5 Reasons Why I Meditate with the Calm App

I’ve tried many meditation methods and the Calm app seems to check all my boxes

Photo courtesy of Calm

I’ve been meditating in various forms for well over a decade. I’ve done sessions at The San Francisco Zen Center, watched YouTube videos, and read countless books. I’ve even tried several different apps and websites over the years. But I keep coming back to using the Calm app. Since it was founded in 2012, Calm has been one of the most used apps on my phone. Here are 5 reasons why it’s worked well for me.

Reason 1 — The Daily Calm

Anytime you name a program or content “daily” anything, you clearly want people to become regular users of it. The Calm app offers up a daily suggested meditation for you when you open it up each day. These roughly ten-minute sessions are lead by Calm’s CEO of MIndfulness Tamara Levitt. Each session has a theme or key learning that may or may not tie-in to the day of the year or seasonality.

One of the biggest struggles new meditators have is knowing where to start. This eliminates this problem. If you just open the app and aren’t sure where to turn, just stick with today’s daily calm and you won’t be disappointed. The relatively short sessions can fit into your schedule quite easily. And aside from silent meditation time, they often include an insightful quote and/or a new word or translation that you may not be familiar with.

The Daily Calm is where I turn to on most meditation mornings. I’ll admit that as a regular listener, there are some repeat sessions. It’s not always a totally brand new session every day. Regardless, it’s often helpful to be reminded of an older meditation that really resonated with you. I find Tamara Levitt’s soothing voice to be the perfect soundtrack for most of my sessions

Reason 2 — The Daily Trip

If Tamara Levitt’s “The Daily Calm” is the long-time favorite in the Calm app, I’d consider Jeff Warren’s work on “The Daily Trip” to be the upstart renegade that takes a slightly different approach. I find Jeff to be honest, vulnerable, snarky, and downright entertaining as hell. Now, these may or may not be something you’re looking for in your meditation teacher.