Here’s what you need to know….
- As a direct result of their lifestyle, busy professionals have to endure considerable amounts of physical, psychological and emotional stress. This can leave them feeling worried, overwhelmed and run down.
- Managing this stress and reducing it when ever possible can have a positive impact on a an individuals health, performance and appearance.
- When used consistently, mobile apps are a cheap and effective way to help users manage their stress levels through meditation, breathing techniques, and better sleep.
Stress can have a significant impact on our health and too much of it can leave you feeling worried, overwhelmed and run-down. This makes learning to deal with stress important, particularly for anyone that wants to look, feel and perform at their very best. There are of course good and bad ways of dealing with stress and unfortunately, most people deal with stress in a way that is detrimental to their health. Food and alcohol are two great examples of this. Both offer short-term relief from feelings of anxiety but when used as a long-term coping strategy, they can have disastrous consequences for your health, particularly for older individuals. In contrast, healthy coping mechanisms allow us to deal with the stress in a much more positive way and grow as individuals from the resulting experience. Meditation, breathing techniques and most importantly sleep, can all help you stay calm and relaxed during periods of intense and prolonged stress. In this article, I’m going to review three of my favorite apps that can help you learn the skills that you need to successfully manage and reduce stress.
1. Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock
Sleep Cycle alarm clock is an intelligent alarm clock that analyses your sleep and wakes you up in the lightest possible sleep phase so you wake up feeling refreshed and energized. When we’re are asleep our bodies go through two different phases of sleep known as Rapid Eye Movement sleep (REM) and Non-Rapid Eye Movement Sleep (NREM). N-REM sleep is the lighter phase of our sleep cycle and waking up during this phase is the key to feeling fresh and energized when you get up in the morning. Sleep cycle alarm clock uses both the iPhone’s microphone and accelerometer to determine which of the two phases of sleep that you’re in and only wakes you when you enter N-REM so that you wake up feeling fresh and energized. Monitoring your sleep quality and optimising it with the help of an app like sleep cycle is a great way to get a better nights sleep and recover from the rigors of a busy work, family and social schedule. Available to download for free, Sleep Cycle is available to anyone that owns an iPhone and I strongly recommend you take advantage of it if you’re in need of a good nights sleep.
2. Omvana
Meditation is a great way to alleviate feelings of stress and anxiety. It’s easy to learn and has no negative side effects or downsides. Omvana, an online meditation platform, gives users access to a library of thousands of meditations and is currently used by over 5 million users worldwide. Built by personal development company Mind Valley, Omvana is designed to help users enter a meditative state, relax and let go of any worries that might be on their mind. When you first download Omvana, your library includes about 10 meditations; to add more, it’s necessary to navigate over to the store, and then click on Top Tracks > Free or Categories > All free. Once you find a meditation you like, clicking the “Free” button will add the track to your library. Much of Omvana’s library is off-limits to the free user and of 1000 meditations, only 75 are free. For new users this a good entry into meditation and should be more than sufficient for a few months at least. After this point, users can access more meditations by making in-app purchases which cost between £2.99 – £7.99.
3. Inner Fire – The Wim Hof Method
Wim Hof nicknamed the ‘Iceman’ is a Dutch daredevil who holds 26 world records for a variety of feats, many of which are performed in freezing, sub-zero temperatures. Wim attributes his ability to withstand extreme temperatures to his cold meditations and breathing techniques. Working closely with scientists, Wim has set out to make the benefits available to everyone and has recently launched the app ‘Inner Fire’. Comprised of three parts, the Inner Fire app is designed to give you an introduction to Wim’s method which incorporates breathing techniques, stretching and cold water immersion (cold showers). For stress, I highly recommend trying Wim’s breathing techniques which he demonstrates in the app. They’re incredibly easy to learn, take about 2 minutes to perform and are a great way to relieve feelings of stress and anxiety. Priced at £3.99 the app features a stopwatch and calendar to track your sessions and most importantly, it includes video instructions from Wim himself on how to perform the techniques.
Closing
Whilst we most commonly think of stress as being under too much mental or emotional pressure, it’s important to recognize that exercise and nutrition (two often recommended antidotes to stress) are themselves, also forms of stress. Managing stress, therefore, is an important task for anyone that is considering transitioning to healthier lifestyle. The key is to ensure that negative forms of stress are reduced, whilst positive forms of stress are administered in small and manageable amounts. This will ensure that you are able to progress and achieve results without being overwhelmed by too many changes. When used consistently, mobile apps are a cheap and effective way to help users manage their stress levels through meditation, breathing techniques, and better sleep. They will be of great benefit to anyone that wants to prioritize a healthy lifestyle whilst still being able to meet their existing work, family and social commitments.