Oak 2.5.2
Both [Calm and Headspace] require an annual subscription fee, so I tested their free trials. […] It turns out that I find celebrity voices distracting.
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Oak has a small set of both guided and unguided meditations […] Along with a few short breathing exercises […] And a couple of routines to help you fall asleep
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As someone with three kids and thus a noisy house, I appreciate the large library of background sounds, which includes things like cave water, fireplace, rain, Tibetan “om,” and simple white noise.
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The main thing you miss with Oak is variety. Calm and Headspace offer new meditations daily with different lessons or things to think about. I find those distracting. I just want a few minutes to clear my head, not be inundated with a message of the day.
Update (2022-10-07): Craig Grannell:
I generally recommend Oak as well. But if people want tailored and don’t fancy a massive fee, Smiling Mind is a good bet.
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I switched to Oak as well. It’s a solid app with no real frills. Syncs to HealthKit which is a big thing for me personally. Being able to track the trends on that can be super useful. When I start to get more depressed or anxious I know I need to look at that and amp up the time i’m meditating.
I will say that the only series that got me really interested in meditation was the intro lessons on Calm. I really was able to follow the guy that did the guided voice work, for me it worked really well.
I can't speak to Headspace but I bought a lifetime sub to Calm when it was on sale (seems to be once a year around Thanksgiving). It seems pretty clear to me this "reviewer" didn't actually try Calm all that much based on how he describes it.
Then he says: "Fundamentally, meditation is about breathing and clearing your mind, not addressing specific problems." Actually no it's not about that at all, it's about being present, nothing more, nothing less. There is no need to concentrate on the breath or "clearing your mind".
I have to assume Kyle probably is referring to Jeff Warren's "How to Meditate". Warren is excellent and is very down to Earth about how he approaches meditation. He also has a daily meditation which is the reason I bought the lifetime sub.
I use https://mynoise.net. It offers a wide range of different noises and soundscapes. There are a lot of prebuilt combinations. No subscription required. No meditations, though.