Mobile Apps That Make You Happy
Need a “Pick Me Up?”(happy app) Some people try a hot, steamy latte from Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts. Some somber souls may try a brisk morning run to get the Target Heart Rate up using their FitBit activity tracker. But we, at The Good News Notebook, recently came across a few mobile apps for all our active readers that will improve your mood. Happy Days are here again!
OUR TOP 5 PICKS FOR APPS THAT MAKE YOU HAPPY INCLUDE:
#1 – HAPPIFY
Happify is a psychologically informed app that delivers a set of games and activities to your smart device. This app relies on five essential principles that psychologists say are vital for feeling happy: savoring, thanking, aspiring, giving, and empathizing. When you sign up, Happify will give you a happiness score based on information that you supply. Using the Happify app, you can play games that have been designed to make you happier using principles of psychology and neuroscience. Happify can even recommend specific daily activities based on a list of goals you give it. 86% of Happify users report an increase in happiness in just two months. This app offers both a free version and several paid options, ranging from $4.95 up to $14.95 depending on how many activities you want to unlock
#2 – MOOD TRACKER
Created by Aspyre Apps of Sydney, Australia, My Mood Tracker is a mood tracking app that was named the Best Health App of 2011 by BestAppEver.com. This simple yet powerful app does much more than just track your moods. You can also track all sorts of items that may be affecting your mood, including sleep, exercise, pain, and medications. You can protect all of your data with a 4-digit PIN and view hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly charts. With My Mood Tracker, you can add specific notes to every entry and see an at-a-glance view of your day. The Lite version is free, but it doesn’t include the full mood history feature. You can get the full version for your Apple device for $4.99. Android users can use either the T2 Mood Tracker or Moodlytics, which offer similar functionality. Both apps are free.
#3 – PLASTICITY
Plasticity is an app created by Plasticity Labs, a company founded by husband-and-wife team Jim and Jennifer Moss. Jim was a professional lacrosse player for 9 years until one day he woke up and discovered that he could no longer walk. He was diagnosed with an unspecified neuromuscular disorder, and was told that learning to walk again could take up to a year. At the time, Jennifer was pregnant. Somehow, Jim maintained a positive attitude throughout his recovery – and while in hospital, he taught himself to walk again after just six weeks. Together, the couple started Plasticity Labs – a company that teaches people both the science of how gratitude changes health & work performance and how to apply gratitude in the workplace. The Plasticity app uses training programs, surveys, and a Happiness Meter to gauge employees’ happiness levels – which allows management to build happier, healthier, more efficient workplaces. This free app is available for both Apple and Android users.
#4 – PERSONAL ZEN
Personal Zen is an iOS app created by a team of mobile app developers and neuroscientists, and research has shown that it can reduce the player’s overall stress level and help players to deal with stress crises. This mobile game is easy to learn and lots of fun. As relaxing music plays in the background two blue sprites – one with a smile, one with a frown – will appear and burrow into a layer of grass. The smiling sprite will leave a trail in the grass. The objective of the game is to trace the trail with your finger. The more you play, the more your eyes will become attuned to looking for the happy face.
This game is based on a new cognitive therapy for anxiety called attention-bias modification treatment (ABMT). Research in journals like Biological Psychology and The Journal of Anxiety Disorders has found that ABMT improves the patient’s ability to disengage from threatening stimuli, which changes the way the brain reacts to stimuli and reduces anxiety. Personal Zen is available for free in the Apple App Store. The developers do eventually want to create an Android version, but currently have no plans to do so.
#5 – HEALTHY HABITS
Coming from award-winning behavioral change organization 2Morrow, Healthy Habits is an app that allows you to identify your positive and negative habits, set reminders, establish rewards, and see your progress in sticking to good habits or breaking bad habits. You can set daily, weekly, and monthly goals and make detailed notes on each of your habits, and even share your progress with your friends on social media. Upgrading to the paid version unlocks even more features, allowing for unlimited habits, more great charts and graphs, custom reminders, and data exporting. You can get Healthy Habits in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. The paid version costs $5.79 for Apple users or $1.24 for Android users.
FOR MORE INFORMATION & MORE HAPPY APPS:
Visit Dynamic Leap Blog – http://www.dynamic-leap.com/blog/feeling-blue-perk-yourself-up-with-these-nine-iphone-and-android-apps-built-to-make-you-feel-happier/
