Calm Meditation

Scam subscription – It's a scam. I was given a free trial sub from a friend. I didn't use it. Tried to cancel before the expiry. The website wouldn't allow me to cancel. I contacted their customer support, which took 5 days to respond and only responded after they took a yearly subscription fee out to tell me they will issue a refund in 10 days and gave some lame excuse of "being a small team" Definitely didn't help my mental health!

The best – Hubby bought me the calm app about 3or 4 yrs ago. I have been meditating daily since then. I am a 35yr old female with cptsd and other things and it has helped my sanity immeasurably. The things I like: - It starts you off as a beginner (disregard this whole playlist if you're not). It explains why stuff helps and the actual HOW TO of everything… Read more

meditation. - The playlists work in order of how you complete them, Eg you start off with the beginners one then you'll be set for the 10 days one and so on and so forth. It doesn't get harder and it doesn't matter if you've done it once, you can do it again any time. - Perhaps the biggest + that I've come across in using this app for 4 yrs now is that it truly is non-denominational. The stories and ethical/moral tales told are always non religious and apply to every person regardless of your faith or like me, lack there of. I find religion extremely triggering but this app is very careful of that and is very respectful to the ppl of (any) faiths and atheist views on the planet. - Especially the Daily Trip..The Daily Calm tends slightly buddhist but not overly. - It has sleep stories by a plethora or narrators. There's definitely something for everyone in here. Kids included. The kids one's by Tamara Levitt are actually my favourites. Especially The Little Mermaid. The pacing is good and she gets ever so gently softer as the story progresses but not so much that it wakes you up because its that noticable. (I'm a light sleeper) The stories are varied and some are more descriptive than others. THere are long ones and short ones. Kids ones for as young as 3yrs old and even some for the older generations too.- Eg the shipping forecast. - Huge array of celeb authors, narrators and music artists EG: Harry Styles, Matthew McConaughey; Erik Braa; Alan Sklar; Idris Elba; etc; LeBron James; Katy Perry; Sleeping At Last, SHAED, Alanis Morissette, Ariana Grande, Bill Laswell, Diplo; Brahms, Kacey Musgraves, Keith Urban, Lindsay Stirling, Mike Shinoda, Moby,Post Malone, Shawn Mendez, (honestly, there are too many to list lol) - If you're into ASMR there's stories in here for that too. - There are mental health check ins - There's a multitude of background scenes and songs etc for while you're meditating incase you need some white noise behind it to help you zen out or block out background noise. -The "Emotions Series" actually TEACHES you how to handle emotions, and does the very basic framework of some therapeutic modalities which have great sucess rates with certain illnesses. Eg CBT and DBT which helps BPD, Anxiety, Depression, PTSD etc. I learned more about how to handle strong emotions from this series than years in therapy. I learned HOW to handle stuff, how to let stuff go, how to sit with feelings and how to come back to my centre and ground when I need to. This playlist alone as helped my PTSD more than any therapy ever has. -The "Daily Trip" is very laid back and a very easy listening and full of very practical and fun techniques. I wish they were longer honestly. - There are Songs and a massive array of music to choose from that you can put on just to listen to or as part of a nightly winding down routine etc (there's actually some in there for that) There's also afternoon ones and mornings as well as meditations for big events and things that make you nervous eg flying, public speaking etc. -There is a BIG online community for this app. On facebook and IG. There is support and great friends can be made from it. - When there are any issues, their ticketing people are always super fast to reply and do their best to help you - The daily Move is fun and a great insightful easy way to help your physical body with the day to day stuff of being a human. Its not too intense and its not judging you or assuming you can do stuff that you can't. -The Daily Jay is ok i guess... I personally don't really get into the whole coaching and motivational speaker scene but its there if you do respond well to those kinds of things. The few I have tried of it, were pretty good. Very uplifting and easy to understand and follow along with. Thre are also some of these by big Celebs too. -ALL meditations are easy to follow, use practical non judgemental language and the main narrator Tamara Levitt has a very calming, nurturing reassuring tone and personality. I absolutely love her. There are other narrators now in the app too and in other languages as well which is helpful for those whose first language is not English. - There are timers and open ended meditations as well for those who don't need guidance. - You can download content to use offline/plane mode. Super helpful for travelling or sleeping etc. - It has a setting that lets you put your phone on Do Not Disturb mode while the app is open and then stops that mode once its done. - Their blog publishes calendars with little challenges each month and they have other products they sell too if you want more stuff from them.

Things that could be better: - The app keeps changing the layout every 6m or so as they add in new content. This makes me kinda annoyed that I have to mess around to find the content that used to be front and centre lol. Some of the earlier layouts were far easier to get to the content than these newer ones. - They make playlists but still have yet to allow us to create and manage our own playlists. I have put tickets in asking for this for 2 yrs now and they promise its coming but I'm yet to see it. - It can take up a lot of space on your phone if you download a ton of offline meditations and content. - Its more of a overall wellness app its NOT for people who are super adept at certain styles of meditating and or who are a strict buddhist etc and looking for something really buddhist. While it does have that slant about it, its much more 'mainstream' and, understandably, some Buddhists find this insulting to their faith. - Its quite expensive. It is absolutely worth lookign around for an online coupon and or black friday sales and getting the lifetime memebership if it's something yuou think you will benefit from. Like, I said, my hubby bought me a month or 2 and then I bought it as a lifetime thing because it helped my mental health that much... That being said- You only get out of this stuff what you put into it. Meditation won't cure your mental illnesses but it will help you increase your strength and resilience to them. Or at least, it has for me. Overall

Terrible bugs in this App for iphones – I am fed up with this App. I have been using the CALM meditation app for a couple of years now and I am very unhappy with them. I download specific sessions to listen to whilst commuting to work and they disappear from the offline section and I have to waste my data downloading them over and over again. I have contacted CALM about this issue… Read more

several times and I get the same generic response. They can't seem to rectify this issue. I paid AUD$59.99 for this junk. Needless to say I will not be renewing my subscription next year.