CWC suggested phone and web apps, which are useful for a range of concerns, from grief to daily wellness.
DISCLAIMER: The resources on this page are provided for informational purposes only; their inclusion does not constitute an endorsement by the UF Counseling & Wellness Center of any of the services or opinions expressed by their respective content owners. We encourage you to consider these guidelines in order to make an informed decision about which apps to try.
General Wellness Resources
With substantial evidence pointing to the benefits of mindfulness, you might want to give it a try. To get you started, below are some favorite mindfulness exercises from various health care professionals. Test them out to shake off that Covid stress!
https://www.fingerprintforsuccess.com/blog/mindfulness-exercises
Find ways to try out expressive writing to help you deal with the COVID-19 outbreak. By writing about your thoughts and feelings for as little as 5-10 minutes, you may change the ways you are thinking, feeling, and even sleeping. – http://exw.utpsyc.org/
Fulfillment Daily offers guidance on living a fulfilling life through “science-backed” news. – http://www.fulfillmentdaily.com
Need to relax? Calm is where you should go. The website or app encourages you to meditate for a couple of minutes as you watch relaxing nature scenes and listen to soothing music. – http://calm.com/
Falling rain is one of the most soothing sounds there is. Create a personalized soundtrack to adjust the amount and volume of rain, thunder and storm noises. There’s even a timer and a snooze function! – http://raining.fm/
The Book of Life is an evolving online book that attempts to bring together the best and most helpful ideas in the area of emotional life. Includes guidance on your relationships, the self, your anxieties, and your career. – https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/
The School of Life is a YouTube channel for adults devoted to emotional education. It focuses on topics we’re never taught enough about in college: How can relationships go well? What is meaningful work? How can love last? How can one find calm? – https://www.youtube.com/theschooloflifetv
This Way Up offers online treatment courses for mindfulness, stress, panic, anxiety, depression, trauma, and social anxiety. – https://thiswayup.org.au/
Meditation/Relaxation
New to meditation? Check out your meditation type in this article from Psychology Today. – https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/feeling-it/201503/whats-your-meditation-type-5-best-meditation-apps
Many of us have heard about the benefits of meditation, but sometimes find it hard to do so! Fewer of us know about the profound benefits of artistic expression. Creating art, however, is another way to access a meditative state of mind and the profound healing it brings. – http://www.fulfillmentdaily.com/cant-meditate-heres-try-art/
Sometime a break needs to be a little bit more active than meditation. If so, try some high-tech doodling? Use your mouse or trackpad to ‘paint’ in your browser. – http://weavesilk.com/
Headspace was created for those who struggle to take time for themselves each day. The Take 10 program is 10 daily guided meditations for beginners to train themselves to become more mindful for 10 minutes each day. – https://www.headspace.com/
Stop, Breathe & Think is a meditation website and app that helps increase mindfulness – so it naturally helps you destress. With meditations to start and end your day and a way to check in daily and track your progress, you can become more in tune with your emotions and start to think more positively. – http://www.stopbreathethink.org/
Smiling Mind is meditation for the modern world. Developed by a not-for-profit organization that works to provide accessible, lifelong tools based in mindfulness meditation. Smiling Mind makes meditation easy for all ages, and the simply designed app is easy to use. – http://smilingmind.com.au/smiling-mind-app/
This free meditation app includes a timer with a variety of settings that can be used for meditations, yoga, or other mindful activities. You can also listen to calming music and guided meditations, journal after each session, and connect with others who are doing the same. https://insighttimer.com/
Breathe2Relax is a portable stress management tool for iPhone and Android devices. It’s a diaphragmatic breathing exercise. Breathing exercises have been documented to decrease the body’s ‘fight-or-flight’ response, and help with mood stabilization, anger control, and anxiety management.
The Tactical Breather app for iPhone and Android devices are helpful to increase control over physiological and psychological responses to stress. It is through practice and training that one can learn to increase control of your heart rate, emotions, concentration, and physiological body responses during stressful situations.
Sleep
Steps you can take to get good sleep and improve health, work, and life. – http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/need-sleep/
A short snooze during the day will boost your mood and your intelligence – but there’s more to it than simply closing your eyes. – https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/jan/27/napping-guide-health-wellbeing
Studies have even shown that napping can actually decrease your risk of serious health concerns like the risk of dying from heart disease. But effective napping is as much an art as it is a science. – https://www.verywell.com/how-to-reap-the-health-benefits-of-power-naps-2224261
Sleep Time combines sleep tracking and smart alarm clock, using your phone’s sensors to measure the quality of your sleep and wake you up at the optimal time. Sleep Time also includes soundscapes to help you sleep. – http://www.azumio.com/s/sleeptime/index.html
One of the simplest ways to get more sleep is to just to get to bed earlier. Go To Bed reminds you when it’s time to sleep. Simply set your ideal bedtime, and it reminds you 30 minutes in advance that your bedtime is coming, You can also track your sleep with the app and sync your records to the Health app. – http://downloads.tomsguide.com/Go-To-Bed-,0301-65402.html
Sleepyti.me is a website offering bedtime calculator that can help you wake up refreshed by finding the best time to go to sleep. – http://sleepyti.me/
An Android app contains a list of 6 different good quality nature relaxing sounds (sounds of nature) and one can begin a personal audio therapy.
Anxiety/Stress Relief
Article that provides guidance on different techniques to tackle stress and anxiety. – http://www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/relaxation-techniques-for-stress-relief.htm
Moods is an uncluttered and simple mood tracking app that helps you recognize your anxiety when it occurs. You can enter how you’re feeling at any time of day, and use this information to track and identify patterns. – https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/moods-tracking-for-better/id1023271188?mt=8
Feeling tied down by your frequent thoughts of worry? HelloMind attempts to help you free yourself up from the burden of worry. It offers guided exercises that focus on anxiety, fears and phobias, and confidence, among other things. You can even earn points for listening, and journal your feelings. – https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/i-can-be-free-relax-remove/id327538172
Self-Help for Anxiety Management is an app that offers you an anxiety tracking tool, relaxation instruction, guidance on anxiety management, and a community to interact with other uses. It also interactive relaxation tools to learn how to better manage your emotions and physical reactions to them. – iOS / Android
If you experience panic or anxiety attacks, this app was made specifically for you. The app uses cognitive behavioral therapy approaches to help you change your thinking that may lead to or worsen their anxiety. Other features include relaxation audio, an anxiety journal, and emotional training tools. – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.excelatlife.panic
Have you ever worried about some future event that never ended up happening? This app helps you manage worry and anxiety by looking at the thoughts that lead us down this path of unjustified stress. It features a logbook for you to track your worries, including what you thought might happen and how the situation actually turned out. As you add to your app, you can monitor trends and learn from your patterns of worry and anxiety. – http://worrywatch.com/
Recovery
The SMART Recovery Mobile App equips downloaders to find in-person and online SMART Recovery meetings while providing daily motivation and tools for coping with urges, maintaining abstinence, etc.
An Android app developed to help people cope with the emotional and physical cravings for alcohol.
Depression
The self-help methods used in this Android app are based on the tools of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and challenge irrational thinking.
This Android app contains a depression screening, audios, articles, and a cognitive diary.
MoodGYM is an internet based Cognitive Behavioral treatment for Depression developed by a psychologist. One must create an account and then follow a treatment plan. This is an excellent tool to use in conjunction with individual psychotherapy.
An Android app created by a clinical psychologist using the methods of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) to help improve self-esteem. This app may be for you if low self-esteem is affecting your relationships or preventing you from being successful at school. If you’re unhappy with yourself, or having problems with anxiety or depression, this app may be for you.
Sexual Assault
iPhone app allows a person to connect with your most trusted friends to stay close in an attempt to prevent violence before it happens. If one gets into an uncomfortable situation, use Circle of 6 to automatically send your six friends a pre-programmed SMS alert message with your exact location.
Suicide Prevention
An award-winning suicide prevention iPhone app that helps users track daily mood/thoughts, creates a safety plan, locates the nearest hospitals, and obtains access to coping methods.
Grief/Loss
Grief is app that offers information about bereavement, grief, feelings and how to help yourself. You can also read others’ stories and watch short films written and made by bereaved young people. – https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/grief-support-for-young-people/id883195199
PTSD
Relationships/Communication
Resources for Your Body
Down Dog offers a studio-like yoga experience wherever you are. Each time you practice, Down Dog creates a brand new yoga routine so always have new things to try. – https://www.downdogapp.com/
Yoga by Adrienne is a YouTube channel with a variety of excellent yoga videos. Whether you want to work up a sweat, or calm and relieve your tired mind and body, this channel has you covered. https://www.youtube.com/user/yogawithadriene/
YogaGlo is online yoga and meditation you can do anywhere. Free to use while you are at the Mind and Body Center. – http://yogaglo.com