Seeking Calm and Focus? Try Some Free Meditation Apps, Websites

Life can be stressful.

Another wave of COVID-19, concern about world events, natural disasters, your personal finances, and even family disagreements over polarizing politics have consumed our thoughts — so much so that finding inner peace has become a needed pastime.

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Dozens of apps offer a meditative oasis to allow you to focus on the present moment. Yet they also require you to pay a subscription to get the most out of the experience.

You can test drive them to decide which is best for you, but expect to pay $10 a month or more to unlock features, such as guided meditations and self-esteem building exercises.

We did uncover a handful of apps that are fully free, meaning either no subscription fee or service cancellation after a trial period. Keep in mind, free may mean intermittent ads, requests for donations, a pitch for one-on-one services or the same limited mental exercises over and over. If saving money gives you peace of mind, you can relax.

Most of these apps require you to register or share some personal information, which they claim helps customize your experience. Except where noted, all apps are available from the Apple App and Google Play stores.

How to find inner peace for free

Healthy Minds. Born out of Healthy Minds Innovations and the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Healthy Minds free meditation program provides podcast-style, audio-guided lessons for both seated and active poses and educational modules tied to awareness, connection, insight and purpose. The goal isn’t just to work on meditation and mindfulness but to also provide opportunities to learn about the science behind mental health strengthening and healing.

Mindfulness Coach. The Mindfulness Coach, developed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD, was originally designed to help veterans and service members practice mindfulness to reduce stress, improve emotional balance and create self-awareness.

Mindfulness Coach mixes guided sessions with learning sections on the benefits of mindfulness, concentration tips and growing your expertise. A practice area lets you choose from a variety of free lessons, seated meditation techniques, goal setting and tracking tools and links to additional content to download at no cost. Find it on the VA mobile website.

YouTube. You might turn to YouTube for movie trailers, music videos and instructions on how to fix your toilet. But thousands of meditation and mindfulness videos are available with both amateur and professional instructors.

Some channels include Sean Fargo’s Mindfulness Exercises, Great Meditation and Meditative Mind. Popular subscription apps Calm, Headspace and Simple Habit also have free YouTube channels with limited videos. The best part, you can watch all of them anywhere without having to download. YouTube is available as an app, optimized for mobile devices, and on the web.

AARP Virtual Community Center. The series of exercise and wellness classes includes meditation, mindfulness and yoga for beginners or those looking to rekindle their practice. These free online events — you don’t have to be an AARP member — include mindful movement and calming meditation as well as laughter yoga, qigong and tai chi.