I have many responsibilities in my life as a wife, mother, nurse, daughter to sick parents, and graduate student (to name a few). Managing stress and anxiety is key for me. If I don’t do this adequately, my ability to perform in all my roles and complete my tasks suffers. That’s why I decided to turn to Buddhify: to see what meditation looks like when incorporated into my busy life.
Buddhify is an app that contains several different guided meditations that were created with ease of use and efficiency in mind. One of the first sentences I read on the website drew me in: “Buddhify is the only meditation app designed to fit into a busy modern lifestyle.” I was interested to see if it would live up to its stated goal.
I tested Buddhify for a month, and its short meditations really helped me refresh and reset throughout my day. The app was easy to use, customize, and bring along with me no matter where I was or what I was doing. Keep reading to learn more about my month-long journey with Buddhify and, more specifically, what this journey looked like for a meditation novice like myself.
How I Got Started With Buddhify
Buddhify is known for its meditation and mindfulness exercises that are easy to do on the go. In addition to fitting into my busy lifestyle, I appreciated the low price point and that the app is available for both iOS and Android, since I’d recently switched to an Android phone.
How Much Buddhify Costs
Downloading the app does cost money: It’s a one-time payment of $5 if bought from the Google Play Store or $3 from the Apple App Store. With the app alone, you get access to all of the exercises and the ability to listen to as many as you want. Beyond that, there is an optional membership that costs $30 a year, but there’s no free trial.
The membership comes with three specific features. There’s the “Transmission” feature, which allows you to read out and record a meditation, karaoke style, and then share it with others in your life. Then there’s the “Formal” feature, which is a group of 18 meditations that are used as training courses for “the six core meditation techniques every deepening practitioner should know,” according to the website. Finally, there is the “Together” feature, which is a space within the app that acts as its own sort of insider newsletter that includes new video courses each month, practice themes, community stories, and deep dives into popular meditations.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to test these resources—each time I tried to pay for the membership, I got error messages and it wouldn’t take my payment. My understanding of the membership mainly came from the website’s explanation of it.
Signing Up
I thought the Buddify website was very cozy and welcoming. There is lots of color and many of the pictures feature the husband and wife team who created the app in the middle of their work.
Initially, I had some issues getting started. I didn’t realize that the membership had to be started and managed on the app rather than through the website—the website is mainly for information.
I also had some problems opening up the introductory and explanatory videos provided in the app. Each time I tried to open them, I was told I needed to download YouTube to watch them, even though YouTube was already installed on my phone.
Besides the initial hiccups, however, I really enjoyed the introduction and clear, detailed explanation of why Buddhify exists—that it is the only meditation app designed for fitting a busy lifestyle, according to the website, and is known for its incredible value for the money. I was excited to get started.
How I Used Buddhify
The app is pretty simple and intuitive. As soon as you open it, there is a color wheel made of 12 different categories offering mindfulness exercises, such as “Waking Up,” “Stress and Difficult Emotions,” “Work Break,” and “Can’t Sleep.” There are also additional categories that can be added to your wheel depending on your needs. For example, I added the “At Your Computer” category to use while at work. I could then select specific exercises within these categories. I could also search for certain exercises that I liked, skip ones I didn’t want, and do as many exercises in a day as I pleased.
The app has a library of over 200 mindfulness exercises—or meditations—that range in the level of experience needed. There are some for complete beginners, some for those who have meditated before, and others for experts. The additional membership seems to be a good choice for those who are well-versed in meditation, with options for taking you deeper into meditation exercises, such as more intensive training and recording meditations of your own to use and share.
The exercises were really easy to choose from. I just picked the category that resonated with me at the time, then chose whichever exercise I wanted if I thought it sounded enjoyable and if I could complete it in the time I had.
The exercises immediately began as soon as I clicked on them, and there was a timer in the bottom left corner that told me how long was left.
Each session is a different length and can range anywhere from three to 40 minutes.
Exercises I Liked the Most
One exercise I particularly liked was “Work Break/Motivate.” It was supposed to help me improve my motivation while working. It had me look at my emotions and physical changes in my body at the time. For example, when I started the exercise, I was tired and felt no motivation to keep typing away or working on my current project. I was slouched over, eyes heavy, desperate for 5 p.m. to come around. This exercise helped me become aware of and name these facts, which made it easier to be understanding and compassionate with myself for feeling this way.
Then the speaker asked me to focus on the way my work impacts both my emotions and my body, and how my contribution is of service to others. The point was to remember the purpose behind what I was doing in order to spur motivation throughout the workday. This was a timely reminder for me.
I really was able to sit and think about the positive impacts of the job I was doing, something I probably don’t do enough.
It also reminded me to take breaks and get away from my devices for a while. I think this was the most helpful aspect of all.
Before this exercise, I was pretty down and struggling to work through the day, but I did feel a little boost in my mood afterward. It helped me remember the “why” behind what I do. I won’t say it was a cure-all, but it was a good start.
I loved the ability to listen to the meditations no matter where I was or what I was doing.
I could listen to them in my car on the way to work, through my earbuds as I went on walks, at my desk at work, or in bed before I fell asleep. This ability to meditate on the go was the best part of the app for me because I didn’t have to carve out a large chunk of time in my day to do it. I could fit it into whatever I was already doing.
The best exercises for me were the shorter ones that didn’t have long pauses.
I am a very busy person and am always pushing through some level of exhaustion, so the meditations that took too much time and brainpower ended up being a wash for me. If they were too long or had long pauses I would absolutely, without fail, fall asleep. But the short ones could often do the trick and leave me feeling refreshed and with a new mindset. I was easily able to save the meditations I liked in a favorites list by clicking the heart next to the title.
One feature I really appreciated was the ability to share the meditations I felt were helpful to me and might be helpful to someone I know. It was very easy to do. I simply went to my favorites list and clicked the “share” button next to that meditation, then sent the link to someone I thought might find it useful. I especially liked that the friends I sent meditations to didn’t have to pay for them, download the app, or become a subscriber in order to access the exercise and benefit from the meditations.
Exercises I Didn’t Love
An exercise I didn’t like quite as much was “Stress and Difficult Emotion 1/Colour.” This one had me figure out my emotions at the time by attaching a color, size, dimension, and location to those feelings. I was stressed about all of the things I had coming up in the week and the many deadlines attached. For reasons I’m not really sure of, I decided my stress was yellow, about basketball size (but the size fluctuated), and it was sitting inside my chest.
The whole exercise was very abstract. The narrator paused a lot and repeated questions that I had already answered, leaving me sitting there wandering in my mind for an unnecessarily lengthy amount of time. I’m sure this one is helpful for some, but abstract and vague wasn’t really working for me at the time.
Pros and Cons
While my experience was mostly great, there were some downsides to this app too.
- Wide variety of short (fewer than 10 minutes) exercises available
- Easy-to-use app, with meditations sorted into categories
- Inexpensive upfront cost without recurring payments
- Most app content available without membership
- Can choose how many exercises to do and when to do them
- Highly customizable
- Can create a favorites list
- Can share exercises with others for free
- Membership plan is difficult to sign up for and use
- Not always clear if an exercise will require sitting, standing, or lying down
- Difficulty opening some videos on the app
- Long pauses or abstract concepts in some exercises may not be for everyone
Final Thoughts
I’m glad I tried this app and now have quick meditations at my disposal that I can listen to on the go without setting aside major chunks of time in my day. I was never consistent or super devoted, but I don’t think that’s the point of this app. That’s why I believe it worked for me: The short meditations and exercises fit into my lifestyle and gave me what I needed to turn around my mood or get me through my day.
I was pleasantly surprised to feel like I’d experienced what Buddhify promised. I wanted several exercises I could choose from and I needed short options. Buddhify gave me over 200 meditations with more than enough short options.
I was also able to customize my interface to have the topics I needed. I could easily stop any exercise I didn’t feel was working for me or that I didn’t have time for.
The downsides were mainly related to my difficulty with setting up my membership through the app. Buddhify did give me the impression, though, that the membership would be most beneficial for those more experienced in meditation looking to further deepen their education, so I’m not sure it is what I needed anyway, considering my level of meditation use at this point.
The overall quality of the meditations on the app was good. It’s hard to know for sure since this was my first attempt at meditation in any form. However, I had a positive experience and even shared some of my meditations with friends and family with the share option. I would definitely recommend the app to others, especially those new to meditations who have busy lifestyles like mine and need a low-commitment option.