Meditations
There is a wide variety of meditations to choose from including mindfulness, progressive muscle relaxation, hypnosis, body scanning and visualisation.
The '5 Nights of Total Relaxation' (which is available on the free access of the app) is informative and each night it guides you through different types of relaxation and meditations. This is great if you're new to mindfulness.
Some of the meditations you get the choice of either a female or male voice, others are just automatically chosen. Different meditations have different voices some I preferred over others. In the settings there is also the option to change the language to French.
One good feature is the ability to favourite meditations so you can quickly go to the ones you prefer; you can also download mediations for when you're not going to have internet access.
There is also a filter to find particular meditations such as 'sleep faster'. 'relaxation', 'insomnia' and 'tinnitus'. There are also meditations for children also for some who benefit from ASMR. Whilst I don't personally benefit from ASMR with my hypersensitivity to noise at times listening to a whispered meditation does help.
Some of my favourite meditation that I enjoy include:
● Walking woodland visualisation
● Grounding meditation for anxiety
● Healing waters for pain relief - this really helped me get a different perspective on pain
● 5 nights of gratitude
● Ocean visualisation
● Relaxing nap
Nap Time Meditations
The nap time meditations are good for getting a refreshing rest during the day. The '5 Days of Napping' is another informative meditation series providing information such as getting into a nap time routine and when is best in the day to take a nap.
Melody Composer
This is probably my favourite feature. I enjoy composing different melodies to suit where I would like to take my mind some sometimes it might take myself into the garden on a breezy day, or to the ocean, or to the city on a rainy day or in the forest.
You can also slide on each sound how loud or quiet you want that particular sound to be to make the perfect mix.
As well as sound effects there is music such as soft piano music, orchestral music, windpipes, and synthesiser music. Under the mixes you can also find 'Sound Journeys' which are 'curated soundscapes inspired by the natural world'.
Some of the music on the composer play at a Solfeggio frequency, for example 'Mood Balance' plays at a frequency of 639Hz. I asked Relax Melodies about this and they explained that this is their healing music range and that the frequency when listened to has healing properties. Some of their healing music includes: 'Emotional Release', 'Raise Energy', 'Energy Cleansing' and 'Anxiety Healer'. To find out more follow this link which will direct you to their blog. (It's quite interesting to read).
Your melody can also be put on timer so if you're having a half hour rest or going off to sleep you can set the timer and the music will fade out and you can also opt for the app to close once the timer has finished.
What I like most about this feature is that it can be used at any time of the day and it's very versatile. I can listen to relax or whilst I'm doing some gentle yoga or whilst I'm crafting as it doesn't take any concentration and it's very relaxing and soothing.
You can also save your favourite mixes and you can give the mix a name to return back to another time and these can be found. You can also submit your mix for other users of the app to listen to and you can find mixes by others also.
Stories
Last night for a change and to try them out I listened to a short story. It was quite relaxing and an enjoyable short story; around half and hour long with a soundscape to go with it which I was able to continue listening to once the story had finished and I eventually nodded off.
I've been listening to the stories a little more. I quite like the fantasy and fairytale stories and I like how each story has it's own soundscape.
There is a wide variety of stories including non-fiction, 3D poetry, and ones for children. They also vary in length from 20 minutes to an hour.
The stories are a nice alternative to actively listening and engaging in a meditation.
Other Features
Breathing Exercises
This is a great visualisation to learn some different breathing practices which can be done at any time.
Sleep Move
This is another feature of the app that I enjoy. It guides you through some either seated or supine movements to stretch out and relax the body ready for sleep but I've actually used them in the day as a form of gentle exercise.
Alarm
This can be set to go off in the morning and progressively gets louder. You can chose from traditional alarm sounds or from one of your mixes.
● Clock
● Bedtime reminder
● Connection to Apple Health
Final Thoughts
It would be nice if some of the voices on the stories and meditations could be improved and for there to always be a male/female voice option.
More stories for those using the free version of the app.
I love being able to compose my own melodies.
I like the wide range of meditations I can listen too but again it would be nice for there to be a small wider selection of those who are using the app for free and for these to be changed every-so-often.
It would be nice if some of the meditations had their own soundscape like with the stories, especially the visualisation meditations.
The website was okay-ish to navigate once I was familiar with where things was located. However an improvement I would strongly suggest would be be to make text larger or for it to make compatible with the device's visual accessibility settings.
Next would be to have a search bar. I know there are are already subcategories but being able to search for 'rain' in sounds or 'self-love' or 'body scan' in the meditations. I would also make the Sleep Moves a key category.
Lastly despite the app being up-to-date the 'Discover' page was always blank so I wan't able to see the latest updates. I also found it impossible to download new sounds unless I went onto my account on my laptop.
Overall I have really enjoyed my month of premium access to right this review and there are many feature that I love but to continuing paying for premium membership would be something I would have to think about.
