CALM

Mary Ann

Have you seen the Calm commercial where rain falls on leaves, and you are instructed to take a break for 30 seconds and breath?  It is a favorite because it does make me stop what I am doing and take a break.  That moment is what Calm is about.

I have been a member of Calm for several years now, and I can’t say enough good about the app.  I do the mediations and sleep stories.  I listen to the music and take the courses that are offered about anxiety, sleep, stress, being present, and many others about the human condition.  Some sessions are a few minutes, others are an hour long, and yet others can be a month of lessons teaching you how to mediate for example.  

I start my morning doing the three 10-minutes mediations led my Tamara Levitt with the Daily Calm, Jeff Warren with the Daily Trip, and Jay Shetty with the Daily Jay.  These three cheerleaders lead you thorough short mediations and give you a pep talk to help you face the day.  It is funny how just the right message seems to come when you need it.  There is also a session by Mel Mah called the Daily Move.  It is a short program of three exercises to do to help with back pain to anxiety to balance to flexibility.   Quite a variety is offered in a gentle way.

The day ends with me listening to a Sleep Story to fall asleep.  There are travel, train, kids, self-help, nature, fiction, and non-fiction stories, many with celebrities narrating the stories.  Some stories are 15 minutes where others can take up to an hour.  Most of the time I never finish the story because I am asleep. If I wake up in the night, I start the story later in the session.  There are also a whole catalog of sleep mediations with varying lengths and focus.  It is nice to end the day with a gratitude mediation.  

There is a seven-day free trial to introduce you to the programs. Then it is $69.99 a year if you decide to subscribe.   A life-time subscription is available for $399.99.  Occasionally, it is offered for less.  For me the life-time subscription was best since I use Calm all the time.  After a few years, you have paid for it had you done the annual subscriptions fees.  If you have a Prime account with Amazon, you can get three free months with that.  There are several ways to underwrite the subscription.  You just need to do a little investigating.  

Calm had made such a difference in my life.  When I have hit bumps in the road, I can find sessions on Calm that help me through those challenging times.  You can save them in your favorites.  I have so many favorites that I need to edit them since they are all so meaningful to me.    

Your pennies are important to you in your golden years. You need to be wise where you spend them.  For me, the money I have spent on Calm have been money well-spent and has brough me the gift of calm to my soul.