Soundmind Meditation Blog

I’m far from being an expert on meditation, but from what I’ve been reading in and elsewhere, it seems that meditating should make me smarter, healthier, happier, and an all-around nicer person. But meditating can be hard, and frankly, sometimes it’s more fun to watch Glee. It helps to set aside a very specific amount of time to devote to meditation. And, to avoid watching the clock, a timer comes in handy.

Zen Timer is a fairly simple app that lets you set a pleasant-sounding timer for your meditation session. (You can also use it for yoga or other mindful activities.) When you’re aiming for a tranquil mind, you don’t really want a loud, blaring alarm or a high-pitched, beeping kitchen timer. Instead, Zen Timer lets you select from the sounds of six different Tibetan singing bowls or a traditional wood block.

Highly customizable: Zen Timer gives you lots of options for customizing your meditation session. In addition to choosing the type of sound, you can decide whether you want to hear it once, twice, or three times. You can start your session with an optional beginning bell and add interval bells as often as you choose. For each type of bell—beginning, interval, and ending—you set the type of bell, the number of strikes, and the volume. Zen Timer will remember your settings for next time, and if you have several different routines, you can save all of them, rather than having to make the changes each time. You also have the option to block calls and texts until your session is done.

Logging your sessions: Zen Timer automatically keeps a log of your meditation sessions. If you choose, it canprompt you to add a journal entry at the end of each session, and you have the option of sharing your activity through your Facebook account.

My recommendation: I love Zen Timer’s plethora of customization features, and the bells have a beautiful sound that’s just right for staying in a peaceful frame of mind. The one thing this app lacks is reminders, which could be helpful in establishing a new meditation routine like I’ve been trying to do. Of course, you could always set up reminders through your e-mail system, or through a to-do list app like Astrid, but I’d love to see it as a built-in feature here.

Overall, I think this is a great app for a beginner like me, and I imagine it would work equally well for more experienced meditators. I’ll be keeping Zen Timer on my phone and endeavoring to use it more often.

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One Response to “App Review: Zen Timer”

Renee says: I like apps like this that are useful and can help improve your life. Nice review, thanks!