The Best Apps To Boost Your Self-Care Routine
Building an emotional self-care routine can help you stay hopeful and manage stress and anxiety
Managing feelings of stress can take a toll on your mental health and wellbeing. Taking care of your emotional health can improve the way you feel and help you manage stress in your personal life and even at work. There are a lot of great tools available right at your fingertips to help you build a routine. We’ve rated a few apps available for iPhone and iPad that can help you learn ways to build your mindfulness skills, journal, and support managing symptoms related to stress.
Staying grounded will help you manage your emotions
Meditation can be really helpful in managing anxiety and increasing mindfulness. Affirmations can also help to challenge anxious or worried feelings and challenge unhelpful thought patterns. These two apps can help you to manage your thoughts and feelings- the Insight Timer- Meditation App by Meditation for Sleep &Anxiety by Insight Network Inc to Subliminal Affirmations by iMobile Inc., which are both available in the App Store.
Insight Timer offers guided meditation that includes topics like improving sleep, dealing with anxiety, reducing stress, and developing as a leader. It got a 4.9/ 5 in terms of customer ratings. Reviewers commented that they felt “… calmer, more focused and… better equipped to handle whatever comes my way”. They noted that “it doesn’t have any advertisements like in other free apps.” One reviewer critiqued that “I hope IT pays attention to featuring more diverse teachers” and that “…not offering a course by course purchase option is a mistake”.
Subliminal Affirmations offers customers subliminal affirmation messages targeted at different needs like the law of attraction, confidence, weight loss, and users can also create their own affirmations too. Users rated it 4.5/5. They commented that the app is ” fully customizable,” you “can listen over and over… save affirmations… add your own pictures”. Users also noted that “each purchase is 5.99,” and one reported that they “pressed the selection to try a 30-day free trial… card was charged $55”.
We picked Insight Timer as the winner; the free version of Insight Timer gives you access to meditations, sleep music, and even bedtime stories. The meditations include music and different styles. The paid subscription gives you access to courses and lets you use the app offline. However, with Subliminal Affirmations, you don’t get much, if any, access to anything with the initial download. You would have to purchase one of the three subscriptions or pay per affirmation. That could get expensive. It can be helpful in therapy to explore the use of meditations and affirmations as part of building stress management coping skills.
Planning for the future will help you stay hopeful
Have you asked yourself where you’re at in life and how you want to grow lately? Even when things are challenging, it is possible to create a vision for yourself and take committed actions towards the outcomes. A great way to do that is to create a vision board. Most people create vision boards using materials like posters or cardboard and different magazines. But that means you have to get those supplies, and finding enough magazines can be a challenge. Instead, Visuapp Vision Board and Gratitude Journal by Vitality Konovalov and Subliminal Vision Board App by Subliminal Vision Board, LLC, can both can be used to create digital vision boards.
Visuapp lets you create “dream maps,” includes a gratitude journal, and offers a Feng Shui board that identifies key life areas to set goals for (but requires an in-app purchase). It earned a 4.7/5 rating. Customers noted positives like “I can add music while I meditate on the images…” and that they use it for “meditation schedules… and writing my dreams”. Others, however, commented, “adding pictures is cumbersome…” and someone else stated, “it had no instructions and is not designed well.”
Subliminal Vision Board lets you create multiple boards based on your goals. It includes subliminal messaging features, affirmations and you can record your own voice or add your own music. It’s rated 4.3/5 by users who commented that “it’s organic and amazingly user friendly,” ‘handy for a quick manifestation -on-the-go.” Cons were that it “…stopped working completely” and “can barely see the subliminal messages now because the font is too small.”
Subliminal Vision Board won this round for us. With the free version, you are able to do a lot, including create multiple boards, access photos, and music, and add your own. There are also affirmation messages to add and create a subliminal effect and can be a helpful part of a self-care routine. One Visuapp reviewer noted that there were no real directions on how to use the app. It felt very basic in the design and you might have to purchase more within the app to use it effectively. Whether you are focusing on personal life goals, like a career or life transition, or want to visualize what improving your mental health and managing your emotional difficulties might look like, creating a vision board is a way to find inspiration and build hope for your future.
It’s a good time to track how you’re feeling
Do you feel like you’re moving day to day without thinking? Maybe you’re more reactive to situations or can’t stop worrying. Apps that help you reflect can be really helpful right now to keep track of how you’re doing. Whether you were already dealing with anxiety, depression, or work-related stress, building insight into your emotions is a significant part of therapy. We compared two mood tracking, journaling apps, the Mood App Journal by Young Human LLC, versus Moodnotes- Mood and CBT Tracker by ThrivePort LLC.
Mood App Journal allows you to express yourself, vent, analyze your thoughts, track moods, and write journal entries. There are also community groups that users can join based on different topics. It was rated 4.7/5. Comments were mixed. Some users stated that it’s “simple and easy to use,” but others “wish you could respond to people who really need feedback” and that they were”…still super happy with the updated look, it’s still a little buggy”.
Moodnotes- Mood and CBT Tracker is a mood tracker and journal. It lets the user track your mood and identify what triggers it in order to develop healthier thinking habits. It earned a 4.9/5 by customers. Reviews included that ” this app is amazing for all ages,” “finding a useful tool… where I can keep my thoughts private is a godsend”. One user noted that “… the CBT features… are locked behind a… subscription,” and paying for features within the app seemed to be a common complaint.
While both apps could be useful, the Mood App Journal is a little more basic. The free version offers access to live to vent, but even the positive reviews had at least one or two complaints. However it’s a quick, easy way to track moods using feeling emojis, and you can connect and share your thoughts with others anonymously. Moodnotes offers a 7-day free trial then several paid subscription levels. It allows you to track around the percentage of time you felt a particular mood. It’s more interactive and asks questions that allow you to be introspective. The Moodnotes app offers way more for its users, even if it means paying more for the subscription.
Staying focused on your self-care routine is key right now
Nothing is one size fits all and these apps are just a few examples of tools that you can use to build your emotional self-care. They can help you, or someone in your life, manage symptoms related to anxiety, depression, stress, and even interpersonal struggles. Invest in your self-care routine and your goals as a way to stay hopeful and manage your emotions. To learn more about how therapy can support you in overcoming struggles related to your mental health visit here and complete our contact form to request an appointment.
