World Mental Health Day started on 10 Oct 1992 to raise awareness of mental health issues worldwide and to mobilize efforts in support of mental health.
As Covid-19 continues to have a major impact on people’s mental health, it is an important day to remind ourselves to take care of our mental health and help those around us.
This year the slogan is Mental health care for all: let’s make it a reality. So, what better way to make mental health available to everyone than to use technology?
Here are some apps that could help you improve your mental wellness.
Intellect: Create A Better You
Available on: App Store and Google Play.
We all know that mental health is important, but the lack of tangible steps can make working on it difficult at times.
Motivated by his own experience with anxiety and the stigma that can exist around it, Singaporean Theodoric Chew came up with Intellect to give people an accessible and easy way to begin their mental wellness journey.
The app takes a simple approach to mental wellness, encouraging you to make small behavioural changes to manage your emotions better and be more in tune with yourself.
Based on cognitive behavioural therapy, the app has 4 to 6-week programmes that simulate how you’d work with a therapist.
It breaks down common issues around procrastination, decision-making, and other topics, helping you understand yourself better and make changes to the way you think through easy exercises.
Journey – Diary, Journal
Available on: App Store and Google Play.
With so much happening around us in a single week or even a day, Singapore-made app Journey allows you to step back from your surroundings and highlight your experiences and their impact on you.
With Journey, you can look back on a specific moment or day and remember your feelings or the forgotten details.
A beautiful blank canvas for you to unleash your thoughts, Journey also has a Journal coach, various Photography challenges, inspirational quotes as well as a “Hello, Blank Page” daily prompt to help you get started with your new journaling habit.
The app allows you to check your old posts chronologically like a blog, in a calendar view or even on a map, with a nifty function to tag your entries with location data.
Or for the more audio-visually inclined, you can add a photo or a voice recording for some extra insights into that day for your future self too.
MindFi: Mindfulness Anytime
Available on: App Store and Google Play.
Find a comfortable seat, relax and take a moment. A science-based mental wellness coach, MindFi is designed to help you build sustainable habits while improving and monitoring your wellbeing anytime, anywhere.
Founded by Bjorn Lee, the idea stemmed from his journey with meditation which he began to practise as a means of managing high stress.
With hundreds of meditations available depending on your mood or time of day, MindFi can bring a bit of calm and wellness into each day.
With animated breathing exercises, guided meditations and even curated videos by coaches and experts sharing their best tips and tricks, there’s almost certainly a course in MindFi for you.
Be it to improve your mental focus or just relax, this is your call to be mindful and live in the moment.
Breathe In: Meditation & Sleep
Available on: App Store and Google Play.
Swamped with endless projects from work, household duties, general life stuff? Before you start feeling overwhelmed just… breathe.
Breathe In wellness coach Karen Heshusius says that although we can’t control external stimuli, we can handle our breath and stay in control.
The app features various breathing exercises to help you take the reins of your day, such as a 4-6 sequence. When things become hectic, your breath quickens.
By zooming in on inhales of four seconds and longer exhales of six seconds, this breathing exercise helps to slow down your heart rate and relieve tension from your body.
It also stimulates your vagus nerve, diminishing the fight or flight response and lowering adrenaline.
Wakeout! – Move and Smile
Available on: App Store.
Studies have shown that physical activity releases endorphins in your body, triggering a positive feeling in the body.
Founders Andres Canella and Pedro Wunderlich want to make the world a happier place through movement, trying out exercises with pretty much anything they can find at home, from plant pots to watermelons.
Wakeout features lots of amusing, easy-to-follow physical activities, letting users get a kick out of the app’s inventive ways to get your body moving throughout the day.
For example, all you need is a cup of coffee to do the “Coffee Inhales” exercise.
Simply grab your coffee as if it was the most precious object you’ve ever seen, bring it to your nose and inhale the delicious coffee aromas, allowing you to pause and enjoy this blissful morning ritual.
