Life has become very fast-paced due to the advancement in technology and people are always glued to their screens. Also, such a great deal of uncertainty and the “pandemic loop” in which we’re all stuck since 2020 calls for a mindful measure and a bit of relaxing. My personal favorite with over 4 million other subscribed users, Calm: Sleep and meditation is an Apple-Award Winning science-based mindfulness app that fits the best for this purpose!
I started using the Calm app in the year 2020 during the lockdown. With such a great deal of uncertainty and Covid cases peaking, waking up every morning to yet another bad news had started making me anxious and feel overwhelmed, which was primarily the reason I decided to give it a try. Calm features various soundscapes to practice calming exercises, guided meditation sessions, and sleep stories that are narrated by celebrities including Harry Styles, Kate Winslet, Shawn Mendes, and many more.
With such a great deal of uncertainty and Covid cases peaking, waking up every morning to yet another bad news had started making me anxious and feel overwhelmed, which was primarily the reason I decided to give it a try.
Our work-from-home jobs, social media, and online classes leave us with no time away from our laptops and mobile screens, but on the contrary, even though Calm is a mobile application, its designed purpose is to help the users feel placid. Available on both iOS and Android, this app aims at reducing stress and anxiety levels, developing gratitude, deepening our meditation practice, helping us sleep better, or just taking a nap!
The app welcomes its users to take a deep breath at first and slow down. While you scroll through the app or start a session, Calm will play background soundscape music that varies from calming aqua-scapes, the sound of the rain, the sound of birds, forest ambiance, bonfires,s and more. Apart from a wide variety of guided sleep stories and meditation sessions that focus on Mindfulness-Based Techniques, like breathing/meditative exercises and body scans to reduce stress and anxiety, Calm has special sessions like ‘7 Days of Happiness’, ‘7 Days of Gratitude’, ‘Increase Happiness’, and many more to help you acknowledge, accept and even regulate your emotions!
My personal experience with the Calm app has indeed been really calming. The soothing soundscape of rain did not only calm me down but also helped me doze off to sleep. Even though it’s not a substitute for people with severe mental and physical illnesses, Calm can be beneficial for individuals trying to reduce their everyday stress and anxiety levels or even those who just want to work in their offices with a piece of calming background music.
