Pandemic or not – stress relieving mobile apps have been around for years. The positive side about living in the 21st century during a pandemic is the fact that we are able to relieve stress in a different way, just at our fingertips.
Being a college student comes with a lot of stress. It’s natural to stress, we are all stressing out about something whether it be personal, financial, or educational. A good app to take a look at that’s getting mass attention is Headspace.
Headspace is a meditation, sleep, health and fitness app available to download on any Apple, Google and Samsung device and can be logged in via a computer. Headspace offers a wide range of stress relief help, such as guided meditation, motivational and meditation podcasts, inspirational videos, yoga and energizing workout videos to lower stress and get you active. It also features all types of meditation videos for adults and children, which is mostly free.
The app includes monthly check-ins to keep track of a user’s journey, which asks multiple questions pertaining to the previous month. Each month, the user will be able to track their progress by taking the Perceived Stress Scale, a scientific survey to measure the perceived levels of stress based off of the questions answered. Headspace will give a quote and a consideration option that becomes available after four days. Besides the mental wellness, Headspace also offers music and sleep-inducing podcasts, which is overseen by their new Chief Music Officer and well-known singer-songwriter John Legend.
It is common for students to be familiar with this app, especially those who have a busy agenda, like fourth year health science student Morgan Shortridge.
“I’ve been using it for two years,” Shortridge said. “I use it every morning, sometimes more than once a day in the afternoons or before bed.”
Shortridge expressed how busy her school life was and her incentive to download the app.
“Compared to two years ago, I could say I was weak emotionally,” Shortridge said. “I was kind of overwhelmed with balancing sports, academics, and social life.”
Active military member Dweller Georges frequently uses Headspace for his well-being.
“Back in 2019, I started using Headspace,” Georges said. “It’s more than what you think the app is. There’s a person to talk to you while you’re meditating; they guide you through the different steps of meditation. The person talking is actually a relaxing recording, and users have the option to pick a male or female voice. Right now, I’m at 62 sessions and an average meditation duration of 15 minutes.”
There are many different stress relieving apps that students can download on their phone, whenever they feel stressed or if they don’t have the time or willingness to go to a counselor, yet. Headspace is here with multiple features available to everyone to use whenever they need it.