Apps for well-being 1

There are a whole load of Android apps associated with well-being (and presumably on the Apple system too – more on that later). From apps to track your mood, to guided mindfulness and meditation, to physical monitoring, to ambient sound makers for meditation and mindfulness.

Because of my longstanding interest in Taoist and Buddhist philosophy, I tend to gravitate towards the more spiritually-based apps, but there are many that focus on the 21st Century medical/scientific approach to mindfulness. I will mention the ones that I’m currently using, as well as one mood tracker and one guided mindfulness meditation app that I tried, and suggest that if this post tweaks your interest, have a browse on the app stores and see what appeals most to you. I will stick to the apps for emotional/mental well-being, but if you have any suggestions and experience of physical monitoring/well-being apps, please comment below. 🙂

I am going to divide the posts into three. For this week, I will stick to Mood Trackers and follow up later with mindfulness and meditation apps, and finally ambient sound makers.

Mood Trackers

These apps allow and encourage you to keep a regular record of your mood, so you can observe how it changes over time. Some include ‘activities’ so you can, in theory, see the activities that lift your mood. All the ones I have tried also have sections to make notes.

I’ll start with one that has been my favourite, but since I got a new Android tablet, I have compatibility issues with it. However, if it runs, and continues to run, I think it is the most thorough. So if you like lot of detail, check out

T2 Mood Tracker

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The nice thing about this one is that it has different sections (which you can hide if you don’t need a specific section) – such as anxiety, depression, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Charts that are generated are colourful and therefore easy to interpret. You can also export results if you want to.

The two that I am still using are, firstly:

iMood Journal

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This has a range of customisable ‘moods’ which you start by entering. You can edit the date – handy if you miss a day or two – and then there is an extensive page for ‘journaling’. So you can make a note of what you did, and how you felt. There are also hashtags which help with analysis. Finally, you can add a photo if you care to, which supposedly shows how your facial expressions differ according to your emotional state.

The second section – the ‘stats’ tab – gives you a bar graph for quick comparison. You can also click on any bar (one for each entry) and edit it.

The third tab shows more detailed charts for monthly, weekly and daily changes. It also has ‘sub-tabs’ for positive and negative entries.

Secondly:

Daylio

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This one is beautifully simple, without losing detail.

You click on one of the five mood-icons (which are, again, customisable). Then add the activities you have done on that day (again these can be customised and you can add your own too), and add a note if you want to.

Analysis consists of a monthly mood chart, mood count, activity count, best and worst day, longest best day streak, and yearly statistics. There is also a quick-view calendar on the third tab.


So that’s the initial dip into well-being apps. It’s impossible to be anywhere near comprehensive. I am hoping that readers will suggest apps that they’ve tried in the comments section. And if anyone is familiar with some on Apple devices, please chip in.

Marc

2 thoughts on “Apps for well-being 1”

  1. Kirsty says:

    This is a very useful read, there are so many apps available that it is nice to have some good ones highlighted! Thanks for this post.

  2. WellPoolReporter says:

    Thanks Kirsty. I really wish the T2 Mood Tracker would work on my current device. It is by far the most thorough (ideal for the geek in me), but it just crashes after a while, needs reinstalling and then all that geeky info is lost.

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