6 Awesome Apps to Help Reduce Anxiety and Stress
Dealing with stress and anxiety can be difficult. We may know we need to focus on reducing stress in our lives, but a global pandemic, nationwide protests, school concerns, an upcoming election, and employment worries make it hard for many of us to reduce anxiety in our every day life.
If you are feeling anxious, worried, stressed, or depressed, you are not alone. A CDC report analyzed 5,412 survey respondents between June 24 and 30. The survey showed 40 percent of the participants who responded reported they experienced a mental or behavioral health condition connected to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Roughly 30.9 percent of respondents said they had symptoms of anxiety or depression. Sadly, it also showed suicide rates are also on the rise. 11% of adults surveyed had seriously considered suicide in the past 30 days. I can’t wipe away 2020 or reduce any of the stress-inducing events this year continues to bring. But, I can offer some ideas and apps you might find helpful for reducing anxiety and stress. And please, get immediate help if you have feelings or thoughts of suicide.
The number and website are posted here for you!
The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention recommends that those needing emotional support related to Covid-19 should call the Disaster Distress Helpline (800-985-5990), or text TalkWithUs to 66746. And if you’re experiencing a suicidal crisis, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 or text the Crisis Text line by texting HOME to 741741 to get help. https://afsp.org/get-help
3 Ways to Help Reduce Anxiety and Stress
There are a variety of methods for helping reduce anxiety and stress in your daily life.
1. Find a Counselor!
You would see a physician if you were experiencing physical discomfort. Your mental health should be treated with the same care.
2. Get Exercise!
Your brain needs some downtime from all the information it’s processing. If you are working from home, your eyes need a rest from looking at a screen all day. So get outside and look at nature. Take a walk. Or, even just watch the birds in your backyard for a bit.
3. Use an App for Reducing Anxiety and Stress
Adding an app to combat anxiety and stress might not be the first thing you consider when thinking about ways to manage stress, but there are tons of amazing apps to help reduce anxiety and relieve stress. And most of us have our phone handy at all times. So, using an app when you need a tool to cope makes perfect sense.
With so many apps on the market, it can be difficult to know which ones are worth downloading. These six awesome apps are great for helping relieve stress and reduce anxiety.
6 Awesome Apps to Help Reduce Anxiety and Stress
Calm
Whether you’re stuck at home or trapped at work, stress is sure to find you at some point throughout the day. Being able to escape for a few minutes is a great way to reduce stress and ease anxiety, but leaving isn’t always an option. When you can’t go anywhere, try escaping with your phone using Calm. The app provides you with beautiful backgrounds, calming breathing exercises, and interesting bedtime stories to help reduce your stress.
The app’s features include:
- Relaxing bedtime stories narrated by famous voices like Matthew McConaughey and Stephen Fry
- Guided meditation sessions
- Calm masterclasses
- Relaxing soundscapes
Calm is available in the App Store and Google Play.
Trying to balance working and homeschooling? It’s a delicate balance. But you CAN do it! Get FREE tips and time blocking sheets to help you bring some calm to your day.
Headspace
If you use meditation as a way to cope with stress, you’ll love Headspace. This meditation app assists you by providing guided and unguided meditations focused on areas of your life you want to improve, from sleep to exercise. In addition to daily meditation exercises, you can also use the app in times of panic or anxiety, thanks to the SOS sessions for times when you need deeper relaxation or mini sessions to help you give your mind a quick reset.
The app’s features include:
- Guided meditations, SOS meditations for times of panic, and mini meditations
- Mental health progress tracking
- Connectivity to Apple Health
- Mindfulness exercises for kids
Headspace is available in the App Store and Google Play.
MyLife Meditation
Have you considered using meditation as a way to cope with stress? MyLife Meditation is a great introduction into the process of meditation. The app offers daily emotional check-ins to help you learn how to cope with stress through guided meditation. In addition to teaching you how to meditate to reduce stress, this educational app will also provide you with mindfulness tips to help you improve focus and sleep better, too.
The app’s features include:
- Guided meditations in a variety of lengths and subjects
- Morning meditations and meditations for commuting
- Mindfulness techniques and tips
- Meditation for kids and teens
MyLife Meditation is available in the App Store and Google Play.
Mindshift
Do you have a teen or young adult struggling with anxiety or extra stress in their life? Mindshift is a great option to help ease their tension. Designed with teens and young adults in mind, this app uses strategies based on cognitive behavioral therapy to teach your teen how to relax and be more mindful each day. With a focus on learning and teaching, Mindshift helps your teen reduce their stress while also learning how to cope with daily anxiety.
The app’s features include:
- Daily emotional check-ins
- Coping cards to ease anxiety in the moment
- A thought journal
- Tips on expanding your comfort zone and facing fears
- Goal setting capabilities and motivational reminders
Mindshift is available in the App Store and Google Play.
What’s Up?
Using methods from cognitive behavioral therapy and acceptance commitment therapy, What’s Up helps users cope with anxiety and stress through easy to follow instructions and a user-friendly interface. The app’s diary allows you to record your thoughts and feelings, in addition to helping you track your positive and negative behaviors over time. And the included forum allows users to connect with each other in a positive setting.
The app’s features include:
- A comprehensive diary with rating systems for each entry
- Grounding game with 100 questions to keep you grounded during stressful times
- Quotes and metaphors to cope with negative feelings
- Breathing techniques
- A forum to connect with other users
What’s Up is available in the App Store and Google Play.
Talk Space
While most of these apps are great at helping you relieve stress on your own, sometimes you just need to talk to someone. Talk Space matches users to licensed therapists in their area. After connecting with a local therapist, you can message the therapist, video chat, or take part in a therapy session over the phone.
The app’s features include:
- Unlimited text, audio, picture, or video messages to your selected therapist
- Specialized therapy for teens and couples
- Banking-grade encryption to keep your personal data safe
Talk Space is available in the App Store and Google Play.
Have you tried using an app to help reduce anxiety and stress? If so, share which app you are loving and how it’s working to help you or your loved ones.
If you are looking for an awesome meditation app, check out Insight Timer. It is my favourite way to distress. I find my body craving meditation.
Oh wow! Thanks for sharing. Insight Timer looks amazing. I just sent the app to my phone so I can try it.
I didn’t realize how many apps there were to help with things like stress. Thanks for sharing these! I think these would be helpful for me.
The past couple months have been a stressful time. These are great and very helpful! Thanks for sharing!
I’m so glad these are helpful.
that is so cool that there are so many apps to help with stress .. will check these out
I was amazed at how many apps for stress there are as well. Thanks for checking them out.
WoWW! I have no idea there are so many apps to deal with stress and anxiety. Which one did you like most?
For me personally I love Calm. I like the soundscapes feature. I like listening to sounds from nature as I work. I find I can be productive-the sound doesn’t put me to sleep. But, the sounds of nature are naturally calming. So, that feature of the app was something that made it a fit for me. My favorite for teens is Mindshift. I like the journal component of it. I also love that it has the daily emotional check it. It really helps when we’re aware of how we are feeling. When our teens can begin to recognize their feelings they can see patterns in how they react and respond. And, build tools for how they handle situations.
Got it, thanks.
During this panademic situation, these apps sound perfect solution. Thanks for sharing this list, they are very helpful for me.
Absolutely! So glad they are helpful.
These apps sound so perfect for tuning out for a while!
They can’t replace a therapist. But, they are absolutely great for tuning the world out for a while and helping bring a bit of calm to your day.
I love that there’s an app for just about everything these days. This makes it easy for you to access things like this right on your phone.
It does. And, these are much better than trying to de-stress using Instagram or Facebook which tend to give us more anxiety.
With all the things that are currently going on, more people are experiencing stress and anxiety. It’s great that there are apps that we can easily access to help people who are going through a rough time. I personally use Headspace for meditation.
Times are definitely stressful. Headspace is a great app. Thanks for sharing!