5 Best Free Apps Every Family Caregiver Needs To Conquer Stress
5 Best Free Apps Every Family Caregiver Needs To Conquer Stress
As a family caregiver, overwhelm, stress, anxiety, insomnia, impatience, and sadness can be an hourly theme. Some days are better than others. To help you have better days, here are my 5 Best Free Apps EVERY Family Caregiver Needs To Conquer Stress. I have used these apps for years and relied on them during my caregiving journey. Even if you aren’t a caregiver, these apps will help you maintain overall well-being. Without further adieu, here are the 5 Best Free Apps Every Family Caregiver Needs To Conquer Stress:
1st Free App- Breathe2Relax
Lower your stress and reduce your anxiety with Breathe2Relax. Initially designed for the military community but beneficial for use by anyone, the relaxation app trains you on the “belly breathing” technique that has proven benefits for your overall mental health. Use the app’s breathing exercises to learn and practice the breathing technique on your own or as part of a stress management program supervised by your healthcare provider. This is a fabulous form of meditation.
Get this app here:
iTunes Store for the iPhone or iPad
Google Play for Android devices
2nd Free App – Happify
“Happiness depends upon ourselves.” – Aristotle
How you feel matters! Whether you’re feeling sad, anxious, or stressed, Happify brings you effective tools and programs to help you take control of your feelings and thoughts.
Our proven techniques are developed by leading scientists and experts who’ve been studying evidence-based interventions in the fields of positive psychology, mindfulness, and cognitive behavioral therapy for decades.
Happify is the single destination for effective, evidence-based solutions for better emotional health and wellbeing in the 21st century.
Learn more about Happify and download here: https://www.happify.com/
3rd Free App – Brainwave
This app is one of my favorites and I used it DAILY during my caregiving journey and beyond. 35 Multi-Stage Binaural Programs Combined with Included Ambient Music, Nature Sounds, or your own iTunes Music. There are a Broad Range of Binaural Programs for Sleep, Focus, Memory, Energy, Positive Mood, Confidence, Anxiety Relief, Stress Relief, Relaxation, Meditation and much more!
Different states of mind are associated with specific brainwave frequencies that would be inaudible if played directly. These frequencies can be induced in the brain by indirectly by playing two different audible binaural tones into each ear, which after being processed by the brain, are perceived as an inaudible low-frequency beat matching the target brainwave frequency.
As you listen, your brainwaves fall into step with this inaudible binaural beat, and after a few minutes synchronize with the target brainwave frequency. Brain Wave’s 32 included programs layer these tones and binaural beat sequences into multi-stage experiences to create complete Brainwave Entrainment sessions that have helped thousands of people focus and concentrate, feel positive and motivated, and sleep more soundly.
Get this app for IOS here.
4th Free App – Insight Timer
Home to more than 3,400,000 meditators, Insight Timer is rated as
the top free meditation app. There are 8129 free Guided Meditations and every day this community spends more than 6,000 hours listening to guided meditations. There are 5117 Groups and 3,400,000 meditators discussing topics from humor and compassion to spirituality and support.
Get this app for IOS here.
Get this app for Android here.
5th Free App – Calm
This app is a 2017 #1 rated app for Mindfulness and Meditation.
Calm brings clarity, joy, and peace to your daily life. Join the millions experiencing the life-changing benefits of meditation and mindfulness. They even have a Breaking Bad Habits masterclass available.
I also love that there are sleep stories to help fall asleep at night. We loved having bedtime stories read to us as children so why should that stop now that we’re all grown up? Sleep Stories are soothing tales read by well-known voices to help people unwind and fall into a deep sleep each evening.
Get this app on Apple IOS here.
Get this app on Android here.
Tandy Elisala
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What a great idea – to have these tools at your fingertips. I searched for Brainwave and there is a cost for it. Love technology!
ooooo. I’ll double check Brainwave. I’ve had this app for YEARS and it was free when I got it.
Your list of free apps for caregivers is very apropos for me right now. In a little over a month, I’ll be moving into the caregiver role with my mother. We’re busy planning how to not only take care of her needs, but mine as well. These app suggestions are helpful, and FREE app suggestions are even better!
Glad these resources are helpful for you. Anything we can do to preserve our self-care as a caregiver is critical.
Love the list of self-care apps you shared. I love the Happify one. Great tips. I did look at the Brain Wave and sad to see it’s for ITunes (for a fee of $4.99) I didn’t see anything similar for Androids though.
When I can and I’m not disturbing my husband’s sleep, I love to listen to meditation as I go to sleep. Thanks for these apps.
Someone else said the same thing about Brainwave. I’ll adjust the blog accordingly. I REALLY recommend this app.
I love these free apps to deal with stress…I have used Calm, but I may explore some others
Glad you use Calm!
What a great list of apps to help you stay calm and stress-free, Tandy. Breathe2Relax reminds me of a book, The Science of Breath, my father gave me many years ago. It’s amazing how effective breathing techniques can be to calm you and even improve health.
I’ve never heard of that book before, Tamuria. I’ll have to check that out.
I’ve never heard of that book before, Tamuria. I’ll have to check that out.
I love your helpful suggestions related to free apps to conquer stress! The Brainwave app is especially exciting since I’ve been looking into that type of modality for improved sleep. We purchased an album of songs created using similar strategies as Brainwave and the music helps immensely. Calm was a great app, although I found the free version was limited. Can’t wait to try a few of these out!
Thanks for apps! I didn’t know that there were apps that can do that. I remember how taxing it is to take care of someone. For me it was temporary, about 3 months with my mom post-op. But when you have to look after someone and also help them walk and move around it can really drain you.
Technology has certainly come a long way when it comes to family caregivers, Emma. You are right on that caregiving is really draining … or it can be. Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting!