Let’s face it, it’s been over a year since we entered the pandemic and with all the social distancing, distance learning, disappointing news, and myriad of Covid-19 possible symptoms, we all have dealt with a great amount of stress and stress-induced anxiety lately.
In the past some of us have used group therapy, yoga classes, and other in-person methods that have helped us reduce our stress or treat our anxiety. However, facing a contactless world recently, some of us haven’t found a great alternative to what we used to do pre-pandemic.
But there are actually many apps available that guide us through meditation techniques, yoga movements, or just breath-focused soothing sessions. Here are 2, one for adults and one for kids:
Headspace
With a 4.9 star- rating and an Editor’s Choice Award, this app comes with guided meditations, soothing music playlists to calm down or go to sleep, inspiring stories, and short mood-boosting workouts to help you feel good about yourself.
Although it comes with 10 free sessions then requires a subscription, I have found it very useful to use those sessions to try the app enough times to find out if I think it useful or not, otherwise I go back to the AppStore and try searching for another one
Balloon Breathing Game
Normally, kids destress by playing, but the means of how and where they play have become very reduced today. Although not the same as playing outside, this app is very easy to understand and entertains kids while they work on their breathing—reducing their stress in a fun way for them.
Here’s a list of other stress-reducing apps you might want to try out now and then:
Nike Running App (you can run and listen to mindful narratives at the same time!)