An App for All Seasons

2/4/19

You don’t go anywhere without your phone. Why not let it help you create some healthy habits? Here’s a curated list of apps for you to try. They can help to extend the benefits of regular sessions with your therapist. Please consult with your ISBH provider 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. Calm 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. Stress? Anxiety? Sleep issues? Trouble focusing? This app reminds you to keep practicing each day.

Daylio

With a few steps, you can make a journal entry, track your mood and your daily activities. When your therapist asks about your habits between appointments, all the info will be on your phone! Together 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 can wake up feeling rested, not 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 to reduce online distractions with timers and temporarily blocking access to certain features or websites.

Each of the apps outlined above are 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!

630-262-2640
Vinita Menon, PhD NCSP
Director of Psychological Services