Self-development, stress management, mood consciousness and help for finding happiness are traditionally addressed on a couch across from a therapist. However, now thanks to smart-phone technology, self-help and spirituality are as close as your iPhone. It’s common knowledge that self-help literature is a money maker. Just take a look at the New York Time’s Best Seller’s list and notice the large selection of books devoted to advice and self-growth. But does it really help? Maybe. Self-help applications are among the most popular purchased in the iTunes and Android market. These applications are especially popular among professionals, academics and graduate students. Forget about $150 sessions with your therapist, now insights to a better you are just a click away on your phone.
Oprah Winfrey has famously said that keeping a gratitude journal changed her life and the makers of Gratitude Journal want to help you change yours. Gratitude Journal was an instant hit when it debuted becoming the #1 lifestyle app on iTunes. For $0.99, users can keep a daily list of 5 things they’re grateful for, protected by pass code, in a bulleted list on your phone. This app allows users to easily flip through the days, email your list, and even add photos. It even has a feature that records feelings each day so users can keep track of how your life is improving as you keep up with this daily practice.
Another popular self-help app is My Thoughts+, which was designed to promote self-confidence, happiness and a general sense of well-being. Earl Nightingale said, “We become what we think about all day long”, and the creators of My Thoughts+ agree. For $1.99 this app delivers over a thousand affirmations to inspire its users to manifest the life they desire with positive thoughts. Users can customize the background and watch as a slide show of affirmations plays along with soothing music in the background. This app also allows users to add their own custom affirmations or choose by categories such as health and well-being, relationships, success, wealth and confidence. If you can’t escape to your own private zen garden, this may be the next best thing. Check out the free option of this app that holds 100 affirmations.
With smart-phone technology, perhaps escaping to a private zen garden is not as difficult as one might think. Another popular app designed to calm your mind is iZen Garden, a digital version of a soothing zen sandbox. For $4.99, users can enjoy all the benefits of a zen garden without having to clean up the mess. Choose from 100s of objects, plants and creatures to place in your garden, along with options for the sound of crashing waves, fluttering butterflies or forest sounds in the background. All this while they rake the sand. The app allows users to share their creations via Facebook, Twitter or email to perhaps to inspire others to join them in the virtual sandbox. Chosen as one of the top 500 apps in the world by The Sunday Times of London, the Brits consider this an App Store Essential.
LiveHappy is an application based on the book, The How of Happiness, by UCR professor Sonja Lyubomirsky. This $0.99 app puts her ideas into practice by helping you evaluate your goals, keep track of happy days, keep a gratitude journal, encourages you to thank people, and helps you remember acts of kindness. There is also a built-in personality test as well as plenty of tips and tricks on conceptualizing a happier you including information about the science of happiness.
This last app reminds us that stress is serious business. Not only does it block opportunities for happiness and well-being, but it is also a health risk factor for a number of illnesses including heart attacks to strokes. iStress was developed by professionals who work with individuals under stress in their daily lives. The feedback provided by clients was incorporated into this comprehensive stress management application which features a number of helpful exercises aimed at reducing stress and increasing positive thinking. This app provides several stress management activities including reading an inspirational poem, encouraging sayings, a humor page that features “stress” jokes, and an option to rate your feelings. There’s also a relaxation exercise to help users reduce their stress levels when they feel overwhelmed.
While none of these applications promise mental health and wellness or can really take the place of an actual therapist, they serve to remind us to be mindful. Smartphones and tablets help with work and school productivity and with keeping up with friends and social networks, however, through the various self-help technology available, these devices also provide access to inspiration, balance, self actualization and even quite possibly, happiness. After all, when you change your thoughts, you change your destiny. (That last line was courtesy of My Thoughts+) Namaste.
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