As many of us are beginning to embrace the new technological world of iPhones, iPods, and iPads, we are being bombarded with thousands of choices of apps. Apps is an abbreviation for software applications. When people think of apps today they usually are thinking of the individual software programs we can purchase for our mobile devices. These apps range from language translators to games where angry birds attack pigs wearing helmets. Pretty much any subject you can think of can be found on an app as the commercial says, “There is an app for that.” This includes apps to help us with our anxiety.
The following are some categories of apps which might help you in your quest for decreased stress and anxiety:
Relaxation Apps
There are an abundance of relaxation apps to be found to meet the preferences of most every user. Do you like soothing music? Nature sounds? Sounds combined with beautiful scenery? Whatever you are looking for you will probably find it in an app. Here are some of my favorite relaxation apps.
• Ambiance
The ambiance app gives you a selection of environmental sounds ranging from summer breezes to distant church bells. They also have meditation new-agey sounds named things like eternal sunshine or heavenly chord. An image accompanies each sound ranging from nature scenes to city landscapes. What I like about this app is that you have such a large selection of sounds to choose from and they keep adding more on a frequent basis. So you can fully explore which sights and sounds are pleasing and calming for you.
• Magic Window
This is another one of my favorite relaxation apps because of the beautiful images you get to see. Whereas ambiance is focused on sound, magic window is about the visuals. They give you a choice of scenes of places from around the world such as fog and moonlight in California or a sunset on the Pacific. What is especially cool about this app is that they use time lapse photography so you can speed up the video or else slow it down. You can control the ocean waves or the clouds from your magic window.
Mood Trackers
Mood tracker apps are designed to give you a way to record your daily moods and stress levels. I find that keeping data on my moods and anxiety gives me useful information about my anxiety triggers as well as figuring out which interventions are more effective. There are many mood tracker apps out there but the key is to find one that is not too complex (as that can add to your anxiety) and will give you the instant reward of a visual representation of how you are feeling. Here are a couple of mood trackers I like to use.
In my search for a mood tracker that was easy to use, I was happy to discover My Mood Tracker created by Aspyre Apps. The thing I like about this app is that it offers many elements you can track but you can modify it to meet your needs. For example, you can keep track of your moods, sleep, medications, exercise, stress, and menstrual cycles. This app can also be set to give you reminders about such things as taking your medication and it provides a nice visual chart so you can see changes in mood and other variables.
