4 Stress Relief Apps to Help You Unwind

Have you ever heard that sports are 90% mental and only 10% physical? Well, it turns out that there is more truth to that than people might believe. In fact, many studies have shown that with visualization, your mind can shape everything in your life, including your body and your happiness. Visualization is a proven technique that involves focusing on positive mental images of what we want in our lives and how to make that happen. Along with focusing and believing in ourselves, visualization becomes a powerful, creative tool that can help us accomplish any goal in life. Visualization works by activating the same neural networks that physically performing a task does. This strengthens the connection between brain and body. If you’re a runner, for example, you might imagine yourself conquering a huge hill. To do this, you need to think deeply about it. What are you wearing? What are you seeing and hearing? How do you feel? The more detailed and real your visualization is, the better it will work and the sooner you will be crushing your goals! Champions aren’t made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them—a desire, a dream, a vision.–Muhammad Ali In addition to visualization helping us get into better shape, it can help us overcome fear and build self-confidence. This is because the brain doesn’t differentiate between real memory and a visualized one, so if we visualize ourselves being fearless and self-confident, our brains will believe that it’s real. We can also develop skills faster through visualization. Studies have shown that practicing skills mentally can be as effective at improving them as real practice is. This is because when we visualize an action, the same region in the brain is stimulated as when we perform the skill, and the same neural networks are also created. Visualization can also help us do things like reduce our anxiety, eat healthier, and improve focus. In fact, when we put our minds to it, anything is possible! Here are some visualization tips to get you started: Go somewhere quiet where you won’t be disturbed.Relax, close your eyes, and take several deep breaths.Mentally say to yourself what you want to achieve.Visualize the situation you desire in your mind as clearly and with as much detail as you can by adding your senses and positive emotions.Practice it at least twice a day for about 10 minutes each time.Maintain positive thoughts and a good attitude throughout.Believe that you can do it!Persevere until you succeed.

Did you know that April is Stress Awareness Month? At iFit, we love taking any opportunity we can to raise awareness and improve your overall health. When my work and life become busy and chaotic, emails, text messages, and calls seem to be blowing up on my phone nonstop. Sometimes, I even switch my phone on "Do Not Disturb" mode and toss it as far away from me as possible, just so I can take a moment to breathe. What I hadn’t realized is that my phone can also act as a tool to help me destress. It’s true! There are hundreds of apps available on your phone that can act as resources to relieve stress and help you unwind. After doing some research, here are my top four stress relief apps, tested, rated, and reviewed by yours truly. 1. Calm Visually, Calm is everything you expect from a stress relief app. Its use of cool colors, natural scenery as backgrounds, and sounds of nature that play while the app is open are automatically relaxing. Every day, you are offered a Daily Calm activity, which is an audio-guided meditation, aimed to focus on a certain issue...for example, work stress. If you’re like me and have a hard time closing your eyes and just focusing on audio, Calm offers a relaxing scenery of a lake and background audio to go with it (you can also choose different scenery from the settings). You can link your Daily Calm activity to Siri and have her play it for you without going through the app. You can also set a mindfulness reminder, share your statistics, and view your streaks (how many days you’ve meditated in a row). You can access the soothing music library, different meditation programs, and even listen to masterclasses on topics such as Mindful Parenting. 2. Headspace: Meditation & Sleep Visually, what sets Headspace apart is its use of bright colors and animated characters. When prompted for my reason behind using Headspace, I selected Stress & Anxiety. It also asked me my level of experience with meditation, making the app feel slightly personalized (although they all do). The free trial of headspace includes 10 meditation sessions over a span of 10 days. From there, you have to subscribe to unlock premium usage. You can customize the length of your meditation sessions, choose from their extensive library, track your progress, and save it to Apple Health Kit. To help you sleep, there are different audio experiences that you can choose from, including sleepcasts and sleep music. Aside from meditation programs, the app includes Eyes-open Exercises, Headspace for Kids, Single Meditations (for when you don’t have much time), and six SOS sessions to give you relief during meltdown moments. 3. Breethe Every day, Breethe gives you a recommended Daily Breether, a 10-minute meditation that targets a different theme each day, based on your personal goals. The Meditation library is organized, based on different genres or needs, such as Anytime, Anywhere, Life Situations, Themed Weeks, Kids & Family, and even Less Guidance. The Less Guidance meditations are a convenient feature, because they offer minimal verbal guidance, blended with music, nature, sounds, or silence. These are perfect if you’re looking to let your mind rest without a voice telling you when to breathe or what to let go of. Breethe also includes hypnotherapy sessions, inspirational talks, masterclasses, and calming videos to help you relax. In the sleep section, you can find Bedtime Stories, Visualizations, and Sleep Music & Nature Sounds to help you fall asleep. 4. Aura Aura first asks you how mindful, positive, or stressed you tend to be, then asks you to choose a time for a daily, 3-minute moment to yourself, You tie that moment to an existing habit; for example, after showering or first thing at work. You can also set a different time for weekends. In order to unlock all of the content inside Aura, you must complete your first, 3-minute meditation. The nice thing about Aura is that it will ask you how you’re feeling each day before giving you a recommended meditation. Aura also uses a subscription method, where you can subscribe to certain channels, speakers, stories, and music. There is also an online community within the app where people can share their experiences with specific meditations, then recommend them to others. All of these are great resources, and there are many more out there! Be sure to do some research and find what works best for you!

Would you rather burn the midnight oil than rise and shine before the sun? Regardless of your natural tendencies, it is possible to become a morning person! A few small shifts in your mindset and your routine can help you on your way to enjoying everything the morning has to offer. Here are some tips to get you started. Humans are creatures of habit and changing your current routine won’t happen overnight. Consistency is key! Be patient and find small ways to “trick” yourself into enjoying the morning as you get started. Try scheduling a workout for the morning and set out your workout gear the night before. When your alarm goes off, you’ll just need to get dressed and get going! A full night’s rest (that’s at least 7 hours of sleep!) is not only key to your overall wellness, but it will make rising and shining much easier. Shift your bedtime to accommodate waking up earlier, and you’ll be ready to take on the morning. The best part about waking up early? It’s the perfect opportunity to enjoy the quiet and think about your personal goals. Try a meditation practice first thing or journaling to write down your intentions, so you can take on the day. It was philosopher Lao Tzu who said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” If your goal feels too big or daunting, break it down into smaller steps to stay motivated. Start by waking up early two days a week, then gradually work your way up to five days. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was your morning routine! Be open to finding ways to motivate yourself and establish a lasting way to enjoy the morning. Consistency takes time, so give yourself grace as you take steps toward becoming a morning person. Once you’ve successfully conquered the morning, take some time to celebrate! Buy that new piece of workout gear you had your eye on or head to our Facebook community to share your accomplishments and encourage others on their journey.