Best Apple Watch Apps for your Mind & Soul

We all know that life can get a little crazy and feel a little overwhelming. Sometimes, things around you seem like they are going to barrel over you like a freight train and your brain feels like it is going to explode. The Breath app, built into watchOS helps with bite-sized relaxation moments throughout the day, which is great don't get me wrong, but sometimes you need a little more than just a few minutes of deep breathing to get through the day.

Headspace

The apps basics will teach you meditation essentials, and includes “mindful moments” to keep you present throughout the day. Once you're ready, you can try any of the themed courses in the app's library that revolve around personal growth, physical health, falling asleep, waking up, stress and anxiety, happiness, and work and productivity, to name a few.

AN ADDED BONUS: There is also a 30-second quick calm session that requires you to touch and hold your finger on your Apple Watch screen. You can't press too hard or too soft. This mini mind exercise helps you focus on something other than your anger or fear in bite-size sessions. If you are paying attention to how much pressure you use while touching the screen, you might forget about that thing that was freaking you out 10 seconds ago.

Happify is a behavioural change tech company that uses a combination of science based games to help increase your happiness, overcome negative thoughts, build self confidence and reduce stress while teaching you life-changing habits. When you enter the app, you’ll be asked a series of questions that will help determine which “track” you should follow, with options like conquering negative thoughts or coping with stress. Based on your answers, the app then assigns you daily quizzes and activities focused on helping you advance toward the goal outlined by your track. 

How it does this is depending on what you're attempting to tackle (stress, confidence, etc.), you may be asked to play a game in which you tap on hot air balloons with positive words, talk to AI about your day, go outside, listen to meditation tracks, take quizzes, snap a photo of something you're grateful, and more. As you complete these activities, which can take anywhere from one to ten minutes, you'll be asked to take a short quiz, which determines your happiness levels.

Check out the Daily Calm every day, a 10-minute program that changes each day. Use the program to ease you into your day or get you ready for bed.

Pillow

The key to a calm and happy soul begins with a good nights sleep. Pillow gives you more features other than just sleep tracking. It records and monitors your snoring, sleep-talking and sleep apnea. Sleep Apnea is a disorder where you don’t breathe while sleeping. Plus it can be integrated with both your Apple Watch or iPhone.

This sleep tracking app has a clean and simple interface and allows you to track your sleep with the help of your “Sleep Sessions Graph“. The graph provides details regarding awake time, light sleep, and deep sleep, which totals to “time in bed.” Pillow analyses sleep sessions from the past and brings an analysis report when you awake. It can analyse the quality of sleep by monitoring Awake, REM, Light Sleep, Deep Sleep time.

It has the ability to be used in both automatic and manual mode. You have to wear the Apple Watch while using the app in automatic mode. If you prefer to keep your Apple Watch close to your pillow, switch it to manual mode. Moreover, the Pillow Watch app also has a collection of sleep aid sounds to get you a better sleep.

Pair your inner zen with an array of calming Apple Watch straps available in a hue of subtle pastel pallets from just R195 

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