Apps to boost your mindfulness and mental wellbeing
These days, there’s an app for everything. From being able to video call loved ones, to ordering a takeaway at the push of a button, to even helping remind us where we parked the car. There are thousands of apps out there that make our lives easier and more convenient, but what about apps that can enrich our lives too?
From managing your mood to improving your cognitive abilities, we’ve put together a fantastic list of apps that can help boost your mindfulness and mental wellbeing.
Lumosity
If you’re a fan of brain training and puzzles, the chances are you may have heard about Lumosity before. Developed by scientists and game designers, this little app promises to challenge specific cognitive skills through exciting minigames.
The Lumosity website says that games are created with the help of both game designers and in-house scientists. “They’ll either adapt cognitive or neuropsychological tasks used by researchers for decades to test cognition, or they’ll use their knowledge and research experience to design entirely new, experimental challenges.
“Working with experienced game designers, our scientists transform these tasks into beautiful, challenging, fun games that anyone can access from a computer or mobile device. Many of our games adapt to a player’s ability level, ensuring that each person is challenged to the full extent of their abilities.”
Happify
Could your mood do with a little pick-me-up? Happify prides itself on being the ‘single destination for effective, evidence-based solutions for better emotional health and wellbeing in the 21st century.’ Through daily minigames, Happify looks to help users overcome stress and negative thoughts to elevate happiness.
We spoke to Tiffany Sun, Happify’s Head of Content Strategy to find out more about Happify and how it started. “We launched Happify to the public in 2013 with the idea that we could take the tools for achieving better emotional health – which at the time only existed in self-help books or a therapist’s office – and make them accessible to people in a fun, engaging way through the devices they were already using.
“We teamed up with leading experts in positive psychology, CBT and mindfulness to create an emotional health tool that was not only based on rigorous research but fun to use and accessible 24/7. Our science-based activities, games, and meditations help people all over the world reduce stress and anxiety, overcome negative thoughts, and build resilience.”
Reflectly
Unlike regular journals, Reflectly is a question-based app that utilises artificial intelligence. The app was created as an output for users to structure and reflect upon their daily thoughts and issues. The journal builds an interactive ‘story’ of each day and allows you to flick between days to see how you’ve been progressing.
Jacob Kristensen, Reflectly’s Co-founder and CPO told us how the app is helping its users’ wellbeing. “What we are grateful to be seeing is that users are actually feeling like this app is a safe space for them to vent about their thoughts and feelings. Reflectly is built with a core around positivity and kindness, so a lot of our users really feel like they’re simply discussing their days with a trusted, unbiased friend - and that really helps reduce the mental pressure from all the different things that they might undergo each day.
“This is doable due to the fact that we don’t give our users a ‘blank page’ that they have to fill out - because most people simply don’t know where to start. Instead, we start ‘top-down’ and work our way through the day, one small question at a time.”
My Possible Self
If you find your emotions are getting the better of you, My Possible Self utilises content that is clinically proven to reduce stress, anxiety and low mood. With the help of Black Dog Institute, a prestigious mental health research centre in Australia, the app allows users to select a topic/mood they’d like to work on and the app helps them manage it.
We spoke to Sarah Donnelly, a spokesperson for My Possible Self to find out how the app works. “A series of learning modules take you on a journey to living a calmer, happier life. Choose from topics such as stress, anxiety, loss, sleep, communication and relaxation, to name but a few.
“In addition to our learning modules, we have a tracking tool. This lets you monitor your moods, behaviours and triggers to help you spot patterns and take control of your wellbeing. Choose three topics to track and get graphical feedback on each one.
“We also have a ‘Moments’ digital diary feature that lets you keep a private, secure record of your daily experiences through text, pictures and emoji. It’s a great way to track your journey through the programme.”
Download My Possible Self for iOS
Elevate
Could your everyday skills do with some refreshing? Elevate offers brain training minigames to help you to improve your literacy, numerical, reading, speaking and listening skills. Overall the app hopes to give its users a boost in earning power, productivity and self-confidence.
You can customise your daily training focus, choosing between 3 and 5 games to play per day. Elevate also tracks and measures your performance and allows you to see how you compare against others.
“Across four key skill groups, Elevate users enhanced their performance by 69% compared to non-users,” says the Elevate website. “Users who trained four times a week improved 18% more than users who trained less than twice a week.”
Research-wise, the app is designed in collaboration with experts and analysts. It also adjusts to your skills as you go, offering a truly tailored brain training experience.
Apps are a great way to help you keep your mental wellbeing sharp, but when it comes to your physical attributes and mobility, we can help. Get in touch with the Handicare team today to ask us about getting a stairlift installed in your home.
