Top 5 Mindfulness Tips and Apps

Mindfulness experts talk about using meditation as a tool to help upgrade our inner technology. Sometimes, using external technology is a powerful way to improve our minds too. Here are five apps and tips we found to help do just that:

Headspace App

Whether it's during your morning commute or as you try to get to sleep at night, the Headspace App can help you clear your mind. It's a multi-award winning, research backed meditation app that's a fav here at Genea. We love that they also believe in delivering science with heart. Their research shows completing just one 15-minute session of meditation using the Headspace app resulted in 22% reduction in mind wandering. And four weeks of using Headspace daily resulted in 14% increase in focus. Headspace has hundreds of meditations (some are just 5 minutes long!) on everything from stress to sleep to focus and anxiety. Try one.

Social Silence

We could all use a little social silence now and then. Did you know you can mute Insta's push notifications for a set amount of time? Simply go to Settings, Notifications and Pause All in the app. It will ask you if you want pause for 15 mins or anything up to 8 hours. To take a break on Facebook, just jump into the Notifications section of Settings in your phone and toggle off the Allow Notifications switch.

Fabulous Habits

Obviously, you're already fabulous. But who amongst us couldn't use just a little bit more fabulous in our day to day lives? That's where the Fabulous app comes in, helping you build healthy habits to take care of your physical and mental wellbeing. Whether it's a reminder to drink more water, take a break from your screen or to get outdoors on your lunch break, The Fabulous is a science-based app that can help you develop healthy, sustainable habits in just 30 days. Check it out.

Happify App

Sometimes the mindlessness of repetitive games can help give you a time out from your day to day concerns. Well how about an Angry Birds type game that also helps lift your mood? The Happify app is full of games and activities designed to increase happiness. Recommended by Psychology Today as one of the best happiness apps of 2018, Happify is a fun way to blast away your negative thoughts and build resilience. Game on.

Sleep Coacher

Personal trainer already on your support team? Why not add a personal sleep coach? Most of us acknowledge we don't get enough sleep and some of us struggle to get good quality sleep. Because life (read: Netflix). The Sleep Coacher app uses sleep analytics to come up with personalised recommendations based on scientific sleep literature. Developed by the boffins at Brown Univeristy following a 10 year study into sleep, the app then guides you through self-experimentation to help find the recommendations that work best. Is this your next trainer?