Smart technologies that monitor everything mental health and help us learn more about ourselves

• The average person spends around four hours each day on their phone; you can better spend this time looking into helpful apps for improving wellbeing.
• You can start with an app like Booster Buddy, which helps you stay mindful of your mood and track it over time.
• Meditation applications are also beneficial, as they give you tips and tricks for relaxing throughout the day.
• Additionally, smart watches are helpful to improving and maintaining wellbeing—they help to ensure you stay on top of your physical health.
• Knowledge is powerful, and studying how your body acts and reacts is crucial to leading a healthy, happy life.

Do you spend more hours than you can count on your phone?  Well, you aren’t alone— the average person spends around four hours a day on their phone.  In the realm of technology, there is always more to learn and more to be entertained by. So why not dedicate a little time to learning more about your health while you’re taking a deep dive on the web?  There are many applications and devices that allow you to dig a little deeper into your health, whether that be mental, physical, or emotional.  And let’s be honest, we could all dedicate more time to taking care of our mind and body.

Get a better handle on your mental health: Helpful apps

1. Booster Buddy:  When you decide to take a step toward monitoring your mental health, a great place to start is increasing awareness of your mood.  Throughout the day, your mood has the ability to change drastically.  Maybe you had a rough review from your boss and then you had lunch with a good friend that turned your day around—it is important to pay attention to how your mood fluctuates over time. Victoria Woodruff, Licensed Master Social Worker, believes that Booster Buddy is a great application for recording your mood: “Booster Buddy allows you to monitor your mood from day to day, check off whether you have taken your medication, and encourages you to complete self-care exercises in the form of quests.” Part of good health is developing good habits, and this app is a great way to get started.

2. Meditation Applications:  Meditation is a self-care practice that can work wonders for those who struggle with anxiety, but also for those who need to remember to take time for themselves throughout the day.  Life can throw many curveballs at you, and it is crucial for you to take time for yourself daily to just unwind.  Whether it is for a minute or two, an hour, or a couple hours, any time you can spend in a relaxed state is a way to boost your mood and eliminate stress. 

• Breathe for Applewatch:  The Breathe application for Apple Watch sends alerts to your watch and reminds you to focus on your breathing.  The nice thing about this app is that you can set it to alert you however many times you’d like throughout the day, and it can also mute your notifications in order to allow for complete focus.  The app directs you to inhale and exhale at a steady pace to lower your heart rate and allow your body to relax.
• Calm:  Calm is an application that guides you through meditation.  Its goal is to help reduce stress and anxiety while also improving your sleep.  Calm is equipped with sleep stories, stretching routines, and calming music to ensure you are armed with the tools you need to practice meaningful meditation.
• Headspace:  Headspace is an application that believes meditation for just a few minutes a day is a step in the right direction with getting your mental health on track. Daryl Stubbs—Registered Massage Therapist, Certified Athletic Therapist, and Owner of Sync Therapy—believes Headspace to be, “great for anxiety” as it helps calm down the mind. This app offers simple meditation tactics that anyone can learn and benefit from.  Headspace focuses on teaching users tips and tricks that lead to great meditation practices.

3. Fitbit, Apple Watch, and other smart watches: Smart watches are a new and rapid growing trend that everyone seems to want to be a part of.  Fitbit, Apple Watch, and other smart watches track things such as your sleep, exercise, and pulse. They also have the ability to keep one more closely connected within the digital world, as texts, alerts, and other notifications are accessible right at your wrist.

The power behind learning more about your body

With knowledge comes power.  When you are willing and able to put in the work to increase awareness about your mind and body, your overall health will be on the rise.  Take some time spent on your phone to dive into these mindful apps (and others) to learn which ones will work best for you and your lifestyle.  Most of these are practices you can do anywhere, so start developing useful, long-lasting habits now.

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