Review: Oak

Name: Oak – Meditation & Breathing
Price: Free! Option to purchase Meditation Courses as an extra (however, Mantra Meditation course free during spring-summer 2020)
Features: Guided mindful and loving-kindness meditations with male and female instructors (ranging from 5-30 minutes); Unguided meditation sessions (ranging from 5 minutes to 24 hours); Breathing exercises (Box Breathing, Deep Calm, Awake); Guided breathing exercises to fall asleep; Progress tracking.
User-friendliness: Simple interface, straightforward and minimalistic.
Mindfulness topics: Mindful meditation, Loving-Kindness meditation, Guided/Unguided meditation, Breathing exercises
Narration quality: Soft, non-directive

I absolutely love Oak! It’s a simple, back-to-basics app that does not distract from the actual purpose it was created for: mindful meditation. Being free, it was one of the first applications I gravitated towards, and I have stuck it with ever since. It’s appropriate for both beginner practice and more advanced practice, as it allows for lots of distraction-free guided AND unguided meditation. It also tracks your progress, how much time you’ve meditated, and how many days in a row. The breathing exercises help in times of stress (yay clerkship), and the guided Mantra Meditation 10-day course was amazing (free during the pandemic) – Lea