顶空is the best meditation app out there—here’s why

Confession time: I don’t do well with sitting still and focusing my mind. While I don’t think I’m unique in these attributes, they make meditation a challenge. So when I was tasked with testing popularmeditation apps，，，，I wasn’t sure how successful I’d be at picking it up as a personal practice. Nonetheless, with our top pick顶空，我成长为享受练习，甚至期待每天的内容。

If Headspace can convert as skeptic like me, I’m convinced others will enjoy its effective, beginner-friendly sessions, as well as other offerings such as sleep-inducing bedtime stories and guided movement "workouts" that incorporate mindfulness in at-home strengthening and yoga poses. For people who struggle to get peace from a restless mind (or body), Headspace is a well-rounded meditation app with an abundance of diverse, high-quality content.

What is Headspace?

When you first download and open the Headspace app, it launches you right into the mindset of meditation. One of the app’s cartoon figures appears, expanding and then shrinking, with a reminder to breathe in and out. You’re then prompted to create an account or sign in, after which you’re redirected to the home screen.

There, you'll find a daily meditation, as well as the “Wake Up,” a short sequence of videos that explain concepts or answer user questions, among other things. These videos usually start with a quick intro, followed by a short meditation—usually a minute, sometimes less—then circle back to the topic of the day. At first I thought I wouldn’t like or use the videos, but I came to thoroughly enjoy them. One of the best parts is users can skip over certain clips. I usually forgo the short meditation, especially if I am opening the app with the intent of meditating anyway.

From the bottom of the main screen, users can navigate between tabs, labelled “Today,” which is the home screen, “Meditate,” “Sleep,” and “Move,” for quick access to specific content. The main page also has a search button in the upper right, allowing users to find meditations by keywords such as “stress” or “focus.”

该界面是用户友好和直观的。我从来没有感到沮丧，试图找到一个主题或会议，这是所有冥想应用程序都应该努力的事情，鉴于它们的全部目的是帮助您放松。

顶空如何帮助您进行冥想？

顶空boasts a broad and plentiful library of meditations, ranging from work stress to anxiety, and even sessions geared toward coping with certain emotions, like loneliness and anger.

许多调解是通过两个声音分别记录的，一个男性和一名女性。男性声音是该应用程序的联合创始人的声音安迪·帕迪科姆（Andy Puddicombe）。关于他的冥想风格以及总体空间，我最喜欢的事情之一是他提供的接受和积极的指导。这些会议并不能使用户感到分心，这对于刚起步的人来说几乎是不可避免的。Puddicombe承认这是发生的，并提供了有关如何管理流浪思维的提示。（在免费版本中可以访问的“基础”冥想课程中强调了这些技巧，因此您可以在提交之前确定Puddicombe风格的这一方面是否对您说话。）

While other meditation apps allow users to select sessions that are longer or shorter, Headspace users can change the length of almost any session before they begin the actual meditation. So if you’re interested in the “Listening to Others Meditation” session, for example, but only have five minutes, you can select the duration (three, five, or 10 minutes) that works for you. Other meditations are as long as 20 minutes, but users can almost always choose a shorter time.

During daytime sessions, I never nodded off, something that became a problem with other meditation apps I tried. Regardless of how I meditated—lying down, sitting, on the couch—my eyes only started sliding shut on one occasion. I found that the sessions were soothing without being so relaxing (or boring) that I fell asleep.

该应用教导eight meditation techniques，，，，ranging from body scanning to focused attention and reflection. That said, I found fewer sessions for some techniques compared to others. I was only able to locate one definitivebody scan，您从关注头或脚趾的关注开始，然后向上或下降。更重要的是，该会议的最大持续时间为三分钟。身体扫描被纳入了一些夜间的摔倒中，当我尝试更多会议时，我发现了这一点。我只是希望通过搜索关键字“身体扫描”更容易找到它们。

无论技术如何，我尝试的绝大多数冥想都是呼吸的。188bet手机版这种类型的冥想对许多用户都是有益的，因为呼吸是一种普遍的体验和可控制的动作。但是，对于某些人来说，例如表现为胸部紧绷的人，这些冥想可能会使这种感觉更糟。

How can Headspace help you sleep?

The sleep content on Headspace is a nice perk and provides enough variety for a casual user. It includes a handful of guided sessions to relax before you doze off, as well as睡觉casts，是某些（通常是化妆）场所的音频之旅。

睡觉casts start with a “wind down,” such as a short visualization or breathing exercise. Afterward, listeners hear a detailed description of an imaginary location they tour with their mind’s eye, and it's paired with white noise to match the setting. (For example, in “Rainday Antiques,” it sounds as if it’s raining outside the building.) Users are given a slider to adjust the balance of the ambiance to voice, which is a nice touch. However, you can’t change the voice on a given session, as with the meditations.

The sleepcasts provide more than enough time for most people to fall asleep, running for 45 to 55 minutes. That's well longer than the typical10到20分钟最多打扰from when their head hits the pillow. The recordings are thoughtfully designed and slightly altered each time they're played. According to Headspace, this variation means anxious sleepers can’t memorize the exact narrative or track the passage of time by recalling when certain details or phrases emerge. The only downside, aside from lack of voice customization, is that users can’t skip forward or backward. So, if you want to bypass the relaxation exercise, for example, you're out of luck.

这个应用程序还提供了大约两个星期的来临了t-specific guided exercises, including “wind downs” and “nighttime SOS” sessions. Wind downs prepare you for sleep by helping you relax and let go of the day. Unlike sleepcasts, which run as you doze off, these sessions are designed as bedtime prep. For people who like to sleep in silence, these come in shorter durations, anywhere from one to 20 minutes.

There are five nighttime SOS sessions that users can turn to when their sleep is interrupted by stressors like work, nightmares, or pain. These are 10 minutes long and their length cannot be adjusted, not that you’d want to fuss with that after waking up bleary-eyed from a bad dream.

To fall asleep, users can also choose certain sounds called “sleep music” or “sleep radio,” though the latter isn’t really what you’d think. Sleep radio refers to 500-minute recordings (or more than eight hours!) of one of three categories of sound: rain, ocean, or music.

睡眠部分顶部空间不是应用程序的地方shines. Some of the selections are too small to be noteworthy, and the overall breadth of content is somewhat limited. But if you’re like me and just want a sleep story every now and again, it will serve you just fine.

顶空如何改善您的锻炼方式？

除了预期的冥想内容外，Headspace还有一个移动部分，其中包括数周的锻炼课程，通常在10到30分钟之间，从“正念有氧运动”到“休息日冥想”。该内容的宗旨之一是将正念和呼吸整合到运动或一般运动中。

I tried one of the featured daily exercises called “Reframing Anxiety,” a 20-minute workout that required limited equipment (an optionalfoam rollerandyoga mat). While it was labelled as a workout, it wasn’t physically taxing. Rather than getting my heart rate up, the session emphasized breathing and focusing on the movements—mainly slow full-body stretches and yoga poses. During the session, I fell behind a couple of times because I was unfamiliar with an exercise and needed to watch the on-screen guide. Fortunately, like the daily Wake Up videos, there’s an option to rewind and fast-forward, so I could easily backtrack.

虽然移动部分是一个不错的选择，但我有时会使用，但这是我为完全访问而付费的充分理由。

How much does Headspace cost?

顶空has a免费版本，但内容仅限于一些基本的指导冥想和一个旨在夜间放松的会议。用户可以尝试使用10条课程的基础课程，从而很好地您品的样式和顶空冥想节奏。但是，那些希望建立每日冥想练习的人将需要更多的内容，从而使付费期权成为更好的赌注。HeadSpace提供了为期两周的高级版本免费试用，可让您在购买前进行更多挖掘。

顶空recently lowered its annual fee to $69.99, from nearly $100. That breaks down to $6 a month (less than a basic Netflix subscription) and puts its cost in the midrange of the meditation apps we tested. The developers provide free access to certain groups, includingK-12 educators，，，，and it's also currently giving complimentary subscriptions to医疗保健专业人员。

为什么要尝试顶空

Headspace提供了一系列功能，从优质的冥想到每日视频以及特定于睡眠和运动的内容。该应用程序的全部功能良好，虽然它可能对某些用户或特定的冥想技术伸展得太薄，但内容却达到了一定程度的抛光和质量。188bet手机版我还没有对顶空冥想课程或睡眠播放感到失望。尽管睡眠和运动内容不足以让我下载该应用程序，但我认为它们是值得的奖励。

顶空excels in its intended use: meditation. I found myself wanting to use it beyond the testing I did for my job here at Reviewed. For someone who was skeptical of the practice, that says something.

Sign up for Headspace

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