It should offer meditations of varying lengths and allow you to download meditations for offline use.

A wide range of meditation options: A great app should include guided meditations but also have hands-off options, like timers, for unguided sessions.

We favored meditation sessions that weren’t so long that a beginner would feel overwhelmed by them.

Beginner courses: A good curriculum with structured, easy-to-follow daily meditations can mean the difference between establishing a habit or falling off after just a few days.

(Brewer created his own app, Unwinding Anxiety, and has been featured on other mindfulness apps, including Simple Habit and Calm.) Rather, meditation is simply a helpful tool, especially when used in conjunction with visits to a health professional who can administer other proven forms of treatment, such as behavioral therapy. But on its own, it isn’t a panacea, particularly if you suffer from a mental health issue.

Meditation can aid in keeping unhelpful brain activity in check. Although such analysis can be helpful, overdoing it can be associated with disorders like depression and anxiety. About 47% of our waking life is spent analyzing ourselves, said Brewer, who has tested and developed a range of mindfulness-based apps. We’re thinking about our past and our future, dissecting that one awkward interaction we had last week when we could have said something better, wondering what other people think about us.

Judson Brewer, director of research and innovation at the Mindfulness Center at Brown University, even if it appears that we’re not doing anything in particular, the mind may in fact be active.

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