'Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream..."


While I’ve been practising meditation for quite some time now, I’ve recently taken to using the mindfulness app 'Headspace'.

If you’ve never meditated before, or you’re an old hand at it, it’s a great resource, offering daily ten-minute guided meditations that create a sense of progress, rather than stagnating and going through the same process every day. Until I started using the app, I’d often listen to a handful of audio guided meditations I have on my phone in case of a brain emergency. If you see me with my eyes closed and my earphones in on public transport, I’m probably doing this (unless I’m sleeping and using this blog as an elaborate alibi).

While the tracks on my phone are great, they can get a little repetitive as I become too familiar with them and start to anticipate everything the person on the recording will say. This is where Headspace is great, as it offers you a daily course with a different focus each day, as well as plenty of extra practices you can dip in and out of, should you be feeling stressed or anxious, or just fancy a break.

Headspace isn’t the only meditation app I’d recommend; another favourite is Stop, Breathe andThink, which was particularly useful when I was up at the Edinburgh Fringe this Summer. Every morning before I left to do my show I’d listen to one of its body scan meditations (which you can also find on YouTube), as well as doing one of its sleep aids at the end of the day. I couldn’t have completed the festival without it; that and the ketamine, obviously.

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