MENTAL HEALTH MONTH || 3 Wellness Apps to Reset Your Mind, Body and Soul

Truth is, as much as we try to pretend that’s not the case, we know that mental health plays a huge role in our daily lives.

Mental health is more important now than ever before. It impacts every area of our lives, whether it’s improving our mood, reducing our anxiety, creating an enhanced sense of inner peace, thinking more clearly, improving our relationships or increasing our self-esteem - it affects us on a daily basis.

Since May is dedicated to mental health awareness, we thought this would be the best time to share with you the most powerful tool you can add to your wellness arsenal - your mobile device! These are the top apps we use in our own daily routines here at Pendulum that will help you reset by reducing your mind’s tendency to wander.

With just 10 minutes or less you can set the tone for the day.

Calm

Calm is the #1 app for sleep and meditation. The most popular mindfulness app promises to give the anxious, the depressed, and isolated access to a variety of zen content. It also helps those looking to be more present with their family or partner, a bit less distracted at work, or even a bit more consistent with their personal habits. 

Here’s how we use it:

We love their Daily Calm segments, which help us start the day refreshed and centred. These short excerpts sharing inspiring life lessons and stories are narrated by the ultra-calming voices of self-help and wellness guru Jay Shetty, as well as Author and Mindfulness Instructor Tamara Levitt. For those who have trouble going to sleep at night, their sleep stories narrated by recognized voices including Matthew McConaughey, Rupi Kaur, Lucy Liu and more lead your mind into soothing, fantastical worlds so you can rest soundly.  

Some of our recent favourites include Jay Shetty’s “Big Talk”, “Combating Loneliness”, and Tamara Levitt’s “Ripples”.

Time to ourselves is of utmost importance.

Headspace

Headspace’s mission is to improve the health and happiness of the world. It is proven to reduce stress by 14% in just 10 days. It can also help you relax your mind in minutes, improve your focus, and get the most ideal sleep ever. Through science-backed meditation and mindfulness tools, Headspace helps you create life-changing habits to support your mental health and find a healthier happier you.

Here’s how we use it:

We can all agree that meditation is not the easiest to flow into, especially in the busy and hectic world we’re in. Headspace boasts a broad and plentiful library of meditations, ranging from calming work stress to anxiety, and sessions that gear towards coping with emotions such as anger and loneliness. The meditations are recorded separately by two voices, one male and one female. The male voice is the co-founder himself, Andy Puddicombe. One of our favourite things about Puddicombe’’s style of meditation is the acceptance and positive guidance he offers. Let’s be real, we tend to feel discouraged with meditation when we get distracted, Puddicombe acknowledges the fact and gives tips on how to manage wandering minds. 

These tips are emphasized in the “Basics” meditation course that can be accessed in the free versions. This gives you a chance to decide if Puddicombe’s aspects speak to you before you commit to the app. 

A healthier mind = a more restful night’s sleep.

Unmind

Unmind helps you measure, understand and improve your mental health with hundreds of bitesize, self-guided tools designed by psychologists and field experts. These specially designed tools nourish all aspects of mental well-being. From sleep to calmness, fulfillment to happiness. Unmind brings you a step closer to a more balanced and fulfilling life.

Here’s how we use it:

Unmind provides a range of tools and training such as - Daily Boost, Sleep, Uplift, Move&Yoga, MindSnacks, and Focus. Most sessions and exercises only take a few minutes and are designed to enhance relaxation, focus, energy, mood and much more. We think of it as a gym for our minds in our pockets. 

Through Unmind, we also take advantage of its assessments and insights where the app provides helpful tools from standardized questionnaires to everyday mood diaries. With mood diaries, Unmind is able to display your mood chart over a period of time, allowing you to understand your mental health a little bit more.

Self reflection, understanding and acceptance are key factors to a healthier mind.

The importance of good mental health ripples into everything we do, think or say. While mindfulness is something we naturally possess and experience, it’s more readily available to us when we practice on a daily basis. With practice, our thoughts are able to shape our emotions. Keep in mind that none of these emotions or thoughts are fixed or permanent. As we consciously witness the natural fluctuations of our mind’s activity, we can relax strong ideas and find the benefits of mental strength, stability and clarity.