5 Noom Mood
The latest wellbeing app on the block, Noom Mood is a relatively new programme aimed at helping users reduce stress and improve mental awareness. Already a successful digital health platform focused on behaviour change for weight reduction, Noom has utilised its more than decade of user insights, behavioural science research and tech innovation to launch Noom Mood. The concept is simple. It enables users to understand the ‘why’ behind their stress and offers a range of tools and techniques to deal with it. As well as daily 10-minute lessons rooted in psychological principles, from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to Acceptance Commitment Theory (ACT), to help users develop healthier habits and coping mechanisms, the app delivers mindfulness-based techniques and tools to help reduce stress, human coaching for guidance, empathy and social support, and even a mood-logging tool so users can better understand their mood and measure their progress.
Availability and cost Available on iOS and Android. You can trial Noom Mood for US$0.50 for 7 days before committing to US$59 per month or US$129 for four months.
6 Personal Zen
Promising to reduce stress in just 25 minutes, Personal Zen is a brain-training game that works on a cognitive treatment for anxiety called attention-bias modification (ABM) training (the first and only validated tool to fight stress using ABM). Developed by two health tech doctors and based around the playing of a game, it trains you to ignore ‘threatening’ stimulus and focus on ‘positive, non-threatening’ stimulus using happy and angry faces. You can set daily and weekly goals for total time playing and it features everything from mood tracking and journaling to brief positive practice exercises.
Availability and cost Available on iOS with Android coming soon. Offering a 6-month free trial and then costing US$1.99 per month or US$12.99 per year.
7 Pacifica
Designed to provide long-lasting, ongoing benefits, Pacifica centres around cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) techniques in helping you to identify your triggers and pressure points and then provides techniques to help you manage them effectively. As well as a mood tracker where you can record your own thoughts to help you understand your thinking patterns, Pacifica delivers a programme of guided deep breathing and muscle relaxation exercises as well as daily anti-anxiety experiments.
Availability and cost Available on iOS and Android, it’s free with limited features, or get the full version for a US$3.99 monthly subscription or US$29.99 annual subscription.
8 Breathe2Relax
Originally designed for US military, veterans, and their families, by the National Center for Telehealth & Technology, and endorsed by the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, Breathe2Relax is a simple to use and intuitive app that’s now available for anyone to download. Designed as a tool to teach breathing techniques, in particular for those with anxiety, stress and PTSD, it centres on a skill known as diaphragmatic breathing (‘belly breathing’), which has proven benefits for stress reduction, and features a programme of tried-and-tested deep breathing practices. The app can be personalised to your needs, and you can keep track of your stress levels over time and the effects that has on different parts of your body, as well as map your personal progress.
Availability and cost Available on Google Play or iTunes. Free.
9 Reflectly
Described as a “journal for happiness”, Reflectly is a mindfulness app that claims to enable you to deal with negative thoughts and make positivity louder. So, how does it work? It allows you to track your thoughts and feelings and reflect on your day by posing easy questions or prompts to help you to explore your feelings and thoughts. Great for those who are not into meditation but who want to practice mindfulness.
Availability and cost Available on iOS and Android. Following a 7-day free trial, you can then subscribe for US$3.99 per month or US$47.99 for a year.
10 Wysa
This is one for conversationalists, for those who like to talk through their negative thoughts and feelings or for those simply wanting to vent. Not only does Wysa’s AI chatbot give you the option of chatting in a safe space whenever you like, but it features a real-life coach option that provides daily messaging and eight live therapy sessions with trained psychologists. Using AI and machine learning to create personalised tools and activities based on your data, Wysa delivers an array of evidence-based self-help techniques and cognitive restructuring exercises to both help you keep calm and retrain your outlook. You can also monitor your progress and it will check on how you’re feeling routinely.
Availability and cost Available on Google Play or iTunes, it’s free, but the advanced features with a real-life coach costs US$29.99 per month.
