Wellness Apps & Extensions
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Wellness Apps & Extensions
Wellness is an on-going process of being aware of and making choices toward a healthy and fulfilling life. It is more than being free from illness, it is a dynamic process of change and growth. According to the National Wellness Institute it is"a conscious, self-directed and evolving process of achieving full potential."
Well-being extends into our digital world as well. We've compiled a list of apps and extensions that help promote wellness and positive well-being.
Meditation/Decompression
Take a short mindful break to calm down and find inner peace. Just one click away. Experience inner peace in minutes with the No.1 Chrome Extension for Inner Peace. Calm down with serene music, beautiful landscapes and inspiring quotes.
Inner Peace is a tool that helps you quickly escape the emotional and physical struggles of day to day life. With just a click of a button, it will transport you into a safe haven for inner peace and relaxation.
Fresh Air is a Chrome extension which simply reminds you to breathe every time you open a new tab. It replaces your existing New Tab page with just an empty circle. The circle begins filling up as soon as you launch a fresh tab and guides you to gradually inhale, hold for a few seconds, and gently release it.
Fresh Air also lets you customize these individual periods but I’ve personally found the default settings to be quite calming. You can even switch the background to a different color if you’re not into the minimalistic white it comes preloaded with.
The Calm Chrome Extension, in a way, is similar to Fresh Air since it’s too designed around the science of long breaths to destress and relax. Except, in this case, you’re doing it before heading over to addictive websites like YouTube or Facebook.
Here’s how it works: You add the services you think will make you procrastinate more such as Instagram to Calm’s blacklist. Once that’s done, whenever you’re about to launch any one of them, Calm will present you with a little breathing exercise which will make you rethink your decision and return to work.
Also, Calm also offers options for playing nature or meditative sounds instead of hitting “Continue” and be on your way to the blacklisted website.
Calm
Calm is also an Android and iOS app and website that provides meditation guides, breathing exercises, mood tracking, calming music, sleep stories narrated by famous people, and more. It's not a totally free service, but the free version is good enough to get you started.
Headspace
Headspace is another Android, iOS app and website that provides similar meditation guides, breathing exercises, and sleep stories designed to help you make yourself a better you.
Breathe 2 Relax
Breathe2Relax is a very user-friendly and simple Android and iOS app which teaches users about Diaphragmatic Breathing and how it can reduce stress. This one is totally free, and walks you through each breathing exercises.
Relaxing mobile games can also bring a sense of calm and meditation without the stress or anxiety of winning or losing.
Harmony
Harmony is a simple game of matching reflections from one side of a mirror to another. But what's great about it is the music. Each time you place a correct box, it plays a piano note. It's very calming and relaxing, especially with noice-cancelling earphones. It is available on both Android and iOS.
Meditation Game
Meditation Game is not so much a game as an exercise in centering oneself and actively reaching a meditative state. Available on both Android and iOS, the game involves you floating around gathering energy bubbles. That's it. You can't win or lose. But while you're playing, there's nice music and relaxing comments that come up.
Focus/Time Management
Flora - Green Focus is an iOS mobile app that limits your phone usage for a particular amount of time. When you set the timer, you plant a tree and it grows as the time goes on. Forest blocks notifications and if you make it the whole time, you'll have a big tree in your garden. If you don't the tree will wither and die.
Focus To-Do
Focus To-Do is another simple Android and iOS app that follows the Pomodoro method of time management. It's similar to the Forest app, but this one also includes task management, more detailed activity tracking and more.
If you're not familiar with pomodoro, the format is basically:
Decide on the task to be done.
Set the pomodoro timer (traditionally to 25 minutes)
Work on the task.
End work when the timer rings and put a checkmark on a piece of paper.
If you have fewer than four checkmarks, take a short break (3–5 minutes), then go to step 2.
After four pomodoros, take a longer break (15–30 minutes), reset your checkmark count to zero, then go to step 1.
Ultidash, a powerful dashboard packed with all the tools you need to make today the most productive day of your week. You won’t believe how easy it is to turn your exhausting days into effortless productive ones. Ultidash will give you one reason to smile for every new tab you open, because happiness inspires productivity. Includes:
• To-do list in customizable formats (basic, matrix, Todoist)
• Site blocker to manage your distractions
• Timer to keep you focused and track your daily productivity goals
• Site tracker to measure how you spend your time on the web
• Gmail icon displaying the number of unread emails
• Funny, motivational or custom greetings changing every hour
• Stunning backgrounds changing depending on the time of the day (or upload your own!)
• Customizable design with time, date, search, bookmarks, calendar events and weather forecast
Live Start Page is a browser extension that will significantly enhance your work experience on the computer. Replace new tab page with a incredible dashboard featuring living wallpapers, meditation mode, to-do and other features.
Tired and worn out? Feeling nervous, with your productivity hitting zero? Open a page with LSP and turn on the meditation mode: 10-15 minutes of viewing the best live wallpapers to the sounds of nature will get you back into great shape. Want to get more out of your meditations?
Physical/Mental Health
Sanvello is an iOS and Android app that uses psychologist developed strategies such as cognitive behavior therapy to take users on immersive journeys that combine videos, audio exercises, activities, mood and health habit tracking, and activities that help improve mood, confidence, and lessen anxiety and depression. It also relies on a community of users for crowd-sourced support.
PostureMinder is a free extension which will help you be a bit healthier while sitting on a chair. As the name suggests, PostureMinder will periodically nudge you to fix your posture which can take a toll when you haven’t moved in hours.
Moreover, you can also enable reminders that will ask you to get up and walk around for a few minutes. If you’re someone who constantly suffers from back pain, this is undoubtedly a must-have.
Healthy Browsing is an extension for users who want reminders and can send you notifications for four things: water, blinking, posture, and stretch. You can, of course, change the time frames for each of these and set them up as per your preferences.
Unroll.me is an email service that detects the junk emails that you are enrolled in and for each subscription gives you the option of unsubscribing, leaving it alone, or bundling the emails into a once-a-day digest of the rolled up emails.
