Apps for Students: Stop, Breathe & Think

Stop, Breath and Think is an app which allows its users to access meditation routines. The app includes a guide to mediating and explains the routines available. It’s a good idea to have a look through the guide before starting to get a grasp of the basics.

At the start of the process, you consider how you feel then rate yourself both mentally and physically. The next step is to choose which emotions best describe your current state. You will then be presented with a list of recommended mediations based on what you told the app in the previous steps. Finally, choose which meditation routine you wish to do then relax and enjoy! Some routines give you the option of how long you wish to do it. A voice will guide you what to do, for example, focus on your breathing or visualise something. Alternatively, if you log-in, the app allows you to use a self-timer.

After completing your session, you can do another mediation or view your progress. In the ‘view progress’ section, you can see your stickers, ‘weekly settledness’ and top emotions. The stickers are awarded to you after completing certain goals such as carrying out a specific number of meditations or meditation at certain times of the day. Your ‘weekly settledness’ is based on how you were feeling mentally and physically and shows how many times you ‘checked in’ to the app. You can also see your ‘top emotions’; the emotions you choose most frequently prior to your meditation sessions.

Some routines include one shorter clip for free and you need to pay for the longer one. You can also purchase additional meditations if you wish. The app developer is a not-for-profit organisation and the money goes towards their projects.

Adding a feature which lets you download a mediation session for you to listen to later could be useful if you were going somewhere that you could not get a WiFi/Internet connection.