by Jon Johnston, LPC Practicum Intern
Looking for help staying motivated and practicing new skills you’ve learned in session? There’s an app for that. Apple’s App Store and Google Play are packed with thousands of apps that help encourage you to build positive habits, boost your motivation, and stay inspired while make lasting changes in your life. With so many choices, it’s hard to know where to begin but the following should be enough to get you started:
Momentum
Available App Store (Free with Available In-App Purchases)
Trying to build helpful habits? Momentum has you covered. This habit-tracking app helps you to build positive habits, stay motivated, and accomplish your goals. Every day you complete a habit, your chain grows longer. As your chain grows longer, you become less likely to give up and “break the chain.”
HiFutureSelf
Available App Store (Free)
What if we could send our future selves words of encouragement? With HiFutureSelf you can. This app lets you setup affirmations, reinforcements, and motivational messages that will be sent to you via email or text at a future time and date. It can also be used to remind you to practice skills at specific times of day. Think of it as the digital equivalent to the rubber band reminder around your wrist.
iCBT
Available App Store ($5.99)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a popular evidence based model of therapy. iCBT is a personal CBT tool that helps you manage stress and anxiety. Enter thoughts and let the app guide you through the process of working with cognitions and emotions. iCBT also monitors your mood before and after the process.
SuperBetter
Available App Store (Free) and Google Play (Free)
Maybe games are your thing. If so, SuperBetter can bring more “play” into your life (iOS & Android, Free). SuperBetter can help build personal resilience—the ability to stay strong, motivated, and optimistic in the face of difficult obstacles. Playing SuperBetter makes you more capable of getting through any tough situation—and more likely to achieve the goals that matter most to you. The app uses game elements such as quests, powerups, character leveling, and fighting bad guys as an entertaining way to address real life issues such as depression, anxiety, chronic illness, or post-traumatic stress.
Buddhify
Available App Store ($4.99) and Google Play ($2.99)
If you feel like you need a little more “calm” in your life, Buddhify can help get you there. This meditation and mindfulness app boasts over 80 guided meditations that are customized to wherever you are and whatever you’re doing—traveling, at work, at home, going to sleep, and more. Buddhify gives you a simple but effective way to bring more mindfulness and calm to your busy day.
About Jon Johnston: Jon Johnston is a counseling practicum intern at Amberton University, with two decades of study in meditation, mindfulness, music and psychology. Jon studied meditation at the Zen Mountain Monastery in New York, where he learned from author and renowned expert in the field, John Daido Loori. Jon is now offering free initial consultations at Dallas Whole Life Counseling in person, by phone, or via Skype. Click to learn more.