There is a word that often everyone tends to try to avoid - "burnout." Everyone has had one at least once in their lifetime, and whether it was brought on by personal reasons, work reasons, or whatever else, we all sometimes struggle to find the support to ensure we can come back to reality and peace. Every now and then, we need a little push or guidance from friends, family, or other trusted individuals, but what happens if they aren't around to rely on? Knowing your stressors, triggers, or sensitivities is a beneficial way to make sure elevate the stress that comes from a burnout, but there are many other tools to help you find peace of mind, self-care, self-love, and a positive well-being. If you want to discover other ways to deal with a burnout, here are four apps we have found to help you manage and prevent further stress.
Headspace
Headspace is a free app for both Apple and Android designed to teach individuals mindfulness and mediation techniques. The company officially launched back in 2010 as an events company, but found that many of their attendees wanted a way to practice their meditation from home. The company's founder, Andy Puddicombe, who practices meditation training in countries such as Nepal, India, Russia, and Australia, paired with Rich Pierson in creating the app and brand that we know today. The Headspace app is designed to allow individuals to practice mindfulness and meditation from the comforts of their homes - or anywhere for that matter - being introduced to a series of guided meditations, animations, articles, and videos, all in the distinct style and charm of the brand.
Within the app, you can find some features such as:
- The Wake-Up - Inspired by the idea of daily affirmations, the "wake-up" is a tool that creates a series of inspiration videos and mini-meditations designed to help you wake up and face the day head-on and strong!
- Move Mode - Combining exercise with meditation, this mode allows the user to train their body and mind at the same time with the power effects of exercise.
- Sleep - Sleep in created to help users do just that - the app mode allows for a series of different stories, guided meditations, sleep casts, and even music that can be discovered to help you, or even your boo, to get a good nights sleep.
- Meditation - The most basic of meditation modes, this app mode is designed to help users manage their feelings and thoughts with the lifelong skill of mindfulness everyday.
MindFi
MindFi is a way to keep busy people in check with their mental well-being, while being a useful tool to practice mindfulness anywhere. It is a perfect app for people who cannot sit for too long, or often find themselves getting "bored" during their meditation practice. It is designed to help you stay alert and focused on a specific current task, being a resourceful app that has proven to promote productivity and concentration. When you are constantly on the go or being bombarded with work or busy tasks, sometimes it gets hard to focus on your mental health. This app makes meditation and reflection easy for people who are consistently grinding away at work, creating small successful guided meditation and mindfulness practices to help you manage your work day!
Personal Zen
Personal Zen was created as a tool to combat negative energies and emotions by promoting positive thinking and well-being. Clinical studies were conducted throughout the beta-testing of the app, in creating support for the fundamental idea that the app was created for. The clinical studies have been proven as effective as well, backing up the success for the app as well. Personal Zen uses a series of games and smaller activities that help reduce stress and promote positive feelings.
It ensures stress-reduction by playing this game a couple of times a week. This is due to Attention-Bias Modification Training (ABMT), which suggests that by avoiding a negative stimulus and triggers, which for example in this apps instance an angry face, you are training your brain to avoid negative emotions and to focus on positive and non-threatening scenarios.
Urban Mind
Urban Mind is actually a clinical study and app designed to understand how our environment affects our mental well-being. The designers of the app understand that sometimes our community or the places we visit throughout the day, such as work, can be stressful or triggering at times. It was created as an assessment tool that requires the user to enter in information about their environment and location, such as if you were in New York, New York that day, and how they felt throughout the day. It aims to distinguish how specific environments can be triggering for you and how you manage these emotions throughout the day. The app also creates a series of questions for the user, such as where you are located, how you are feeling, your emotions, if you are surrounded by nature, and even more. In consistently reporting to the app, it will send you an individualized report after two weeks, assessing your data and information to summarize your results.
If you are feeling stressed or are dealing with burnout, give one of these apps a try! Then share with us whether one you used by tagging us on Instagram @itouchwearables and Facebook @itouchwearables. Also, be sure to check out our new articles published daily!
-Patrick
