Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsHow Balance WorksHow I Used BalancePros & ConsFinal Thoughts
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
How Balance Works
How I Used Balance
Pros & Cons
Final Thoughts
As aneurodivergentmental health professional with a history ofanxiety, I am always on the hunt for reputable mental health apps. I often struggle withmeditationapps due to a combination of a short attention span and a busy schedule that makes sitting down for extended meditation exercises difficult.
What’s more, unlike similar apps that present a variety of meditation options to choose from, Balance is customizable. It continuously asks the user questions about their experience, needs, and goals, and it adjusts each meditation based on this feedback. This means that every user receives a unique, one-of-a-kind program based on their specific needs and preferences. This kind of personalization isn’t always common in apps like this, many of which want you to follow a set schedule for their exercises and lessons.
I found that this customization helped me much more with my foray into meditation than previous programs I’ve tried. For example, I was able to adjust the length of meditation sessions if I knew I would struggle with a longer meditation, and I could give immediate feedback if a particular concept was not working for me.
I tried the Balance app for one month and loved its customization options. Read on to learn more about my experience with Balance.
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How Balance Works and How I Signed Up
To be honest, I had not heard of this app before I started this review. According to thewebsite, Balance offers “meditation that adapts toyou.” This intrigued me because, as someone who feels like I am “bad” at meditating, I often don’t know where to start.
Balance offers customized meditation experiences based on my feedback each day and my personal goals from using the app. For example, after completing a meditation about abody scan, the app asked me questions about how I felt afterward and if I enjoyed the experience, and it incorporated that feedback into future recommendations. It also regularly asked me if I noticed any change in my focus since that was the primary goal I indicated at sign-up. While research has shown the mental health benefits of meditation,Balance does not have information on its website about how its developers researched the effectiveness of this program.
How Much Balance Costs
Upon signing up for Balance, the app asked me to indicate my goal or goals for meditation. My choices were to reducestress, improvesleep, increasefocus, and improvemood. The app then asked me which was my top priority, and I chose increasing focus.
Verywell Mind / Amy Marschall
The app provided some education about meditation, most of which was familiar to me due to my job as a therapist, and recommended that I use Balance at least five times per week. I was able to set up reminders and alerts, which myADHDbrain found wonderfully helpful.
When I started using Balance, it recommended a 10-day series of meditations on getting in touch with mybreath. Each exercise built on the last day, reminding me about skills for breath work and encouraging me to practice them during the session.
Before trying my first meditation, Balance gave me two tips: Practice daily, and remember that it’s okay if your mind wanders.
The app would recommend a length for each session, but I had the option to change the length if I wanted to. I could choose between three, five, or 10-minute meditations, and I could choose if I wanted a masculine or feminine voice.
Five-Minute MeditationsI really like five-minute meditations because they are long enough for me to feel engaged but not so long that I find my mind wandering, and I could choose a five-minute meditation even if the app recommended 10 minutes on a given day.
Five-Minute Meditations
I really like five-minute meditations because they are long enough for me to feel engaged but not so long that I find my mind wandering, and I could choose a five-minute meditation even if the app recommended 10 minutes on a given day.
After I made my selections, the pre-recorded voice talked me through a breathing exercise. I noticed right away that the recording mentioned my specific answers to questions (for example, it mentioned that I was familiar with meditation as a concept and that I wanted to work on improving myfocus).
On the first day, the guide spent a lot of time describing the activity causing me to focus on certain sensations in my body. Over time, the guidance was less directive, with the speaker encouraging me to simply practice the breathing skills for a predetermined amount of time.
This approach to teaching the skills felt like learning to ride a bike, with a parent slowly providing less support as the child becomes more capable of balancing independently.
Each day, Balance prompted me to start my morning with a meditation exercise that built on what I had done the day before. It let me choose when I wanted to meditate and sent me a notification at that time, though I could open the app early or wait until later if I wanted to. It asked me questions about my experience the previous day and took this into consideration with each morning’s practice. It also offered educational information about why each skill was helpful based on my specific goals.
In addition to the morning meditations, Balance had dozens of other meditations I could complete at my convenience. These meditations also mentioned my specific plan and seemed customized based on my responses to other meditations. In this way, Balance both pre-selected specific meditations and let me choose other meditations as I wanted.
Tracking My Progress
Every week, Balance prompted me to complete a progress tracker that looked at my use of the app and whether or not I felt more focused. The tracker included a calendar indicating which days I used the app, how many days I had used it in a row, how much time I spent meditating overall, and which meditations I used. It also quizzed me about the meditations I had done to see if I was benefiting from the educational information.
FocusI feel like my month using Balance helped me focus on other areas of my life, and I have been better able to keep on task with both work and personal tasks.
Focus
I feel like my month using Balance helped me focus on other areas of my life, and I have been better able to keep on task with both work and personal tasks.
In addition, I noticed an improvement in my ability to gently redirect myself when my mind wanders rather than becoming frustrated.
Pros and Cons
Overall, Balance has some great educational materials as well as guided meditations that helped me improve my meditation skills, though it lacks some features that other apps have.
ProsFree first year and affordable subscriptionsCustomized plans based on your chosen goalsBoth courses and individual meditation sessions offeredTracks your progress and adjusts to meet your needsLifetime membership available
Free first year and affordable subscriptions
Customized plans based on your chosen goals
Both courses and individual meditation sessions offered
Tracks your progress and adjusts to meet your needs
Lifetime membership available
No research information provided on its efficacy
Fewer script options than other, similar apps
Although Balance does not have research published confirming its effectiveness, the types of exercises it offers have research backing,and I felt that the meditations I completed were high-quality and consistent with what is advertised on the website.
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2 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Schlechta Portella CF, Ghelman R, Abdala V, Schveitzer MC, Afonso RF.Meditation: Evidence map of systematic reviews.Front Public Health. 2021;9:742715. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2021.742715American Psychological Association.Mindfulness meditation: A research-proven way to reduce stress.
2 Sources
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Schlechta Portella CF, Ghelman R, Abdala V, Schveitzer MC, Afonso RF.Meditation: Evidence map of systematic reviews.Front Public Health. 2021;9:742715. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2021.742715American Psychological Association.Mindfulness meditation: A research-proven way to reduce stress.
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Schlechta Portella CF, Ghelman R, Abdala V, Schveitzer MC, Afonso RF.Meditation: Evidence map of systematic reviews.Front Public Health. 2021;9:742715. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2021.742715American Psychological Association.Mindfulness meditation: A research-proven way to reduce stress.
Schlechta Portella CF, Ghelman R, Abdala V, Schveitzer MC, Afonso RF.Meditation: Evidence map of systematic reviews.Front Public Health. 2021;9:742715. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2021.742715
American Psychological Association.Mindfulness meditation: A research-proven way to reduce stress.
Hannah Owens, LMSW
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