No matter how much you love your parent and take pride in what you do, caregiving is stressful. The stress comes in all different forms, and it’s unique for everyone. Some people have trouble managing their patience while others have a difficult time seeing their loved one’s cognitive or physical health decline.
In times of stress, it’s important to have tools at your disposal. Check out these five great stress-busting apps and see which ones could benefit you. When you’re feeling anxious and need to unwind, take out your phone, go for a quick walk and decompress. You deserve it.
This stress management tool teaches you how to do diaphragmatic breathing. This helps stabilize mood, manage anger and decrease anxiety. The app contains educational videos, logs to record stress levels and guided breathing sessions. Everything is managed through touchscreen technology for an immersive experience. Available on iOS and Android for free.
If you want to push negative thoughts out of your mind, there’s an app for that! Happify is an app that combines games and activities to boost the mood. More than 15 health and happiness experts have contributed to Happify, which can be used on any tablet, smartphone or computer. You can even measure your emotional happiness and start working to improve it as soon as today. Available on iOS and Android for free.
The SAM app comes to you from the University of West England. It’s designed to help you regain control over your emotions, even when your anxiety is through the roof. The intuitive app listens to you as you explain how you’re feeling. It then uses self-help features to walk you through various calming techniques. There is also a SAM network that allows you to connect with others. Available on iOS and Android for free.
- I Can Be Free
This cool app is from Human Progress and uses audio hypnosis to help people overcome their anxieties such as loneliness and fear of change. This app is an excellent way to talk yourself down and eliminate negative thoughts that prevent you from being the caregiver you want. The app comes with five free sessions that can be listened to wherever, whenever. Available on iOS and Android for free. Additional sessions range in price.
- Worry Box
Don’t you ever wish that you could collect all your worries, put them in a box and be done with them? Well now you can with a Worry Box app. This app functions like a journal so that you can record what’s bothering you. It’s also password-protected, so you don’t have to worry about anyone reading your entries. The Worry Box app is for Android; Worry Box is for iOS. They are different apps, but function very similarly.