clinical psychology, will guide you through a peaceful, yet cathartic, meditation that helps you discover how self-compassion can relieve emotional suffering.

There are four meditation categories to choose from: Basic, Heart, Open Awareness, and Special Meditations/Reflections. Pre-recorded meditations include Relaxing Back Into Natural Awareness, A Calm Refuge, Touching Peace, Embracing Life With an Open Heart, and more.

Some meditations feature guidance with just a few silent pauses, while others feature gentle rain or birds singing in the background. Most meditations are around 10 to 25 minutes long. All of the meditations are free, but Brach asks for donations to make them as widely available as possible.

With Headspace, you will learn deep breathing. The app walks you through how your breath should feel throughout your body and what you should be noticing about your breath. At the same time, it will also help you find where in the body you feel your breath and the rhythm of your breath (long, short, deep, or shallow).

Headspace provides helpful cues for when external sounds appear. You can choose from a variety of meditations based on your needs and how long you want to focus on the practice.

Many users swear by these guided meditations. The Honest Guys narrator, Rick Clarke, has a voice that is alluring without being distracting. He focuses on deep breathing and points out that thoughts of anxiety and stress are common when starting to meditate.

The key to success with these guided meditations is to allow yourself to be in total peace with your surroundings. As you feel more relaxed, Clarke walks you through peaceful journeys, taking you deeper into relaxation. As the journeys end and the only sound you hear is the calming nature sounds, you have the option of drifting off to sleep, continuing in this deeply relaxed state, or resuming your day.

If you’re new to the idea of moving while meditating, the short intro from Gabby Bernstein is a great place to start. During the six-minute recording, you’ll focus on each step and how it connects to your breath. Her voice is very upbeat, which is helpful since you’re walking and not trying to fall asleep.

The overall goal of the meditation is to help you understand how to connect your mind with the body. After a few minutes of breath work, she asks listeners to repeat a simple mantra while walking: “My happiness is a choice I make.”

Whether it’s her voice or the beat of the music, this guided meditation will empower you to take action as it calms, eases stress, and helps you focus on your breath. Listen to this meditation each time you go for a walk and you’ll be amazed at how it changes your perspective on exercise.

Jason Stephenson's meditations are designed to be used at bedtime to help you rift off for a refreshing night's rest. You’ll begin by taking an inventory of the tension in your body. With your breath, you will free the tension and mental and emotional stress.

In one of his meditations, Jason Stephenson will guide you through the seven chakras, or energy centers in your body. You will understand what parts of your life need energy healing. Stephenson's voice, along with the accompanying gentle piano music, will help you release stress while sinking into your mattress.

If you’ve convinced yourself meditation isn’t for you, because you can’t focus or you're skeptical of anything related to mindfulness, Ten Percent Happier will speak your language. It’s specifically marketed to “fidgety skeptics,” especially beginners who need more of a guiding hand. 

The app came out of the New York Times best-selling book of the same name and features a number of expert guides who can walk you through all the meditation basics. If you have questions, the guides will even respond to you personally. It has hundreds of meditations that can help you sleep better, cope with anxiety, or find ways to be a little calmer, and yes, happier. And the premium version has even more. There are also several informative podcasts and a newsletter.