You don’t go anywhere without your phone, so why not let it help you create some healthy habits? Here’s a curated list of some of the best health apps for you to try, which can help extend the benefits of regular sessions with your therapist. Please consult with your ISBH provider first to decide which app may be best to meet your needs.
Mood:
Calm
Calm is an award-winning app that is popular with many mental health professionals for their personal use. It offers guided meditations, sleep stories, breathing programs, and relaxing music for the beginner and beyond. Be sure to check out the blue breath bubble that shows you how long to take a calming breath.
Headspace
The Headspace app teaches the skills of mindfulness and meditation by using it for just a few minutes every day. Dealing with stress? Anxiety? Sleep issues? Trouble focusing? This app reminds you to keep practicing each day.
Daylio
With the Daylio app, you can make a journal entry and track your mood and daily activities in just a few steps. Hence, when your therapist asks about your habits between appointments, all the info will be on your phone! Both of you can learn about recurring patterns and creating new ones. You have to know what they are before you can make a change, right?
Rest:
SleepCycle
This app helps you track your sleep patterns. My favorite feature is the SleepCycle alarm clock that wakes you up during a window of time that you set (default is 30 minutes). When your sleep is light during this “wake up phase”, the SleepCycle app will awaken you. Even on a short night of sleep, you’ll be able to get out of bed feeling rested than groggy.
Time management/Productivity:
Focus Keeper
By dividing your work into 25-minute chunks, with a 5-minute break between each burst of activity, you’ll be on your way to increased productivity. After four focus sessions, you are rewarded with a longer break.
Cold Turkey
This app (also available in software form for laptops) helps reduce online distractions with timers and can temporarily block access to certain features or websites.
These are just some of the best health apps that we recommend. Each of the apps outlined above is based in theory and research on mood management, mindfulness, and productivity but delivered to you in a modern format. They may help if you use them consistently – that’s the key to developing and maintaining healthy habits!
Have any questions? Contact us and we’d be happy to help!