Headspace Meditation App Free for Lehigh Students

Starting Feb. 1, Lehigh students will have free access to Headspace.

Story by

Stephen Gross

Headspace logo

Access to Headspace, a company providing guided meditation resources online, will be available to Lehigh undergraduate and graduate students at no cost beginning Feb. 1.

Starting next week, students who are interested in using the company’s services will need to register with Headspace using their Lehigh email address. Once registered, students can sign in and receive full access to all of Headspace’s meditation and mindfulness resources for free.

Lehigh’s partnership with Headspace was made possible by the university’s Peer Health Advisors, which approached Health Advancement and Prevention Strategies with survey data showing mental health as a growing concern for students during the pandemic. It suggested Headspace as a tool to aid students, regardless if they are on campus, off campus or international. Funding from Student Auxiliary Services was critical in removing the cost of the resource for students, according to Jenna Papaz, director of Health Advancement and Prevention Strategies.

The data Peer Health Advisors referenced came from a survey taken by Lehigh’s Office of Institutional Research & Strategic Analytics, which revealed mental health as one of the top student concerns this past fall. Students mentioning mental health were two of the three biggest increases from Spring 2020 to Fall 2020. Of those surveyed, 52.8% said they were “quite a bit” or “extremely” concerned about their mental health, a 4.0% increase, and 54.9% were “quite a bit” or “extremely” concerned about the mental health of their family or friends, a 7.2% increase.

Headspace yellow and orange logo

Anastasia Canell, a graduate assistant in Health Advancement and Prevention Strategies and a doctoral student in the counseling psychology program, has been using the Headspace app and said it’s one of the best online resources she has found.

“I love the app and I'm in the counseling psychology doctoral program so I use mindfulness meditation a lot myself and with my clients,” Canell says. “[It has] little courses you can do that are themed. So, if I'm feeling like I need more creativity in my life, [it has] a whole 14-day course about creativity. … It feels like a personalized experience because you're choosing what you want it to look like based on what's going on in your life.”

Headspace has a wide variety of courses including one on letting go of stress and others on balance, basics, dealing with distraction, finding focus, self-esteem and an especially pertinent one for first-year students, leaving home. Canell says it also features a quick, four-minute coffee break meditation for those who are limited on time.

The Headspace app is available for download on both the Apple App Store for iPhones and the Google PlayStore for Android devices. Headspace is also available on iPads using iOS 9 or later, any Android tablet with Android 4.0 or later, including Kindle Fire and accessible through a desktop or laptop computer using Chrome, Firefox or Opera browsers.

Students who already have a paid Headspace membership can be reimbursed. More information about Headspace can be found on Lehigh’s Health Advancement and Prevention Strategies website.

Story by

Stephen Gross

Related Stories

ESPN commentator Kate Fagan speaks onstage to Lehigh University student athletes

ESPN Commentator Kate Fagan Discusses Depression, Anxiety and Suicidality Among Student-Athletes

The author and former college athlete encouraged honest conversation and shared what she learned in writing her book, “What Made Maddy Run.”

ResearchReview-Youth-1

Moving Youth Toward Success

Lee Kern works with a team of researchers to learn how to best help students experiencing mental health and behavioral disorders.