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Make way for your mental health
Discover new ways to nourish your well-being: these apps help you connect with therapists, find supportive networks and build positive routines.
Join the conversation
In his app Ten Percent Happier, former Nightline co-anchor Dan Harris has collected an extensive list of interviews and lessons from leading meditation leaders including Tara Brach, Jack Kornfield and Sharon Salzberg. Tune in to the app’s curated courses or develop your own mindfulness practice with its guided meditations.
Sanvello teams up with luminaries to help you understand and work through your emotions. Check out the Braving Anxiety series with bestselling author John Green, a body scan and gratitude meditation with gymnast Aly Raisman and mental health testimonials from WWE superstars Bianca Belair and Braun Strowman. Professional coaches are available for in-app messaging, and there are live group classes you can join anonymously.
Let the music move you
Calm features a huge library of meditative tunes to help banish the day’s anxieties. The Sleep Remix series translates hits by Ariana Grande, Post Malone and others into soothing lullabies.
Arcade Fire, Erykah Badu, John Legend, Madlib, St. Vincent and other renowned artists have contributed original meditative music to Headspace’s Focus Music project. Check out their soundscapes on the app’s Focus tab.
Find your form of self-care
Created in partnership with Duke University’s Center for Advanced Hindsight, Fabulous helps you forge healthy and lasting habits, whether it’s sleeping more soundly, staying focused or simply appreciating yourself for who you are. Activities are all based on the latest behavioural science – and they’re really easy to do.
Mental-wellness app Shine provides plenty of audio sessions to reduce stress and make chores such as washing dishes and sorting laundry feel more intentional. Check in with Reflect, a fun textbot (complete with emoji) that bubbles up a new motivating statement and short audio meditation each day.
Talk with a therapist
BetterHelp and Talkspace lower the barrier to talk therapy – and make it easy to fit sessions into even the busiest schedule. The apps pair you with a licensed therapist you can write to (or share an audio or video message with) whenever you like. Live video and phone sessions are also available.
Write it out
Day One is a powerful journaling app that goes beyond basic “Dear diary” entries: your reflections can include photos, audio, sketches and other digital ephemera. Have a quick thought you want to jot down? Send it as a text message right to the app.
Alan Mind, formerly named Jour, makes sticking to journaling incredibly easy. It suggests open-ended writing prompts but also has multiple-choice options, all designed to help you focus on the bright side, reduce anxiety, live mindfully and find calm.
Cultivate inner peace
This encyclopedic meditation app has sessions geared to just about everything – stress reduction, relationship building, self-care and more. You can also join workshops and live events with Insight Timer’s mindfulness experts or host your own meditation group.
Go for a walk
Nothing quiets the mind like a walk in nature. With its crowdsourced and expertly annotated maps, AllTrails helps you discover thousands of hiking trails, bike paths and parks. (One might be closer than you think.)
Designed for Apple Watch, the Apple Fitness+ immersive audio series Time to Walk features personal stories and insights from celebrities, athletes and luminaries such as Malala Yousafzai, Camila Cabello, Prince William, Sugar Ray Leonard and Robin Roberts as they walk outside or around locations that are meaningful to them. Each episode is punctuated with a three-song playlist curated by the guest – a perfect soundtrack for wrapping up your walk.
Focus on your breath
Connect with your breath and declutter your mind with Breathwrk, which guides you through simple-but-effective breathing exercises for focus, sleep, stress relief and more. It pairs meditative sounds with haptic feedback and engaging visuals designed to help you zero in on your breath and your mental health goals.
Rootd helps you handle anxiety and panic attacks right as they happen (all you need to do is push the big red button and the app will guide you through mindfulness prompts designed to restore a sense of calm). With the Breathr tool, you can practice daily deep breathing exercises that will help you self-soothe during periods of stress.
Connect with a supportive community
TalkLife’s message is simple: you are not alone. The app connects people dealing with the same mental health issues, so you can give and receive support right in the moment. It allows you to be as anonymous as you want to be, so you can express yourself openly and honestly.
Mindfulness – the non-judgmental acceptance of the present moment – has been proven to reduce stress, develop healthy coping mechanisms and improve focus and self-compassion. Developed by the US Department of Veterans Affairs to support veterans and service members with PTSD, Mindfulness Coach’s 14-level training programme is suitable for anybody looking to establish a regular mindfulness practice.