Meditate anytime, anywhere
Evolve helps you integrate meditation and mindfulness into your day effortlessly
Daily meditation with
“The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion.”
Meditation made light and refreshing
At Evolve, we believe meditation should not feel intense. Meditation is an activity that should feel cheery and uplifting.
Tailored around your daily schedule
Designed to help you add 5-10 minutes of meditation and mindfulness to your day. Whether it’s the first thing in the morning, over a chai break or on your way back from work – there’s lots to choose from!
Proven mindfulness techniques
The state of mindfulness can be achieved through numerous meditation techniques. In the app, you’ll find breathing, gratitude, grounding and visualisation meditations.
Table of Contents
The science of meditation
What is meditation?
Meditation is when you spend some time focusing on your breath, a thought or an object in order to achieve a mentally stable and calm state of mind. Meditation is both a skill and an exercise. You spend time focusing on yourself, connecting with your body and mind. Meditation is about observing and acknowledging your thoughts and feelings without judgment. With regular meditation practice, you will understand them and yourself better. When you meditate, you give your mind a chance to relax and be at ease. As a result, you become calmer, content & compassionate. Moreover, you end up staying and truly experiencing the present moment, which is so important in today’s fast paced world.
The importance of meditation
The world has changed in the past year. It’s become virtual, digital and time is going so fast that you barely get a moment to enjoy or understand what is happening around you. It’s become difficult and many things are not in your control. Moreover, you’re always connected to the world around you, leaving you overloaded with information, be it through the news or social media. There is a need to find peace of mind and not get bogged down by negativity.
- Meditation helps you balance
- Meditation helps you connect with yourself
- Meditation helps you relax
- Meditation helps your mental health
Meditation helps you balance
Meditations help reduce stress and anxiety. Whenever you’re feeling negative or bogged down, it’s a great way to take some time out for yourself and balance. Be it by focusing on your breath, taking a short walk or settling your thoughts, meditation helps you calm your mind, relax your body and come back to balance.
Meditation helps you connect with yourself
When things get too much and you’re just going through life, it’s important to take some time for yourself. Meditation is a great way to spend time with yourself and allow your mind and body to gain some clarity. The importance of meditation lies in its simplicity and the fact that you get to spend quality time with yourself, detached from everything else around you. You experience so many different thoughts and stresses that are bound to take its toll on you. As a result, you connect with yourself and understand how you are really feeling.
Meditation helps you relax
Meditation can help you reset, relax and give your mind some rest. You take a break from that and balance your mind and body. It also helps you feel relaxed and more positive. When you take some time out to be with yourself and meditate, you put all the stress and tension away from those few moments. This helps you stay balanced and relaxed. You may not realise it at first, but after a few days, you will start to experience positive benefits of meditation in your physical and mental well-being.
Meditation improves mental health
Meditation is a great way to practice a few minutes of mental hygiene or manage your emotions everyday. It’s a proven, natural and effective way to increase your mental and physical health over time and make you productive and happier. Meditation will help you manage stress and respond to anxiety in a positive and calmer manner, rather than lash out at it. It’ll help you improve your focus and even improve sleep quality! Meditation is important as it helps you truly connect with your body and mind.
Evolve and meditation
Looking to start practicing meditation everyday? Evolve is the app for you.
At Evolve, we believe mediation is not about closing your eyes and sitting cross legged. It’s a state of mind that can be achieved anywhere, anytime with the right guidance. Our mindfulness content is designed to help you add 5-10 minutes of meditation and mindfulness to your day. We offer a a variety of proven content that is light and refreshing and includes breathing exercises, visualisation, gratitude and more.
Your everyday life is already so stressful and serious, meditation need not be the same. You may have thought meditation is an intense practice. Think again.
Evolve promises:
- Meditation made easy & joyful
- Meditations centred around everyday things like chai, walking and cleaning
- Delightful sleep audios to make you sleep better & faster
- Quick stress and anxiety relief with proven techniques
- Improved focus with bite-sized guided meditation
What are the benefits of meditation?
When you practice meditation, you are looking after your emotional and physical well-being. Many individuals will meditate to manage stress, reduce anxiety and balance your body and mind. However, there are many lesser known benefits of meditation and mindfulness which can have a positive impact on your emotional and physical health!
The emotional benefits of meditation
- Reduce anxiety
- Sleep better
- Stress relief
- Improve focus
- Reduce anger
Reduce anxiety
One of the many advantages of meditation is that it helps reduce anxiety. Meditation allows your mind to relax, calm down and keeps you mindful. You stay in the present moment and calm your racing mind from many thoughts. When practiced regularly, meditation causes the part of your brain that controls anxiety to shrink. Meditation helps you navigate your thoughts and help your brain focus in the present, giving you respite from anxious thoughts.
Sleep better
Sleep is a key function and we need it every day, and sleeping better is one of the key benefits of meditation.. Getting enough sleep helps our body and mind in many ways. When you meditate, you focus on your breath and slow it down. This helps your body prepare to sleep well! Meditation helps you switch off for the day, relax your body & mind and allow you to slowly prepare for a night of good sleep. Meditation helps you get rid of racing thoughts, relieve stress at night and put you in a positive mindset. Moreover, meditation helps boost the production of serotonin, which regulates your internal body clock and is integral for the production of melatonin. Melatonin is the hormone that creates restful sleep! As a result, you sleep better, faster and wake up refreshed and ready for the day.
Reduce stress
One of the key benefits of meditation is stress relief. Meditation is known to lower stress and reduce tension within your body. It builds resilience and improves your response to stress. The downtime meditation provides to your body and mind is extremely important in reducing stress. Moreover, it soothes your nervous system as meditation helps in decreasing the production of cortisol, a stress hormone while increasing serotonin, a feel good hormone.
Improve focus
Improving your focus and productivity are other main advantages and benefits of meditation. When you meditate, you focus your mind to a particular thought, object or breath. Every time your mind may start to wander, you train your awareness to come back to the point of focus. This translates into real life as well. If you get distracted during work by a message or your surroundings, meditation helps. You can come back and focus on the task at hand quicker and better. If you feel your mind floating away, a simple break to meditate for focus can help restore your attention. Regular meditation helps you improve focus over time and allows you to achieve more with better productivity.
Reduce anger
Nobody likes to be angry, and meditation helps you relax and reduce anger. Meditation helps you find a peaceful and calm state of mind. A benefit of meditation is that it spreads positivity through your body and mind, builds compassion and helps you control and reduce your anger. As you meditate, you become more aware of your thoughts and feelings. As a result, regular meditation practice can help identify the reasons for your anger and improve your response to anger.
The physical benefits of meditation
In order to understand the physical benefits of meditation, you must understand the impact of stress and anxiety on your body. Stress can cause havoc and prolonged stress can create long-term issues. It increases your chances of burnout, heart disease, migraines and can suppress the immune system. It can even lead to depression and sleep disorders!
This is why meditation is very important. Meditation helps relax your body and mind and directly reduces cortisol levels in your body. It can ward off the risk of heart disease, improve your immunity, ensure you sleep well every night and control your blood pressure and cholesterol levels!
- Reduced risk of heart disease
- Improved immunity
- Helps you relax
Reduced risk of heart disease
Meditation helps reduce cortisol and stress and helps your heart stay healthy. Have you ever heard of a stress induced heart attack? That happens when stress gets too much. Meditation ensures it is reduced and there’s lower chance of heart disease and heart attacks. A heart that takes less stress has lower chances of heart failure or strokes and blood vessels that are relaxed rather than filled with cortisol show reduced blood pressure problems.
Improved immunity
Meditation makes you a healthier and happier person. It reduces stress, anxiety and the risk of heart disease. Moreover, better sleep also leads to a better immune system. Thus, one of the main physical benefits of meditation include improving your immune system! Meditation reduces the risk of inflammation, headaches and helps you feel better.
More relaxed
Meditation helps reduce cortisol and tension and helps you relax. Moreover, meditation helps normalise your breathing rate, which lowers blood pressure and heart rate, allowing you to relax. As a result, you feel calmer, happier and balanced.
The physical benefits of meditation are clear. Moreover, a high-functioning immune system which isn’t compromised due to stress and anxiety leads to a healthier and happier you!
The different meditation benefits for the brain
The brain is the part of the body where meditation can really show its worth. You become far more capable of coping with negative emotions with regular meditation practice. However, meditation not only changes your mindset and perspective, but also physically strengthens your brain, making it more positive and compassionate. It’s one of the biggest and underrated benefits of meditations!
How does this manifest itself? Let’s take a look.
- Improve memory
- Increase happiness
- Makes you kinder & compassionate
Improve memory
Meditation benefits for the brain is better memory and recall. When you meditate and practice it regularly, the cerebral cortex of your brain blooms. It deals with mental functions such as knowledge, memory and concentration. When you meditate regularly, you give your brain clarity and allow for better blood flow, leading to better memory capacity. With regular meditation, you sleep well and get enough deep sleep, which helps consolidate memories as well! Moreover, you become more mindful when meditating, allowing for better recall and memory.
Increase happiness
The benefits of meditation are plenty and happiness is another one. Meditation helps produce feel-good chemicals into your nervous system and reduces the size of the brain’s anxiety center, the amygdala. This reduces negative emotions such as anger and stress. Moreover, it helps constructive and positive thoughts flow into your head and helps you stay in a balanced and clear state of mind. This helps you stay happier all around!
Makes you kinder and compassionate
Meditation helps cultivate compassion, empathy and kindness within you. The more time you spend with your thoughts and feelings, noticing them, observing them and understanding them, the better you understand yourself. It puts everything in perspective and you start to appreciate the simpler and everyday things in life. Your brain’s grey matter area also increases with regular meditation. This area regulates emotions and problem-solving skills. As a result, you are able to distance yourself better from negative emotions and become kinder and show more compassion to yourself and others.
Meditation for beginners
Meditation is a simple way to bring your mind and body to balance and practicing it regularly has many benefits for your physical and mental health. But as someone who is new to meditation, how do you start? What should you know? How will it feel? Meditation has many different methods and techniques, confusion is normal. So if you’re getting started, here’s how to practice meditation for beginners.
How to get started with meditation for beginners
In order to get started with meditation for beginners, you need to find a meditation routine that works for you. Here are answers to some questions you may have when you want to prepare to start meditation.
Q1. Where should I meditate?
The first steps for meditation at home include finding a location that works for you. It can be somewhere you feel comfortable, ideally that is quiet and with little to no interruptions. If you can practice meditation at the same location everyday, it will help cultivate a habit!
Q2. For how much time should I meditate?
The amount of time you choose to spend meditating may change based on experience and circumstances. You may want to meditate for 5 minutes a day or 10 minutes a day, whatever feels comfortable. What matters is taking the effort to meditate daily and make it a habit. Set aside proper time to start meditation at home.
Q3. When should I meditate?
Another key part when you’re getting started with meditation for beginners is finding an appropriate time. It could be when you wake up, after you eat lunch or before sleeping. Finding a fixed time of day to settle your mind and meditate is important for meditation for beginners. Try shorter meditation sessions when you’re just starting off, it’ll get easier as you continue. Even a 3-minute mindfulness session during lunchtime can be beneficial, as long as you make a routine out of it!
Q4. Do I need to be sitting while I meditate?
Meditation at home can be practiced only when you’re seated cross-legged with your eyes closed. That is totally false. You can practice meditation when you’re sitting at your desk on a chair, standing by a wall or even lying down on the bed. However you decide to compose yourself, make sure you are comfortable and in a clear state of mind.
At Evolve, we believe that meditation need not be intense and serious. It’s about making meditation & mindfulness easy and joyful so you can incorporate into your everyday life with ease. As a result, you enjoy good mental hygiene and your emotional well-being is taken care of anytime, anywhere.
Q5. Do I need to close my eyes while I meditate?
Meditation can be practiced with your eyes open or closed, that is totally up to you. While traditional meditation does require you to keep your eyes closed, you need not do that. When meditating with Evolve, sometimes you do need to keep your eyes open to notice your surroundings or when you’re practicing walking meditation. Evolve’s guided audios aim to make meditation easy and joyful and you can practice meditation with your eyes wide open!
Q6. Do I need to only focus on my breath while I meditate?
Meditation can be practiced by focusing on your breath, a thought or an object! It’s not all about breathing. Yes, it plays a major role and is easy for beginners, but it’s not the only way. You can focus on an object around you with your eyes open or ground yourself on one thought as well. As long as you’re paying attention to the moment and noticing what is going on around you, you will be practicing meditation.
Meditation at home
Meditation at home is a great way to introduce meditation to beginners and children. Incorporating meditation into your life and daily routine will bring a variety of mental and physical benefits. But most importantly, it’ll give you a chance to spend quality time with yourself.
Evolve’s joyful guided audios make meditation easy and joyful, so if you’re a beginner, a pro or want to get back into the habit, you can practice meditation at home with happiness!
How to practice meditation at home?
There are many different ways you can start meditation if you’re a beginner or want to practice meditation at home. This is a simple 6 step process you can follow to get started with meditation at home, in case you haven’t found a style or meditation technique that works for you!
Step 1: Check-in with yourself.
Before you start meditation at home, reflect for sometime. Is there any pain or discomfort in your body? Are you feeling restless or tired? Happy or sad? This will help you understand the difference after you finish meditating and how much better you feel.
Step 2: Breathe normally.
There is no need to intentionally change or alter the way you breathe. Just breathe naturally while you meditate and notice the way your body responds and the sensations you feel with every exhale and inhale. If you do not want to close your eyes, that’s okay!
Step 3: Be aware of your thoughts.
Slowly, start becoming aware of your thoughts. Notice any thoughts that arise without attempting to alter or react to them. Observe your underlying mood or feeling and be aware of what’s happening with judgment.
Step 4: Remain mindful.
To be mindful is to keep your attention solely on the present moment. When you’re meditating, mindfulness is a good way to ensure effectiveness. It isn’t easy and you will feel a lot of thoughts entering your mind, but it’s key you allow them to enter and then go out immediately while focusing on your breathing. This may be difficult if you’re a meditation beginner and that’s okay! Whenever you feel overwhelmed, just take your attention back to your breath.
Step 5: Allow yourself to be free
As you come close to finishing your meditation at home session, spend 20-30 seconds just sitting and doing nothing. Don’t focus on your breath or an object or anything. Just give yourself that freedom to be. You may notice a lot of thoughts running into your mind and that’s okay. Let it happen and experience the moment. Allow your mind to wander without needing to correct. Allow yourself to be free.
Step 6: Come back to your surroundings
Slowly start becoming aware of where you are and what is around you. Notice the weight on your chair or the ground, depending on where you are. Notice the sounds around you and how you’re feeling. Take a deep breath and if you closed your eyes in the process, slowly open them and come back to your surroundings.
Walking meditation for beginners
Another simple way to get started with meditation for beginners is walking meditation. Incorporating mindfulness meditation along with walking helps you enjoy the benefits of meditation while you walk! Here’s how you can do it:
- Try to find a space with minimal distractions and room to move. This can be at home or even outside in a park or garden
- Slowly and steadily, start walking. As you walk, start to focus and notice o the rise and fall of each step
- Pay attention to how your foot falls on the ground and notice the sensations.
- As you settle into your walk, engage your senses. What sounds can you hear? What can you smell? What colours do you see around you? How is your body feeling?
- As you notice these sensations and feelings, acknowledge the thoughts that enter your mind, let them go and continue walking
Meditation practice over perfection
Meditation is great when you practice it. It’s not about perfecting meditation, but practicing it. As long as you do that, you will enjoy the benefits of meditation. Sometimes your focus and attention will wander or you may not be able to keep up with your breathing rhythm. That’s perfectly okay. It’s all part of your meditation practice and journey. As long as you meditate regularly and consistently, it’s good for you. No matter the roadblocks you face, keep going and keep practicing.
The various types of meditation techniques
As discussed, there is no right or wrong way to meditate. You practice meditation to the form that suits you best and works for you. There are so many different types of meditation techniques to choose from, so you can pick what is comfortable. Each meditation technique is slightly different in its own way, but the core practice remains the same. There’s not a universally accepted best or most effective type of meditation or meditation technique. In fact, different cultures have evolved their own meditation techniques and variations over time. It all depends on your individual preference and what works for you. Connecting with your mind and body, attaining balance and a clear state of mind. Some common types of meditation include:
- Focused attention meditation
- Mindfulness meditation
- Gratitude meditation
- Body scan meditation
- Metta meditation
- Zen meditation
Focused attention meditation
This is a type of meditation where you focus your attention on a specific thought, object or breath during your meditation. You focus on it and stay fully in the moment with that object. Over time, your mind will become calmer and clearer, distractions will be forgotten and you’ll be able to keep your flow. As a result, you feel more relaxed and balanced.
Mindfulness meditation
A meditation technique where you focus all your attention in the present moment. You can practice mindfulness wherever you are, be it on a park bench, on your work desk or while travelling. It involves tuning out everything and focusing your breathing. Focus on your breath totally and stay in the present. As you breathe, allow thoughts to come and go and keep bringing your attention to the present moment. If your mind wanders, give it a few seconds, and slowly bring your attention back to your breath.
Gratitude meditation
One of the simplest meditation techniques where you express gratitude in the moment and feel grateful. Gratitude meditation is an effective way to boost your mood and create a happy state for your mind and body. You focus your emotions on sending a compliment or positive thoughts to someone you care for and allow yourself to feel the positive energy flow within you.
Body scan meditation
One of the meditation techniques that utilities your entire body. This body scan meditation involves scanning your entire body from head to toe and notice all the sensations at each body part and acknowledging it. This helps release tension, allows your body to switch off and relax. Hence, you can practice it by lying down in a comfortable position, focusing your attention on toes and gradually moving up to your legs, thighs, stomach all the way up to your head. As a result, you can notice any stress and release tension!
Metta meditation
It includes spreading love and kindness through your mind and body as you meditate. You start by developing loving-kindness towards yourself, complimenting yourself and being positive. Then slowly moving towards others you know and all other beings in the world. Start with yourself, then focus that love and kindness towards those you know and don’t know and then everyone and everything in the universe. The feeling of wishing happiness and well-being for all translates to good wishes and feelings for you.
Zen meditation
This ancient Buddhist tradition involves sitting upright and following the breath, particularly the way it moves in and out of the belly, and letting the mind be free. The aim of the type of meditation is to be present and alert of what is happening around you, while staying balanced.
Guided meditation v/s self-guided meditation
When starting off with meditation practice, you usually need to take a call between 2 meditation techniques. Guided meditation or self-guided meditation.
If you’re ever learning something new, you would prefer if someone helped you learn the basics before you master it, right? That’s what guided meditation is all about! In guided meditation, an expert guides you through the basics of meditation, either in person or through audio/visual medium via a meditation app like Evolve! Guided meditation is a great meditation technique for beginners as they guided through every step of the way. Moreover, it is easier as you just have to follow the guided voice. This way you can get more out of the meditation experience. Usually, guided meditations include the expert guiding you through the meditation, from how to sit and what to do, right down to a step by step process of the particular meditation technique.
In self-guided meditation, you meditate on your own, without the help of others. You can try this when you’ve got enough practice and want to avoid the distraction of technology. Self-guided meditation can involve sitting in a quiet, comfortable location and paying attention to your thoughts, feelings and body for some time.
Both types of meditation techniques are great for when you want to inculcate a routine and make meditation a daily habit!
The different types of meditation techniques on the Evolve App
Evolve’s guided audios incorporate a variety of proven meditation techniques to help you sleep better, practice daily meditation, manage stress and anxiety, improve focus and stay balanced everyday! Our approach is refreshing & our techniques, joyful!
The meditations are contextualised to your day, so you can find relief anytime you face a trigger. From a dessert craving to a stressful meeting, from your morning cup of chai to calming your racing mind, Evolve’s meditation techniques help you balance whenever you need it.
There are many different types of meditation techniques, but at Evolve, we believe in the simplicity of meditation. Your everyday lives are already so intense and hectic, why make meditation and emotional well-being that way too? This is why we strive to make meditation simple, uncomplicated and joyful in a way that it can be accessible to you anytime!
Over the last 3 years, we’ve collaborated with leading life coaches & meditation experts, facilitating workshops for a diverse set of individuals on meditation, anxiety relief & personal growth. Thus, we’ve curated the most effective meditation techniques to improve focus, reduce anxiety & sleep better on Evolve.
It is through the practice of the specific techniques listed below that we help you balance and make your personal growth easy and joyful!
- Mindfulness meditation technique
- Breathing techniques
- Gratitude meditation technique
- Holding space meditation
- Visualisation meditation
- Somatic awareness technique
Mindfulness – Mindfulness is the meditation technique of staying in the present moment, by observing something other than your breath, such as your thoughts, perceptions, feelings, sensations or even an object around you. With our guided meditations, you can incorporate 5 minutes of mindfulness into your day, no matter what you’re doing! Some of our mindfulness audios include – mindful chai, mindful coffee and control your cravings.
Breathing – Inspired by Pranayama & other ancient wisdom, breathing is used as a tool to change the state of your mind. If you can pay attention to your breath, you can quickly attain balance. Hence, our meditation techniques include making your breath the focus of attention and helping your mind and body with simple breathing exercises. Listen to our refreshing 4-7-8 breathing to manage stress, box breathing to focus in the moment or belly breathing to reduce anxiety instantly!
Gratitude – Sending gratitude, being positive & kind towards yourself & others can help positivity and happiness surge through our body! This is inspired by the loving kindness meditation technique! In fact, it’s scientifically proven that a few minutes of gratitude help produce more oxytocin, which helps reduce stress and increases feelings of love and affection. Our guided meditations help you express gratitude towards yourself and others, to appreciate the little things in life as a way to manage stress, anxiety or even be mindful for a few minutes. Try our “send a gift of gratitude” audio and experience some love.
Holding space – Holding space is another different type of meditation technique to help you process your thoughts, manage anxiety and bounce back after a negative period. This method of meditation requires you to be with yourself without judgment, based on how therapists & coaches work with clients. Our guided audios help you process your thoughts and fears and ask the right questions, so you can get the necessary answers.
Visualisation – One of the most engaging types of meditation is visualisation. A powerful technique where you can visualise yourself in various surroundings or environments to engage your senses through imagery. By imagining a specific visualisation, you get a chance to observe the mind and notice physical sensations.This is what makes it a unique and different type of meditation. These scenarios are designed to lower stress, practice gratitude, reduce anger and improve your focus! Our visualisations are light, cheery and help you feel better instantly! Some powerful visualisation audios include “ground your feet, just let go and cloud meditation”
Somatic awareness – Your mind and body complement each other, and by tuning into your body and the sensations you are feeling, you can help change your state of mind and balance yourself. This type of meditation technique involves a body scan where you carefully and slowly pay attention to how your body is reacting to certain triggers and release your tension and stress within moments!
Evolve’s different types of meditation techniques help you make meditation a habit and balance your mind & body when you face a negative trigger. If you’re looking to get started with meditation or you’ve been meditating regularly and want to make your meditation habit easy and joyful, Evolve is the app for you.
How to improve your meditation skills and make it a habit
When starting off a new practice, you’re bound to want to get better at it over time. When it comes to meditation, it’s no different. You would have decided to start meditating with a goal in mind and in order to get there, you’d need to improve your meditation skills.
Meditation for beginners is never easy and you will often find your mind wandering during the process, but remember it’s all part of the experience. What you must remember at such a time again is that there is no right or wrong way to meditate. It only matters if you meditate. You can choose your meditation routine, your meditation technique and follow it on your own terms. As you continue to do that, your meditation skills will improve. Keep experimenting with various types of meditation until you find what works for you.
Evolve believes that meditation and emotional well-being should be hygiene practices in your daily life. If you brush your teeth everyday for good oral hygiene, why not do the same for the sake of your mind & body? That is why Evolve’s guided meditations are easy and joyful, so you can slowly improve your meditation skills everyday. With contextualised audios for when you want to drink chai or coffee, to simple breathing exercises that help you relax, Evolve is the app that can help you make meditation an enjoyable experience and habit.
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