Did you know that you have access to tons of resources for your mental health and well-being right at the tips of your fingers? It’s true! In our technologically advanced world, there are now countless apps for coping with anxiety and stress, developing a better sleep schedule, tracking your moods, improving self-esteem, finding relaxation and calm throughout your day, and enhancing your focus and attention. There are even apps to assist with deescalating from panic attacks!
Why use mental health apps you may ask? For starters, smartphone applications are an integral part of our daily lives. Think about it: we rely on apps to navigate to new places, remain connected with our friends, wake up on time, stay organized, and so much more. Mental health apps are another great way to enhance your well-being, develop healthy habits, and work through your problems at your own pace.
These apps are also cost-effective and time efficient. They can easily be built into your busy schedule as they can be accessed on-the-go and usually include modules that require only five to ten minutes of your time. Whether you are using an app purely for self-help or as an adjunct to professional support, mental health apps can be a creative and fun way to set and achieve goals to promote your overall mental health and wellness!
Check out our apps below to find the app that is right for you!
Relaxation/Mindfulness
Abide
Abide is a website and application that provides Christian meditations based on Biblical teachings and personal reflection to aid in stress reduction and better sleep hygiene. Abide is free to use with limited features such as a daily meditation, two minute meditations of different topics, two full-length guides, two full-length sleep stories, and journaling. The premium subscription provides additional resources, such as longer meditations, more sleep stories, and more guides.
Aura
Aura helps to reduce stress/anxiety, improve focus, and sleep better using personalized daily mindfulness meditations, life coaching, stories, and music. This app also includes mindfulness reminders, mood and mindfulness tracking, and gratitude reflections.
BellyBio Interactive Breathing
BellyBio Interactive Breathing generates music and light that is synchronized to your deep abdominal breathing movements. This app includes interactive musical themes, choice of breathing colors, biofeedback of your breathing, and a breathing log.
Breathe
Breathe helps you to relax and focus on your breathing by guiding you through a series of breaths every day. It uses animation to help you focus on your breath and the present moment experience of breathing. This app includes daily mindfulness reminders and a mindful minute log so that you can keep yourself accountable to the practice.
Calm
Calm is a website and application that provides different types of peaceful audio to improve sleep, relaxation, stress, anxiety, and depression. For example, “The Daily Calm” is a 10-minute meditation that focuses on a different mindful theme every day. The app also provides bedtime stories (for adults!), peaceful music to encourage sleep, lessons on meditation, and sounds of nature. Calm also provides additional resources at http://www.calm.com/together.
Do Nothing: Meditation App
Do Nothing: Meditation App is a simple, unguided meditation app. Most meditation apps have you focus on something specific, like counting your breaths. Conversely, doing nothing simply means sitting in a state of conscious awareness and is based on the thousand-year-old Zen practice of shikantaza which means “just sitting.” The only goal is to allow your thoughts to come and go without holding them close or pushing them away. By practicing this, you allow your mind to self-organize, leading to a calmer, clearer mind!
Headspace
Headspace is a website and application that provides a variety of mindful resources. It provides information on what meditation is and techniques on how to effectively meditate. The app provides meditations on topics such as sleeping, waking up, stress, anxiety, social anxiety, exercise, eating, self-esteem, and more. Within these topics, Headspace provides a multitude of meditations for different activities and mood states. For example, the app provides 18 guided meditations to use while running to facilitate mindful exercise. The app also provides peaceful music to aid in sleep and relaxation.
Insight Timer
Insight Timer 
is a website and application that provides a variety of audio and videos for stress reduction and sleep aid. Guided meditations, inspirational talks, calming music, and educational courses are provided. In October, live yoga classes will launch.
Mindfulness Daily
Mindfulness Daily is a set of tools designed to encourage/support your commitment to practicing mindfulness daily. The app makes it easy to fit mindfulness and meditation into your daily routine to get its benefits, such as reduced anxiety/stress, better sleep, manage pain, and increase performance.
MyLife Meditation
MyLife Meditation helps you to learn how to meditate and be more mindful everyday by using how you feel to personalize your mindful meditation practices. Developing the simple habit of checking in with and taking care of how you feel can help you better navigate through life, reduce your anxiety, enhance sleep, and much more.
Ripple: Guided Breathing
Ripple: Guided Deep Breathing makes practicing deep breathing easy, as it simply guides your breathing to help you focus and relax your mind. Benefits of deep breathing includes relaxation and clarity to the mind; makes you calmer, mindful, and happier.
Silk 2- Generative Art
Silk 2- Generative Art is an application that allows you to create art mindfully. The brush creates bright, colorful art against a dark background. You can create mandalas, symmetric images, abstracts pieces, or detailed portraits that can be used as a digital wallpaper. this app can also be accessed at www.weavesilk.com.
UCLA Mindful
UCLA Mindful is an easy way to practice mindfulness meditation anywhere, anytime with the help of the UCLA Mindful AwarenessResearch Center. This app helps to manage stress-related physical conditions, reduce anxiety and depression, cultivate positive emotions, and help improve overall physical health and well-being. This app is free on the Apple App store.
Unplug: Meditation
is an iPhone application with a collection of meditations designed to help you overcome life’s challenges and obstacles. Unplug’s meditations are developed by real meditation instructors and use both video and audio. Discover meditations that go beyond just focusing on your breathing but rather target almost any situation that may be causing you stress or worry.
Anxiety/OCD
Anxiety Free: iCan Hyponosis
This app includes a series of recordings developed by Donald MacKinnon, a practitioner in clinic-based hypnotherapy. Hypnosis is more than just a method for relaxation. The guided audio recordings contain subliminal signals that speak to the subconscious with powerful effect. Through hypnosis you will learn valuable strategies on how to reduce anxiety and tension.
Calm Harm
Calm Harm is an app that helps in managing and resisting the urge to engage in self-harming behaviors. The app provides immediate activities and techniques to help break the cycle of self-harming behaviors and explore underlying triggers for self-harm. The app supports you in developing a variety of helpful thoughts and behaviors as well as a built-in journal for self-reflection.
Clear Fear
Clear Fear is an app designed to help individuals face their fears, alter anxious behaviors, and change anxious thoughts and emotions. This app helps users learn how to regulate the physiological effects of anxiety through relaxation and deep breathing exercises, challenge unhelpful ways of thinking, overcome avoidance, face certain phobias, and reduce over-checking behaviors. Users can create an individualized plan for dealing with fear and anxiety and the app even offers an “Immediate Help” intervention for panic attacks.
MindShift CBT
MindShift CBT is an app designed to help manage anxiety, relax, and be mindful. MindShift CBT uses scientifically proven strategies base on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), including challenging negative thinking, writing thought journals, setting up belief experiments, building fear ladders, and doing comfort zone challenges. Listen to calming audio to reframe your thoughts, practice mindfulness, and stay grounded. The app also includes a daily check-in to track your mood and anxiety levels and graphs to help you visually see your progress over time.
OCD.app
OCD.app is designed to increase your awareness of unhelpful thinking habits, train you to identify and challenge unhelpful thinking patterns, reduce anxiety and depression, and provide a daily mood and self-esteem boost. The app includes modules centered on specific topics, including self-esteem, belief in change, social comparisons, perfectionism, danger and threat, fear and abandonment, fear of contamination, and much more. Track your progress by using the app’s built-in self-assessment tool!
Rootd
Panic attack and anxiety relief right in your pocket! Rootd is an app designed to help you face panic attacks head on as well provide education to help you understand where anxiety and panic come from. The ultimate goal is to help you develop a better relationship with anxiety and live panic attack free!
Smiling Mind
Smiling Mind is a not-for-profit website and application targeted for younger individuals to improve anxiety, depression, attention, and social and academic functioning. There are a variety of meditation topics to choose from, such as sleep, technology detox, stress management, relationships, studying, exercise, and more. You can also track your mood.
Stress Scan
Stress Scan assesses your stress levels by measuring changes in your heart rate by simply placing a finger over the camera of your smartphone device for two minutes. You will then receive a rating from 0-100 pertaining to your mental and physical stress levels. By monitoring and tracking your stress levels over time, you can become more aware of how to manage the most stressful points of your day.
Focus and Attention
Focus@will
Focus@Will is an app designed to help you focus through the power of music. The app will guide you through a short assessment to customize a music channel that will best help you focus and increase productivity. The app also includes a built-in focus timer and productivity tracker so you can track your progress and focus over time.
Rainy Mood
Rainy Mood is an app that mimics the sound of rain and can be used to improve studying, sleep, and relaxation. The rain sound experience can help your brain naturally focus and relax. The app includes a variety of rain scenes including Classic, Ocean, Countryside, and Café.
SmiplyNoise
SimplyNoise is an app that features signature color noises for people of all age groups and professions to promote focus, relaxation, and better sleep. The content is crafted by award-winning sound designers and engineers from the feature film and game industry to produce an immersive and high-fidelity audio experience. Blend and oscillate white, pink, and brown noise with SimplyClassic. Control storm intensity and thunder frequency with SimplyRain. Set wind speeds, ocean wave oscillations, and seagulls with SimplyBeach. Adjust wood moisture levels to control the pop, crackle, and sizzle with SimplyFire.
Sleep
Calm
Calm is a website and application that provides different types of peaceful audio to improve sleep, relaxation, stress, anxiety, and depression. For example, “The Daily Calm” is a 10-minute meditation that focuses on a different mindful theme every day. The app also provides bedtime stories (for adults!), peaceful music to encourage sleep, lessons on meditation, and sounds of nature. Calm also provides additional resources at http://www.calm.com/together.
Headspace
Headspace is a website and application that provides a variety of mindful resources. It provides information on what meditation is and techniques on how to effectively meditate. The app provides meditations on topics such as sleeping, waking up, stress, anxiety, social anxiety, exercise, eating, self-esteem, and more. Within these topics, Headspace provides a multitude of meditations for different activities and mood states. For example, the app provides 18 guided meditations to use while running to facilitate mindful exercise. The app also provides peaceful music to aid in sleep and relaxation.
Smiling Mind
is a not-for-profit website and application targeted for younger individuals to improve anxiety, depression, attention, and social and academic functioning. There are a variety of meditation topics to choose from, such as sleep, technology detox, stress management, relationships, studying, exercise, and more. You can also track your mood.
Stellar Sleep
Stellar Sleep uses a personalized, science-backed approach to help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer. Stellar Sleep takes just 5 to 10 minutes per day and uses a clinically tested curriculum for helping you sleep better. The curriculum includes topics centered on stimulus control, cognitive restructuring, building strong sleep habits, calming down a racing mind, relaxation techniques, and much more. Stellar Sleep also includes a comprehensive library of nature sounds, breathing exercises, progressive muscle relaxation exercises, guided meditations, sleep music, and bedtime stories to help you relax and get to sleep.
Self-Care Habits
Finch
is a fun way to learn about mental health and practice self-care. In the app, you have a virtual pet that you take care of by logging in frequently and completing different tasks, like taking mental health quizzes, learning coping skills, doing breathing techniques, listening to relaxing tones, stretching, journaling about different topics, and setting goals. Your goals determine different journeys that your Finch makes, which help him gain energy, earn stones to use at the store, and find new discoveries about himself. You can connect with friends on the app, buy different outfits at the shop, and develop the Finch’s personality. By taking care of your Finch pet, you take care of yourself.
Jour
Jour is a guided journaling application. This mindful journaling app guides you to write about different topics such as self-affirmations, dreams, travel, and future goals. It also allows you to track your mood, successes, and challenges. The app will suggest areas to journal about based on that. The journals are encrypted to protect your private thoughts, and the app is free.
Mood Trackers
Calm Harm
Calm Harm is an app that helps in managing and resisting the urge to engage in self-harming behaviors. The app provides immediate activities and techniques to help break the cycle of self-harming behaviors and explore underlying triggers for self-harm. The app supports you in developing a variety of helpful thoughts and behaviors as well as a built-in journal for self-reflection.
Finch
is a fun way to learn about mental health and practice self-care. In the app, you have a virtual pet that you take care of by logging in frequently and completing different tasks, like taking mental health quizzes, learning coping skills, doing breathing techniques, listening to relaxing tones, stretching, journaling about different topics, and setting goals. Your goals determine different journeys that your Finch makes, which help him gain energy, earn stones to use at the store, and find new discoveries about himself. You can connect with friends on the app, buy different outfits at the shop, and develop the Finch’s personality. By taking care of your Finch pet, you take care of yourself.
Focus@will
Focus@Will is an app designed to help you focus through the power of music. The app will guide you through a short assessment to customize a music channel that will best help you focus and increase productivity. The app also includes a built-in focus timer and productivity tracker so you can track your progress and focus over time.
Jour
is a guided journaling application. This mindful journaling app guides you to write about different topics such as self-affirmations, dreams, travel, and future goals. It also allows you to track your mood, successes, and challenges. The app will suggest areas to journal about based on that. The journals are encrypted to protect your private thoughts, and the app is free.
Mindfulness Daily
Mindfulness Daily is a set of tools designed to encourage/support your commitment to practicing mindfulness daily. The app makes it easy to fit mindfulness and meditation into your daily routine to get its benefits, such as reduced anxiety/stress, better sleep, manage pain, and increase performance.
Smiling Mind
is a not-for-profit website and application targeted for younger individuals to improve anxiety, depression, attention, and social and academic functioning. There are a variety of meditation topics to choose from, such as sleep, technology detox, stress management, relationships, studying, exercise, and more. You can also track your mood.