4 Mindfulness And Meditation Apps To Enable Well-Being Of Teenagers

Teenagers constitute about a fifth of India’s population. Most mental health disorders emerge in early adolescence and contribute significantly to national mental health burden. The teen years are crucial for laying the foundation of healthy physical and mental development and overall growth. However, several factors like academic and peer pressure, parental expectations, overuse and misuse of technology especially social media are collectively overburdening the teenage mind and leading to higher levels of stress and anxiety in this age group.

The most recent National Mental Health Survey found the point prevalence of mental morbidity to be 7% among adolescents aged 13-17 years, with depressive disorders being the most common morbidity with a point prevalence rate of 2.6%. A review paper published in The Lancet last year added that, “Young people who have a family history of depression, exposure to social stressors (e.g., bullying, discordant relationships, or stressful life events), and belong to certain subgroups (e.g., having a chronic physical health problem or being a sexual minority) are at especially high risk of depression.”

While community and school-based interventions can play a significant role in improving mental health and wellbeing of teenagers, parents can introduce them to wellbeing practices like meditation and mindfulness at home. These time-tested practices can cultivate teens’ emotional resilience and improve their confidence levels. Teens can be initiated to the practice using meditation and mindfulness apps. Daily sessions will help reduce their stress and anxiety, improve their sleep, and make them less reactive.

Here are 4 apps that teenagers can adopt into their daily life to take some time for meditation and mindfulness:

1. EvolveEvolve is a mental health app that enables personal growth and self-care through meditation, mindfulness, and gratitude. Useful for those kick-starting their wellness journey, evolve has solutions for everyone. The app offers daily affirmations, wellness tips, sleep audios as well as a journaling feature which helps users to introspect, stay motivated and achieve some mindfulness in their daily life. The app also helps users to find some inner calm and practice their mindfulness with a personalised daily self-care routine – designed to relax, de-stress and find peace. This app is available to everyone on iOS and Android.
2. Roundglass Living AppRoundglass Living helps users discover wellbeing through meditation and mindfulness, breathwork, yoga, healthy eating, music, sleep stories and more. The app was created by Roundglass, a global organization dedicated to improving the health of individuals and communities through practices of ‘Wholistic Wellbeing’ – a concept hinged on the belief that there’s more than one path to wellbeing. The app provides customised well-being practices and tools, and authentic science-backed content that can help users – both beginners and advanced practitioners – reduce stress and anxiety, manage difficult emotions, develop healthy habits, and nurture relationships. On Roundglass Living, teens can access hours of guided meditation classes and sessions by some of the best teachers in the world, healthy cooking courses and recipes hosted by top chefs, and tune into healing music and sleep stories. The app offers short meditations (3-5 minutes) and longer sessions, ideal for users with more experience and time. Download this app to access a complete well-being ecosystem for your body and mind. This app is available to everyone on iOS and Android.
3. HeadspaceHeadspace is a lifelong guide to better mental health. Through evidence-based meditation and mindfulness tools, mental health coaching, therapy, psychiatry, Headspace helps user to create life-changing habits to support their mental health and find a healthier, happier self. The flagship Headspace app provides mindfulness tools for everyday life, including meditations, sleepcasts, mindful movement and focus exercises to help millions of people around the world be healthier and more productive. This app is available to everyone on iOS and Android.
4. Smiling MindSmiling Mind is a digital led, free tool, developed my psychologists and educators to mindfulness and positive psychology strategies designed to build mental fitness and resilience. The app support good sleep, studies and sport training whilst reducing stress to improve interpersonal relationships. Through this app, users can indulge in some mindfulness minutes to build their mental fitness, anytime and anywhere. This app is specifically curated for kids over the age of 3 years as well as families and teens to cope with their daily stresses. This app is available to everyone on iOS and Android.