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Have You Tried Mindfulness Apps?
24 September 2024
Allison subscribed to Calm and appreciated the soothing quality of the the Bilateral Stimulation (EMDR) recordings.
Tags: allison read, balance, breathing, mental health, mindfulness
A client asked me what mindfulness and meditation app I use. I tend to rely on my journal, this breathing exercise, prayers and hymns I learned as a child, and these six affirmations when I need help centering myself. (If my six affirmations don't feel like enough, I will often add one to help me through a challenging time.)
However, my client’s question made me realize I might be missing out on some additional support. I then saw an ad for Calm and decided to start there.
Right away, I remembered that I’m often overwhelmed by the number of choices on these apps and irritated by some of the voices or the messages in the meditation recordings. However, this time I found the Bilateral Stimulation (EMDR) recordings and was intrigued since I did Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) work with my last therapist.
When my therapist recommended EMDR to help me with some issues where I felt particularly stuck, I turned to a psychiatrist I teach with for insight. She shared with me that the research on why EMDR works for some people is sometimes seen as mixed and inconclusive and that some psychiatrists just don’t support it for those reasons.
However, she also said she’d seen EMDR work for many people and that with a competent therapist it would be safe and that if I didn’t like how I felt or my progress, all I needed to do was stop. I proceeded with EMDR and found it to be incredibly helpful as I worked to let go of some past sadness and find new ways to cope with some persistent disappointment that was causing me anxiety.
I’ll let you do your own internet search to learn more about EMDR. On the Calm app you’ll find this, “Bilateral Stimulation (EMDR) Playlist: Calming and anxiety-relieving music that has been sonically engineered to gently alternate between the right and left ears. A massage for your brain. (Must be listened to with headphones.)”
I was comforted by the different playlists I listened to and appreciated that all of them were three to six minutes long. I also enjoyed the break from the “noise” of the words embedded in my standard mindfulness tools and was able to return to my tasks with better focus. I plan to keep using them each morning for the next week and when I feel my anxiety poking me to see if they will be worth the annual fee of $48.99 for the first year.
I’m also looking forward to trying Gently Back to Sleep Vol. 2 since they are all soothing ambient noise tracks rather than a guided verbal meditation which always irritates and unsettles me in the middle of the night. I tend to sleep well most of the time, but when I do wake up in the middle of the night these days my mind is busier with work projects than usual. It’s a comfort to know that I have something new to try.
Which apps or recordings have you tried and what kind of experiences have you had?
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