Destress at work and home with just your phone. Here's how

Mental health is that is important to address in Singapore. The good news is, more individuals and agencies are taking steps to minimise the stigma surrounding mental health.

In September last year, National Council of Social Service released a heartstrings-tugging video of a social experiment that highlights how the society view people with mental health conditions.

We’re not doctors, so we can’t diagnose you, and while we all know that there are various reasons for the different conditions, stress has been found to be one key reason. Here are a few apps that can help you manage your stress levels.

Omvana

If you’re into meditation and mindfulness, this is the app you need on your iPhone. Meditation has been found to reduce stress and control anxiety, which are two common causes for mental health conditions.

This app has a collection of meditation, and if you connect it to HealthKit, it can also recommend meditations based on your stress levels.

Aura: Calm anxiety & sleep

Like its name suggests, this app helps reduce anxiety and improve sleep. This is perfect for the busy office workers who only have three minutes to spare between tasks because each meditation sesh only lasts for three minutes.

While there’s life coaching and stories available, you can also opt to listen to sounds of nature, if that helps you relax better.

Calm

With guided meditations, Sleep Stories, breathing programs, masterclasses, and relaxing music, this is the ultimate calming (geddit?) app.

The meditation sessions are available in various lengths of time, from three minutes to 25, so you can pick one depending on how busy you are.

Headspace: Guided meditation

The interesting thing about this app is that it will teach you activities that you can do on-the-go to manage stress and anxiety.

If you’re prone to moments of panic and anxiety, use the SOS sessions to manage those moments. It also has a new feature known as sleep experience — this includes sleep sounds and meditations — to help you rest better at night.

Insight Timer

If you’re more of an aural person than a visual, you might want to consider this app, which feature guided meditations and talks led by the world’s top mindfulness experts, neuroscientists, psychologists and meditation teachers from Stanford, Harvard, Dartmouth and the University of Oxford. New meditations are added daily, so you’ll be spoilt for choice.

This article was first published in CLEO Singapore.