Top 8 Apps for Reducing Stress During the COVID-19 Crisis

If you’re struggling to cope during this difficult period or would just like a happiness boost, there are so many brilliant apps out there that are great at reducing stress. We’ve hunted down our top 10 for today’s article.

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Life is tough at the moment. The COVID-19 crisis has presented the UK and the rest of the globe with unimaginable difficulties and challenges that we need to overcome. But one thing that many of us can be thankful for is living in a time where we have smartphones to keep us connected to loved ones, with an abundance of helpful apps that we can use at our disposal. Reducing stress can help increase your productivity, improve your sleep, reduce anxiety and so much more. So, whether you’re already a fan of self-help apps or are only just starting out on your journey, we hope that this article helps you find one that works for you and makes living through these unprecedented times easier.

Top 8 apps for reducing stress during the COVID-19 crisis

1. Calm

Calm is Apple’s #1 app in Health & Fitness and the winner of multiple awards, so it’s the perfect mindfulness app for beginners. Millions of people are already using the app to help improve their sleep and lower stress with its guided meditations, breathing programmes, Sleep Stories, stretching exercises and relaxing music. Why not try it out for yourself today?

2. Headspace

With an iPhone rating of 4.8 stars, Headspace is one of the top apps for helping us to stay calm. You can choose from hundreds of guided meditations to help you get happy, stress less and sleep soundly. It’s now introduced a new Weathering The Storm pack to help us navigate the many unknowns in the world at the moment – it’s free for everyone.

3. Happify

On Happify, you can use science-based activities to help overcome stress, negative thoughts and anything that life throws at you. These practical tools can help you take charge of your emotional wellbeing. And, as 86 percent of regular Happify users report feeling better about their lives in two months, there’s no harm in trying it.

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4. Stop, Breathe, and Think

Another mindfulness app, with Stop, Breathe, and Think you can select your mood and then be presented with the most helpful meditations, yoga sequences or acupressure. You can also use the check-in feature to track your moods and progress, so you can identify your mood pattern and understand those stresses and anxieties better.

Many people with mental health problems tell us that they find apps useful when it comes to managing their mental health. – Stephen Buckley, Head of Information at mental health charity Mind.

5. Stress & Anxiety Companion

This app is brought to us by a psychologist and his former patient, who joined forces to help anyone suffering from stress and anxiety. You can use the breathing exercises, relaxing music and games to calm the mind and handle stress. It uses cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to change the way we think and feel about things. Using the app can help you identify your stress triggers and turn negative thoughts into positive ones.

6. Sanvello for Stress & Anxiety

This app is designed to stop stress getting in the way of you living your life. It helps us to understand our thoughts, moods and behaviours and provides clinically validated techniques to help us manage these and understand what works to help us feel better. Sanvello for Stress & Anxiety reports that its users objectively feel better, with over 60 percent of users demonstrating a 15 percent improvement in their assessment scores within 30 days. Better still, to help people to stay calm in these frightening times, it is providing premium access for free to everyone during the COVID-19 crisis.

7. Relax Melodies: Sleep Sounds

If you find that you’re struggling to sleep at night, you’re bound to feel more irritable and stressed the next day. Relax Melodies: Sleep Sounds has already helped millions of people who have trouble nodding off. On the sleep aid app, you can choose sounds and melodies that you like and combine them to create your own personalised soundscape. A combination of this, the bedtime stories and the sleep meditations should help you relax your mind and drift off easier.

There are also a number of good mindfulness and relaxation apps that are like having a therapist in your pocket. – Peter Yellowlees, professor of psychiatry at US Davis

8. Colorfy

Lots of people are using adult colouring books to de-stress and reduce anxiety during the COVID-19 crisis. But if you’re struggling to get your hands on one, you can try Colorfy, which brings the concept to the digital realm. There is a wide range of images to choose from, and you can even upload your own sketches to colour. By putting your attention into completing one of the beautiful designs, you are distracted from any intrusive thoughts that are contributing to your stress.

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Use these apps for reducing stress

We hope that by using these apps you are better able to manage and reduce your stress during the COVID-19 crisis. With many of these apps being free and lots of us having more time on our hands than normal, why not consider giving them ago? By incorporating them into your daily routine, you may even notice such a significant benefit that you continue to use them long into the future.

We have lots of coronavirus-related content to help you during this period. If you’ve enjoyed reading this article, we think that you’ll like ‘20 Questions: How Can I Maintain My Well-Being During the COVID-19 Crisis?’

Another fantastic way that we can use technology to help improve our quality of life is through podcasts. Take a look at our article about the top 11 podcasts to help you master the art of working from home for some inspiration.