Congratulations, you’ve made it through the finals! But if you don’t feel like celebrating, it’s completely understandable. You probably spent the whole finals constantly stressed and anxious, sleeping very little and chunking energy drinks.
Finals are taxing; they can take a serious toll on your mental health. But now that they’re over, you finally have a chance to take care of it and bounce back to normal. And you should take it.
Do you think it’s time for you to practice some self-care and restore your mental well-being? There are many ways you can go about it, but these six apps are a good place to start.
Keep in mind: All of that stress and anxiety are completely avoidable. You can order coursework writing by professional writers at EssayPro next time if you lack time and that stresses you out. You can also use the self-care practices you will see here to make the next finals less nerve-racking.
What’s Up?
- Platforms: Android, iOS
- Pricing: Free
- Best for: Learning how to cope with negative thinking using the CBT and ACT practices
Are you overcome by stress, anxiety, anger, or any other negative emotions? What’s Up? is here to help you learn how to cope with them in a healthy way using classic therapy methods.
The app has over 100 questions for grounding, teaches 3 basic breathing techniques, and helps you put your problems into perspective with a “catastrophe scale”.
But that’s not all! What’s Up? also allows you to keep track of your habits and write down your feelings and thoughts. And as a cherry on the top, the app has 70+ positive quotes and 10 metaphors to improve your mood.
Headspace
- Platforms: Android, iOS
- Pricing: $9.99 per year for students; a free trial is available
- Best for: Getting introduced to guided meditation and breathing exercises
Have you always wanted to try meditating? This is your chance to commit to it! Headspace has a huge collection of both short and long guided sessions. They can be tailored to your mood, time of the day, and goals. For example, you can turn on a sleep cast before falling asleep or fire up an “SOS” session if you’re in panic mode.
Plus, there’s a lucrative discount for students in particular: you can get the annual subscription for just $9.99 instead of the regular price tag ($69.99).
Happify
- Platforms: Android, iOS
- Pricing: Free; a premium version starts at $14.99 per month (or $139.99 per year)
- Best for: Changing your outlook into a more positive one (while also having fun)
Happify promises to help you become happier, and it’s not an empty promise. But how does it manage to deliver on it?
The secret to Happify’s efficiency is its fun approach: it’s full of quizzes, games, and other activities. And while fun is the word, these activities are meaningful, too. They’re designed to help you reevaluate your life and start thinking more positively in general.
So, Happify can become your distraction from negative thoughts or a way to learn how to cope with them, or both – it’s up to you.
Fabulous
- Platforms: Android, iOS
- Pricing: $2.99 per month (billed annually); a free 7-day trial is available
- Best for: Working towards a healthier and happier lifestyle
Fabulous could easily end up being just another one of those habit tracker apps. But while it shares the same goal – help you build new habits and routines – its approach is different.
Fabulous has features that are aimed at changing your lifestyle into a healthier one specifically, such as:
- exercise sessions to motivate you to get fit;
- the Mind Bus sessions to help you get rid of negative thoughts nagging you;
- Deep Work sessions to make your work more productive.
Gratitude Journal Affirmations
- Platforms: Android, iOS
- Pricing: Free; a premium version starts at $4.99 per month
- Best for: Focusing on the positive emotions and events in your daily life
What are you grateful for today? This app can help you answer this question – and other similar ones – every day. It’ll provide you with prompts and its reminders will make sure you don’t skip out on a single day.
This is more than just a gratitude journal, though. You’ll also find positive affirmations there (you can write your own, too), as well as the Daily Zen section to spark your inspiration and motivation.
Lifesum
- Platforms: Android, iOS
- Pricing: free; a premium version starts at $4.17 per month
- Best for developing healthy eating habits
You know what they say: “A sound mind is in a sound body.” So, if you’ve always wanted to get on a diet or start eating healthy, Lifesum being on this list is your sign.
This app isn’t just a habit tracker: it’s your guide through all of it. Lifesum will help you make the right nutritional choices, learn what eating healthy means in practice, and find alternatives to the foods you’re used to.
10 More Great Apps that Didn’t Make the Cut
These six apps above are the cream of the crop, but they’re not the only ones that can help you focus on self-care. Make sure you give these ten apps a try, too:
- Alan Mind – for making guided journaling your new therapeutic routine.
- Talkspace – for talking to a therapist in the comfort of your home.
- MoodMission – for improving your current mood by completing Missions.
- MindShift – for managing your anxiety using CBT strategies.
- Sanvello – for getting self-care, peer support, coaching, and therapy in one package.
- HabitBull – for building new habits and breaking old ones.
- MindDoc – for tracking your well-being and learning about mental health.
- Pillow – for finally getting a good night of sleep.
- Productive – for managing your habits and challenging yourself.
- My Possible Self – for getting to know your thoughts and behaviors.
In Conclusion: How to Choose the Right App
By trial and error, of course! Don’t get this wrong: reviews and lists like this one are great to give you an idea of where to start looking. But they won’t ever be able to guess which apps will work for you and which ones won’t.
So, install as many of them as you want and take each of them for a test drive. Set aside several days to a week for every app you test and take note of their effect on your well-being.
