How Our Phones Can Help On Our Wellness Journeys #AD

**This post is a collaboration with O2, as always all thoughts and opinions are my own. More information can be found here**

We are very often quick to comment on phone usage, especially for children – I am guilty of this myself. Working from home I am always on my phone checking emails and popping something quickly onto social media and then losing hours stuck in the rabbit hole of TikTok and Facebook, so I am cautious not to get too cross with Emmy for spending too long on social media. If she sees me doing it then she will of course follow suit and I would be a hypocrite for saying she had to get off the phone, that said, she does have a time limit and apps shut off at a certain time in the evening – she is only 12 after all!

Modern technology such as our smartphones certainly does have a place in our lives and not all phone apps are bad ones – there are many apps you can download onto your iPhone 12 which can have a very positive use in our daily lives. They can help us to unwind, relax, study and even track our fitness goals helping to keep us healthy.

Here are a few of my favourite apps which I use daily or weekly and by using them I have certainly noticed I am more conscious to move more, drink my daily allowance of water and I am beginning to sleep better too.

Table of Contents

Headspace – Guided Meditation and Mindfulness App

Health is not just about our diets or our gym regimen. Meditation can make you feel happy and comfortable. This app contains a lot of meditations that can be used in a variety of situations. Some of which will help you fall asleep, others will help you cope with anxiety, and others will help you reduce stress. Just ten minutes a day will help clear your mind, increase your concentration and attentiveness, and become calmer. There is a free 14 day trial of this app so you can try it out for yourself

SleepCycle

Sleep plays an important role in promoting and maintaining our overall good health. We have all experienced that groggy feeling the morning after a very bad night’s sleep – it takes us all day to really recover from it and then even though we are exhausted we struggle to fall asleep the next evening too. It can be a vicious continuing cycle until complete exhaustion hits us.

If you don’t get enough sleep every night, your body will have difficulty recovering from a busy day, balancing hormone release, and maintaining blood sugar levels, just to name a few of the problems you may encounter. This app monitors your sleep quality as well as your sleep heart rate, but the best part is that it will wake you up in the morning during the most optimal sleep phase, and you’ll wake up well-rested and ready for the new day.

Spotify

We all love to listen to music – it can help to relax us and clear our minds. Spotify isn’t just for music though, you can listen to Podcasts and there is something for everyone – funny ones, educational ones and even historical ones where you’ll learn about your favourite places and topics. Whether you choose to listen to music or a podcast it is a good way to clear your mind and listening to calming music at bedtime will help you to fall asleep.

Fitness Apps

Now, it is really hard to pick just one of these as there are so many different ones available. Some you can link from your Smartwatch to your iPhone 12 so your step count is tracked, along with your sleeping habits, heart rate and in some cases blood pressure too.

Whichever one you choose make sure it is a multi-use app that keeps track of steps, sleep and overall health in general. Some of these apps you can input your food intake and it will work out your calorie count meaning you can visually see how many calories you are consuming – not something we all keep track of but it is important if you have health issues such as Diabetes like I do – I need to keep track of what I eat and make healthier choices and consume fewer carbs or foods with a lower GI level. Knowing these off the top of your head isn’t always easy so these apps help me to decide on better food choices.

Kindle App

Having this app on my phone means I don’t always need to carry my Kindle around with me and it allows me to continue reading my favourite books at any time.

I find this useful when I get to school far too early – I can sit in the playground and read a chapter quickly while waiting for Harry to come out of school. Or read a quick chapter in a coffee shop while treating myself to 5 minutes peace and quiet – as I always have my phone on me it means I can always read a few pages when I get the chance, and by doing so it means I am not scrolling social media aimlessly to kill a spare 10 minutes.