10 apps to help you relax and be more mindful

Life can be pretty hectic at times and when we’re constantly plugged into the online world, it can feel even harder to sit back, relax, and find a moment of peace.

We share 10 apps that can help you decrease your stress levels, embrace mindfulness and start living a happier, more connected life.

1. Calm 

Aiming to bring joy, peace and clarity into your daily life, Calm focuses on a mixture of mindfulness and meditation. If you’re experiencing increased levels of anxiety, or have trouble sleeping due to stress, Calm’s sleep stories and breathing programs can help you to feel calmer, more relaxed, and better able to fall asleep.

The app is available to trial for free and, if you decide you love it, you can pay an annual subscription to get full access to over 100 guided meditations looking at anxiety, stress, focus and gratitude – plus the full library of Sleep Stories (with new stories added weekly).

2. Day One 

Day One is a daily journal app and provides a great place to start organising your thoughts and clear your mind. Simple to use and easy to organise, you can keep your thoughts, photos, and memories in one place. Reflect on your daily stresses, note down small moments of happiness and calm, or track life’s big (and small) events.

3. Simple Habit 

Helping improve sleep, increase focus and reduce stress, Simple Habit offers sessions from as little as five minutes a day. Perfect to fit into busy schedules, these guided meditations allow you to focus on your specific symptoms and life situations to increase self-awareness, improve your sense of purpose, and help you to focus on the important things in life like happiness and relationships. Your progress using Simple Habit can also be synced with the Apple Health app, allowing you to keep everything in one place.

4. Colorfy

Mindful colouring books have become a huge success in recent years for adults and kids alike. A great way to relax, unwind, and feel less anxious, Colorfy offers a digital version you can take with you to use anytime, anywhere. With over 1,000 different pictures ranging from animals to gardens, pop-culture to famous paintings and more, you can even upload your own drawings to colour. Share your creations or keep them private.

5. Ambi Pro

Trouble disconnecting and tuning the world out when you’re trying to relax? Ambi Pro helps mask the distracting noises around us, allowing users to better relax and concentrate. A white noise generator that blends different soothing noises and sounds together, you can manually alter the sounds or allow the app to automatically choose for you.

6. Headspace 

Providing guided meditations, Headspace is a great introduction for those who are new to meditation and need a little direction. Offering meditations that can help with a range of topics, the app helps users discover an accessible way to incorporate mindfulness into their daily life and is even suitable to use with children.

Available in four variations (basic free, monthly, yearly, or lifetime subscriptions) Headspace teaches you all of the essentials to start living a happier, healthier life with the help of just 10-minute, manageable meditations.

7. MindMeister 

If you struggle to relax and feel like thoughts and ideas are overwhelming you, MindMeister may be able to help. A mind mapping app that helps you get your thoughts down in one place without needing to structure or order them as you go, you can easily organise your ideas and thoughts. Great for taking notes, planning, or making presentations, there are both app and computer versions available.  

8. Breathe2Relax

Reduce anxiety and stress whilst increasing feelings of calm and well-being. Practise deep breathing with the help of Breathe2Relax, a free app that focuses on breathing and introduces other relaxation tools you can incorporate into your daily routine.

9. Insight Timer 

A popular, free meditation app with over five million users, Insight Timer is a free app that helps users focus on self-love and compassion to decrease feelings of anxiety and stress. Including a variety of background sounds and activities, it can be synced between numerous devices to help you track your progress, note milestones, and integrate with other popular apps such as the Apple Health App.

10. Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock 

It can be easy to forget how vital healthy sleeping patterns are in our quest to feel less stressed. Getting a good night’s sleep not only sets you up for the day but has been shown to have both mental and physical health benefits.

Bringing together a variety of features to help you track your sleep patterns and wake up at the optimal time, the Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock tracks the different phases of sleep and even vibrates to encourage you to switch positions if it detects snoring.