The Calm App & It’s Benefits
About Calm
Calm is an app used for meditation, sleep, and relaxation that encourages everything from mindfulness to movement. The app features a dedicated team, experienced meditation instructors, and a webpage showcasing research being conducted on the efficacy of the app, as well as the benefits of meditation. There are also meditations led by various celebrities. If you are new to meditation, or even would like to enhance your current mediation practices, the guided option is a great way to experience what meditation can do. The app’s features demonstrate how to start meditation practices and fill you with knowledge about mindfulness. Binaural beats and theta waves are also offered for relaxation or for more advanced meditators. They allow the brain to tune into different frequencies. The curated music selections help with focus while working or provide simple relaxation as well. Calm’s sleep stories are a well-known favorite for people who have a hard time falling asleep or are unable to stay asleep.
Benefits of the Calm App Itself
Calm is easy to access. It is available in app stores and online at Calm.com.
Calm offers a large content library. The app includes meditations, sleep stories, breath exercises, movement practices, music, soundscapes, mindfulness lessons and more.
Considering our busy lives, Calm is time commitment friendly. Meditations range from 90 seconds to 30 minutes. “The Daily Calm” is only 10 minutes long.
There is a free seven-day trial. This trial offer allows potential users to see what a full subscription includes.
The Calm Science team researches and includes evidence-based content.
Calm is regularly updated.
Calm is kid friendly.
Calm offers master classes taught by experts in the wellness field.
How Does Calm Work?
Calm is available on iOS and Google Play app stores, or you can visit its website. Initially, you will be greeted with prompts asking for “reasons for visiting,” and your responses will help the app tailor programming suggestions for you. Some examples of these reasons can be to reduce stress, develop gratitude, increase happiness, better sleep, or build self-esteem. Calm also provides mood check-ins. Based on your current mood, it will prompt you with meditations that may be suitable to your needs during that moment. There are 11 main categories of meditations:
Meditation (mostly guided meditations)
Dailies (a 10-minute daily dose of meditation called “The Daily Calm”)
Sleep (stories and sounds to promote rest)
Wisdom (master classes and words to live by)
Music (curated soundtracks or playlists to put you at ease)
Kids (Calm content for little ones)
Soundscapes (ambient sounds)
Movement (short moving meditations and yogic stretches)
Check-ins (mood assessments and in-app journal prompts)
For Work (ranges from 60-second pre-meeting meditations to “Mindful Leadership” lessons)
Breathe (timed “breathe bubble” breathing exercises for focus, balance, etc.)
When looking through the different types of meditation, you can browse by length, making sure to select a session that fits your schedule. The goal is to make Calm a habit. If you would like to receive reminders, you can select to allow notifications. Calm’s website also posts blogs that provide deeper knowledge and tips to help you learn and thrive!
Science Behind Calm
By consistently using an app like Calm, you are potentially strengthening the parts of the brain that correspond with a calmer, happier existence. Studies have suggested that long-term meditators were able to alter the structure and function of their brains. Meditation is associated with specific neuroplastic changes in connectivity patterns within and between multiple brain networks. Even short daily meditations offer decreased negative mood states and enhance attention and working memory. Calm is a great way to lower stress and train your mind to be more peaceful.
Calm is best known for its meditations. Meditation is a mind-body medicine. It produces a deep state of relaxation and tranquility by clearing the mind. Meditation has been found to reduce stress, lessen anxiety, promote emotional health, enhance self-awareness, lengthen attention span, and help control pain. It may even do things such as help fight addictions, reduce age-related memory loss, and combat insomnia. People who meditate before bed stay asleep longer.
Breathing exercises are also suggested by Calm. By focusing on the breath, we can calm both our minds and bodies. The act of controlling breath further leads to reduced stress and encourages a more meditative state. The app lets you customize the volume and speed of each breathing exercise, as well as the length of your exercise, within a one to 60-minute timeframe. The six types of audio breathing exercises are:
Relax
Balance
Restore
Focus
Energize
Unwind
Overall, Calm is a wonderful tool to use for personal growth and the development of a better life. With their mission to make the world happier and healthier, Calm is an accessible way to reduce stress, improve sleep, increase clarity and focus, and improve mental health. The healing of the mind in turn helps heal the body!
Website: https://www.calm.com/
IOS app: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/calm/id571800810
Google Play app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.calm.android&hl=en_US&gl=US&pli=1
