Meditation is a simple practice available to all, which encourages and cultivates concentration, enhances calmness and clarity, reduces stress, promotes happiness, and fosters a sense of inner harmony. It involves the practice of focused concentration, repeatedly bringing your mind and attention back to the present moment while observing the flow of thoughts and feelings as they arise and pass. Meditation is a beneficial practice for improving mental and emotional well-being that can be embraced by anyone. In our app Be Now, you will discover a collection of guided meditations tailored to meet your everyday needs.

Meditation has been practiced in various cultures and religions around the world for millennia. However, meditation is not about faith. It’s about finding awareness and achieving inner peace. Meditation isn’t about changing who you are or becoming a better person. It’s about training the mind to be present and gaining a healthy sense of perspective. Meditation is not about trying to have no thoughts or feelings. In contrast, through mindfulness meditation, you’re learning to observe your thought patterns and feelings that come and go without judging them. Eventually, your thoughts stop having such a strong impact on you and controlling you, and you start to better understand how your mind works.

Meditation is a practice that is beneficial for anyone who wants to calm their mind and bring awareness into their life. If you are experiencing chronic stress, difficulty sleeping, lack of balance and peace within yourself and in your relationships, then meditation will definitely be beneficial and useful. The good thing is that meditation doesn’t require any special knowledge or particular skill. You can start meditating anytime and anywhere, and you will almost immediately begin to notice its benefits and effects on your daily life. Also, as you delve deeper into the practice, you will notice long-term benefits in the way you deal with difficult situations.

More than three-quarters of adults experience stress symptoms such as headaches, tiredness, or sleeping problems (American Psychological Association, 2019). Past research has shown that day-to-day stress and a sense of lower overall well-being were much higher in the 2010s compared to the 1990s.

Our brains rarely stay still, spending half of the time mind-wandering. Recent research suggests that our minds almost always wander to negative thoughts, ruminating about the past or worrying about the future, fantasizing, or daydreaming. Meditation decreases activity in the default mode network (DMN), which is the part of the brain responsible for mind-wandering and self-referential thoughts.

Due to the increasing challenges in everyday life and the need to reduce stress in the midst of our busy schedules, meditation seems like a gateway and is therefore increasing in popularity.

Meditation helps us arrive in the present moment, reduce stress, and be calmer and kinder to ourselves and others. It increases brain activity in an area associated with happiness, positive thoughts, and emotions, and evidence shows that regular practice brings prolonged positive changes in these areas.

Meditation may help:

• Reduce stress
• Reduce symptoms of depression
• Improve sleep
• Control pain
• Control anxiety
• Decrease blood pressure
• Promote emotional health
• Enhance self-awareness
• Lengthen attention span
• Reduce age-related memory loss
• Generate kindness
• Fight addictions
• Reduce the inflammatory response caused by stress
• Improve feelings of well-being and decrease distress and job strain
• Increase self-awareness and understanding of oneself
• Reduce feelings of loneliness
• Increase attention, memory, and mental quickness in older volunteers
• Increase kindness and compassion toward oneself and others

Meditation is an experiential practice encompassing various methods and techniques. Within our app, you will discover a range of mindfulness meditations, guided imageries, music and sound healing meditations.

The beauty of our app Be Now lies in the freedom to choose your practice based on your individual needs and mood. If you find yourself uncertain or in need of guidance, our dedicated meditation coach is readily available. Simply click on the central circular button in the lower menu bar to request assistance.

Learning to meditate is fairly simple and straightforward. It is like learning any other skill. It is not about fancy techniques; it is about simplicity. You don’t need to look for meditation hacks; you just need to focus on the basics and get them right.

The good thing is that there’s no such thing as right or wrong meditation. Sometimes you will find it difficult to focus, and your mind will wander, and that’s OK. Thinking is just as natural as breathing, and it’s absolutely normal for the mind to be active when meditating. The key is to observe and acknowledge whatever you are thinking with compassion and without judgment, and bring your attention back to the point of focus (breath). You are the guard of your own mind, watching thoughts coming and going. The most important thing is to be consistent with the practice and not give up. Also, remember that what works for someone else might not work for you, so it’s important to find a meditation practice that meets your needs and complements your personality. In our app, you will find various meditation practices, such as mindfulness meditations, sound meditations, guided vizualisations, walking meditations, sound healing meditations, as well as natural sounds meditations. Just be curious and explore Be Now. We made this app to help you in every possible way.

Research has shown that our environment affects our actions and choices. So, before meditating, it’s important to take care of the space where you are going to meditate. Find a quiet place where you can seclude yourself, eliminating all sources of distraction and temptation. Don’t worry if you can’t find a quiet place; a little bit of background noise is not an issue.

It is good practice to meditate in the same place every day so that you build a habit. You can decorate the space to make it feel cozy and comfortable.

Use a comfortable cushion, chair, or anything else that works for you to sit on with your back straight. As a beginner, you might find it easier to use an upright chair as you familiarize yourself with the practice.

Feel free to decorate the space so that it feels cozy, and don’t forget to put your mobile on airplane mode so that you aren’t distracted by notifications and calls.

It’s important to feel comfortable while meditating as you will need to stay in the same position for some time.

Sitting cross-legged on the floor is one option, but the real key is feeling comfortable and relaxed as you will need to maintain the same posture for several minutes without getting stiff or restless. So, find a comfy cushion or an upright chair and try to keep your back straight, neck relaxed, and chin slightly tucked in. You can rest your hands loosely on your thighs, facing up or down.

Some people prefer to meditate in the morning after waking up, while others prefer to meditate at night before going to bed. Our advice is to find the time of day that feels easiest and most comfortable for you to meditate.

After practicing meditation for a while, you will be able to enter a meditative state at any time of the day, even if there is a crowd and noise around you. However, as a beginner, you will need to devote time and effort to make meditation part of your daily life.

According to research, the ideal duration for a beginner is 10 minutes, and as you become more familiar with the practice, you may want to gradually extend the duration of your meditation sessions.

However, the length of your meditation depends on your preferences, life circumstances, and the time available to you. If sitting in silence for 10 minutes sounds like a lot to handle, you can start with shorter meditations and then gradually increase the duration as you feel comfortable.

Guided imagery, also known as guided visualization, is a stress management and mind-body relaxation technique that helps calm the mind, reduce tension in the body, and promote a sense of peace and tranquility. It’s as easy and pleasant to learn and practice as indulging in a vivid daydream. It involves engaging all the senses (such as vision, sight, smell, touch, and sound) and emotions to visualize positive, peaceful settings, providing a “mental escape” and total relaxation of the mind and body.

For example, you may be guided to visualize a tropical setting, imagining the warm breeze on your skin, the smell of the sea, the sound of the waves, and the beautiful light blue of the water, feeling like you are actually there.

There is no right or wrong way to sit during guided imagery. Unlike meditation, in guided imagery, we can take a comfortable position, either in a chair or lying down, as long as we feel completely comfortable and relaxed.

So, find a comfortable place where you can lie down undisturbed for 10 minutes. Close your eyes and enjoy it!

According to research, guided imagery can reduce the activity of the autonomic nervous system and increase the activity of the parasympathetic nervous system, which in turn lowers blood pressure, slows heart and breathing rates, and aids in relaxing skeletal muscles. It is a powerful therapeutic technique that enhances a person’s coping skills, alleviates fears, uncertainties, and challenges, while simultaneously decreasing feelings of stress, fatigue, pain, and depression.

Guided imagery may:

• Decrease feelings of stress, fatigue, pain, and depression
• Help decrease pre-surgery anxiety
• Reduce pretest anxiety in students
• Improve sleep quality
• Help manage pain after orthopedic surgery
• Decrease post-surgery pain in children
• Help ease pain in patients with cancer, in conjunction with progressive muscle relaxation.

Our personal meditation coach bot, Coach ‘Be,’ is here to assist you in finding the ideal meditation, visualization, relaxing music, and sounds based on your daily mood and needs. Coach Be can also provide meditation tips and advice to help you deepen your practice. Click on the circular Be Now logo in the app’s main menu bar to get started.