Minimalism can be a form of self care, helping you to reduce stress and keep your mental health strong. There’s a variety of different self-care activities that can make an impact, like meditation, therapy sessions and daily writing sessions.
Making these activities part of your self care routine is easy using your smartphone. So, we’re going to take a look at the best self care apps you can download to your Android or iOS device.
Calm
Calm is definitely one of my favorite self-care apps. If you want to get a better sleep, learn how to meditate properly and learn how to reduce your anxiety and stress, you’ll love Calm.
Though the app attracts users by featuring celebrities giving talks and instructions, most of the content is from experts.
This includes short snappy 2 minute meditation sessions for when you need to find calm, motivational speeches from athletes like LeBron James, and longer study music that can help you to really knuckle down and focus.
There’s such a wide variety of content on Calm that it can help with everything, from testing your mental capabilities through to improving your sleeping patterns.
It’s one of the few free apps that you can use without having to upgrade to a premium subscription. Of course, you’ll get a lot more features if you do upgrade, but it’s not a necessity with Calm.
So if you want to put your emotional well being first, I’d suggest downloading Calm and using their daily checklists to help practice mindfulness and meditate properly.
Headspace
Though I’m a massive fan of Calm, it’s only fair to mention Headspace as a viable alternative.
Calm can feel a little overwhelming to those that are brand new to meditation, as it much less structured than Headspace, which is created with beginners in mind. The idea of Headspace is to use mindfulness for self care, to help relieve stress and improve your day-to-day ability to focus.
Mindfulness, which is designed to help you live in the moment, is one of the best forms of self care. It means putting yourself first sometimes, though the effects of this don’t happen overnight.
This is where Headspace can be useful, as it helps you to meditate and complete mindfulness exercises on a daily basis. There are various different courses you can go through with Headspace, and the app will personalize your experience based on your input.
Though there is a free version of Headspace, it’s extremely limited – though potentially enough to let you know whether paying for the premium version would be worth it for you. It’s another one of the best self care apps to check out.
Gaia
The final alternative that I’d suggest looking at when it comes to meditation, yoga and personal transformation is Gaia.
A good thing about Gaia is that it’s easily linked to your smartwatch. So if you’re an iPhone user with an Apple Watch, you can use it with the Health app to ensure that you meet your health goals.
And Gaia actually has a little more to it than just a standard meditation app. It also touches on other related areas to both minimalism and meditation, which includes information about spiritualism, astrology, metaphysics and your holistic health.
Gaia is great for those that are looking to get in touch with their spiritual side, and it’s a useful tool for helping you get rid of negative thoughts and begin on your journey of consciousness.
Aloe Bud
Managing your mental health is a huge part of self care, and one of the newer apps that helps in this regard is Aloe Bud.
The app is designed to help those that may need gentle reminders throughout the day to complete certain tasks. Thing can be for simple things like reminding you to drink water on a regular basis, through to reminding you about your weekly phone call with Mom.
Other features include an activity log that you can use to track the things you do on a daily basis, and various other things you can do to motivate yourself throughout the day too.
Aloe Bud is a free self care app, with some premium features available if you choose to upgrade to a paid plan. You can simply set reminders that can push you into taking responsibility, and ultimately taking care of yourself.
Lumosity
Lumosity is an amazing app if you have personal growth goals to meet. You can use it to improve your memory, help you get better communication skills, or to simply play games if you want to have a little fun and unwind.
Lumosity is more of a personal development app than any of the others mentioned here, but when you combine it with other apps, it can be a crucial part of your self care journey. Acquiring knowledge is a big part of self care, and Lumosity can really help with this.
The different games that Lumosity has are designed to test your different strengths and weaknesses. When you repeat them over time, you’ll gradually see an improvement – as you progress through the different learning modules, you’ll be able to track your path as you go.
With a variety of simple problem solving, math, language and attention games to play, logging into Lumosity for ten minutes each day is another great form of self care.
Todoist
Need to get your life on track? You may want to consider downloading a planning app to determine exactly what you should be doing on a regular basis. Though most apps of this nature are designed with work in mind, you can use some of them for your personal life too.
One of these apps is Todoist. It has a clean interface, and can help you to increase your productivity. Getting more done within specified times can be important in the self care quest, as it can give you more free time to spend doing things you enjoy.
This doesn’t need to be a major overhaul of your daily goals and tasks. But, adding some structure to your week can be part of, and it can be beneficial for both your mental and emotional health.
Todoist is free to use, or you can take advantage of the in app purchases if you want to upgrade to the Pro version. The free app version works well enough though, and is worth downloading if you want to take your self care seriously.
Noom
Though many people love MyFitnessPal for calorie tracking, when it comes to losing weight my favorite app to use is Noom.
You can use Noom for a variety of reasons, whether you want to lose weight, get stronger or use it to help you achieve your fitness goals. The app gives you healthy food recommendations based on your dietary needs.
The main reason why I like Noom, and why I think it’s perfect for self love, is that it’s more personalized than most other fitness apps. You can enter your weight, goals and overall health at the start. Then, the Noom experience will be customized to suit your requirements.
You can sign up to Noom on annual or monthly programs if you want to test it out first. Though, committing to a full year of Noom is a good idea if you want to find your best self.
Five Minute Journal
Some minimalists prefer to use a written journal to log their daily thoughts and activities. But if you’re looking to do this via your phone, the best option for this is the Five Minute Journal.
This digital journal will give you a nudge each morning to enter a submission into the journal. Over time, this can have a positive effect on your outlook.
You can also use it as a gratitude journal to remind yourself of the things in life you’re truly grateful for. All minimalists should try and be grateful for what they have, and browsing through previous journal entries can help to remind you of this too.
So if you want to save memories, this minimalist app helps you to note them down as you make them. Keeping the good times in mind can be important for your emotional health, making a good journal app an essential addition to your collection.
BetterHelp
In some cases, the best form of self care may involve speaking to a therapist. There’s no more convenient way to do that than with BetterHelp the mental health app, which has been designed to make contact between therapists and those searching for therapy.
Most of us want to practice self compassion, and think that means doing everything alone. But realistically, true self care can be a long process involving learning new coping techniques, and tackling deeper rooted issues than what most simple apps can help with.
This is why BetterHelp comes highly recommended. In rare occasions, you may be offered a free consultation within the BetterHelp app, though typically you’ll have to subscribe on a weekly or monthly basis.
The licensed therapists that BetterHelp employ are experienced at working with various different mental illnesses and other mental health issues. If you think you’d benefit from therapy as a form of self care, it could be worth checking out.
Conclusion
There are various different self care activities and apps out there to choose from, and the right one really depends on what you need at that point in your life.
If you need inspirational videos to give your life a full overhaul, or you just want to fall asleep faster than you normally do, the apps mentioned here can definitely help – they’re amongst the best self care apps out there.