Category: mental health

Update: Positive Affirmation and Meditation apps

Erica1 Comment

So, a few weeks ago I wrote about the power of positive thoughts and I mentioned that I had downloaded two different apps to practice meditation and positive affirmations. I have tried to use and listen to them daily this month and I want to share my thoughts and experience with these apps so you can decide if they might be of use to you.

*I am in no way getting compensated for my recommendations – just sharing my personal thoughts with you!Image result for headspace app

(Headspace) The first one I downloaded is called “Headspace.” It is really a great app to practice the art of mindfulness. If you aren’t familiar with the concept of mindfulness, there’s a great definition from psychologytoday.com:

Mindfulness is a state of active, open attention on the present. When you’re mindful, you carefully observe your thoughts and feelings without judging them good or bad. Instead of letting your life pass you by, mindfulness means living in the moment and awakening to your current experience, rather than dwelling on the past or anticipating the future.

Great things about this app: the speaker in this app has a lovely voice and British accent – his voice is pleasant to listen to as he guides you through your meditation sessions. Each session does a great job of telling you how to meditate, so even if you’ve never tried meditation before, you will be able to feel like you know what you’re doing. Headspace also has great animation videos that explain different concepts and are fun to watch.

You can set the length of time that you want to meditate each session, ranging from 3 minutes to 20 minutes. I tried to do 10 minutes most sessions. There are even some super-short sessions called “minis” if you only want something for 1 minute.

Headspace also has packs of sessions with different themes to choose from (such as “Anxiety,” “Depression,” “Pregnancy,” “Happiness,” “Motivation”…) HOWEVER – you can only access a limited number on the free version, which is what I used this month. The “Basics” pack is 10 sessions and is totally free to use – besides that the app will let you try a few of the other sessions, but not really much else without paying. You can redo the “Basic” pack over and over, which is what I ended up doing – it still gets you in the habit of practicing mindfulness each day, which has many benefits.

The one-time subscription fee (for life) was WAY too much for me to justify paying – but there are options to subscribe monthly ($12.99) or yearly (averages to $7.91 per month). I also have gotten many emails from the app offering me 40% off a year’s subscription, which I am actually really interested in doing. The way I look at it, if you can justify paying more than that for Netflix each month, you can probably find that much to use an app that will benefit your mental and emotional health.

thinkup

(ThinkUp) The second app I downloaded I ended up loving so much! It’s called “ThinkUp” and you basically get to create your own playlist of positive affirmations and record them in your own voice. The free version, which I initially started out with, lets you choose about 5 different affirmations and you can listen to them on a loop with preset music in the background. I loved the idea of it, but I didn’t like that I could only choose 5 affirmations to listen to on a loop over and over. There were so many other affirmations I wanted to choose, so I decided to do a paid version.

There are two ways you can pay – you can pay month to month for a very small price, like $4 – or you can go ahead and pay a **one-time fee of $25 (**price has increased since the initial publication of this post!) to get access to everything and have an unlimited number of affirmations. For me to really use and get the most out of the app, I knew I needed to have at least 15-20 affirmations. And I while I could have tried out the app for a month or two before going all-in, I decided that in the long run it would save me money if I just jumped in and paid for a lifetime subscription. So, I went ahead and did that mid-way through January.

I love that you can look for different affirmations based on categories such as “motivation,” “new career,” (important for me!), “self-esteem,” and “stress relief.” So even if you don’t have anything motivational to say off the top of your head, you can browse the app’s affirmations and find plenty of good ones!

Some of my affirmations include things like:

  • I choose to fill my mind with positive, nurturing, and healing thoughts
  • I choose happiness no matter what the circumstances are
  • I give up being perfect for being authentic
  • I am a good mother

I have also created playlist of my favorite Scriptures that I can listen to – I think this will be really great to listen to first thing in the morning each day! Any verses you all recommend? Many of you may have already responded to my post on Facebook regarding this…

The one downside I have found to this app is that you cannot change the order of the affirmations. You can decide which affirmations go into a specific playlist, but for some reason the order inside that playlist is not flexible. When I added more affirmations, for some reason they went to the beginning of the playlist instead of adding them at the end, (which would be more logical in my opinion). Not a huge deal, but something I am marginally annoyed with.

Overall, this app is great if you’re willing to get the paid version. If you wanted to create your own affirmation tracks and set them to music you probably could, but I like how simple it is to use and that everything is in one place.

More Resources:

I recently came across a blog post talking all about positive affirmations and giving 50 different examples. Here’s the link: https://www.thirteenthoughts.com/50-positive-affirmations-for-more-abundance-happiness-and-success/

Calm is another app I have heard is good – I have not tried it but know a few friends who have recommended it.

If you’re more of a book person, this book was one I read (recommended by my counselor) when I first was looking into the concept of mindfulness.

Thanks for reading.

Back to School! Graduate School, That is…

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(Monday)

I began writing this on the evening of January 15th, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and tomorrow is officially my first day of graduate school (again!) I had a semi-small freak out moment earlier today when I logged into my TWU account and saw that my professor had opened up his class online – I started reading the syllabus and looking at my assignments for the semester… I think it really hit me today that I really am going to be a student again after 8 and 1/2 years being out of school!

This blog is all (*well, mostly all) about how I am managing my anxiety – about how I am being intentional on working through my anxiety issues and recognizing and addressing problems before they get out of control. Any sort of change or life transition brings its own stress and anxieties on some level – some changes we choose and others are thrown at us whether we like it or not. Going back to graduate school was a choice I made, fully knowing that it was going to be hard and bring about a certain amount of anxiety.

So, why would I choose to do this?  I definitely am already “busy” enough – I have a husband, an 18 month old son, I work full-time, I am very involved in other activities at my church and at home… Maybe the “why” isn’t so much of a question as “HOW?” How am I planning on adding anything else to my schedule? How can I be the mother/wife/employee/friend/individual that I want to be when any of those just by themselves can feel overwhelming?

We’ll get to the HOW in a minute – to go back to the WHY is much simpler: after accepting my new job in August, part of the deal was that I would go back to school to get my degree in Library Science. I am beyond grateful for the opportunity to do this and extremely excited! I knew up front before accepting the job that this was coming, and I chose to do it. (Challenge Accepted!) I also love the feeling of accomplishing something – I really value being able to work hard at something and succeed – and I love learning, and I love reading and libraries… so the “WHYs” all kind of makes sense really!

Going back to the HOW though – yeah, I’m still taking this one day at at time. I feel like the busier I get, the more purposeful I am with my time, out of necessity. So, my planners – (plural) – are my best friends, and I am definitely working on remembering what is most important to me and what I may not have time to do as much of. People always say they don’t have time to do things – I think this is not always the case for me. I generally find time to do the things that are really important to me – or the things that are really urgent and cannot be ignored.

I’m honestly not as worried about the planning/prioritizing aspect, I’m good at that sort of thing, and I love planning! What I do want to keep tabs on is navigating my stress and anxiety through all of my responsibilities – knowing that I’m going to undertake the challenge of graduate school for the next two years means that I need to really get serious about doing things to keep my mental health in check.

Blogging is part of that – it holds me accountable to you people (thank you, by the way!) and it also allows me time to really self-reflect on how I’m doing. In my other post I mentioned that I’m taking some time each day to do some meditating and listen to positive affirmations, which I already feel like are helping me a lot.

So, I haven’t technically started grad school yet, and I’ll keep you posted on how it’s going. I anticipate many ups and downs along the way – so if I go off the radar for a bit, you’ll know I may be in a bit of a “down” phase.

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(Saturday)

Today is January 20th, I’ve finished my first week of school! Here’s the week in review – I wrote a short journal entry each day this week that may be interesting for some to read. My first week of working towards my library science degree is done!

Monday

1 day before school “officially” starts. I log into my account and see that one of my professors has opened his class on Blackboard. I start reading all of his instructions, try to figure out how to navigate this system, begin reading over the syllabus and various attachments… and that nostalgic feeling of being completely overwhelmed on the first day of classes all comes rushing back to me! Went to Walmart and bought my “school supplies” which consisted of a folder, monthly planner, and 2-subject notebook. Excited and nervous about tomorrow!

Tuesday

Lots of feelings today! Took my “first day at school” picture, because that’s what you do (obviously!) I wrote down all of my assignments and due dates for the next few months in my planner. I notice that someone has already starting posting in some of the discussion boards online – I start to worry that maybe I’m already behind… Is it possible there’s another person more over-achiever-y than me? I have a feeling the real discipline of online classes is not doing the work, it’s being able to not do ALL the work the first day your classes open – knowing that you have more to do, but knowing you can only do so much – taking it one day at a time.

Wednesday

The initial shock of being a student is fading a bit – I submitted my first assignment online! (Afterwards I found out I didn’t use the proper naming schematic that the professor wants us to use, so I resubmitted it… hoping that’s not a big fail!)

Thursday

Had my first “synchronous session” as it is called, a live online session with my professor and classmates. I need to give a shout-out to to Dr. Elkins at TWU – he is a hoot! I’m looking forward to “attending” his classes via Blackboard this semester!

Friday

I took the night off from doing anything school-related. Dean and I went out to celebrate my birthday since on my actual birthday I had my first synchronous session online. We had a nice dinner and went shopping at the mall – woo-hoo!

Saturday

Starting to realize how soon Tuesday the 23rd will be here – the day my first assignments are due! Small amounts of anxiety building up again today… it’s time to get down to business!

*Keep watch for continued updates on grad school! Have a great weekend!

Think Happy Thoughts

Erica4 Comments

Image result for peter pan think happy thoughts

 

So, something hit me the other day – and it was one of those instances where after it happened it was like, “why did I not think of this before now?”

It started at lunch the other day – Dean and I were discussing a friend of mine who is pregnant and having some anxiety about her pregnancy and about being a good mother. I don’t think this is highly unusual, but I remembered that during my pregnancy I really did not have that much anxiety, (at least compared to my anxiety after Calvin was born!) I attribute a lot of this to the fact that most everything went “right” during my pregnancy – my checkups were always good and I never had circumstances that really made me worry about my or my baby’s health.   

Dean, however, reminded me that during my pregnancy, I was actively doing my Hypnobabies program daily – part of which entailed listening to a 30 minute MP3 track called “Joyful Affirmations.” So for 5 months before I gave birth, I was constantly listening to phrases like, “pregnancy is natural, normal, healthy and safe” and “my body is giving my baby everything he needs.” I listened to those tracks up to the day Calvin was born … and then I stopped. And those of you who have followed my other blog posts know that four weeks later I was admitted to the hospital for severe postpartum depression.

How powerful are thoughts? My friend, Sarah, and I are reading a book together called, Think Good. It has challenged me to be more observant of what I am thinking about throughout the day, and has reminded me how my thoughts can affect my mood, anxiety levels, and behavior. One activity the book challenged us to do was to keep a thought journal for 24 hours – and while this honestly was impossible due to, well, life, I did attempt it. When I looked back over it, I found many more thoughts of worry, anxiety, and jealousy than I did of contentment, thankfulness, and peace.

How powerful are your thoughts? There are lots of verses in the bible that encourage mediating on good and positive things.

One of my favorites is in Philippians – Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Psalm chapter 1 says – But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

Growing up I remember warnings about watching bad t.v. shows or listening to bad music because it would “affect me.” I also remember rolling my eyes at that and thinking it didn’t affect me. (Think back to Jennifer Connelly in Labrinth – “You have no power over me!”)

But I think God, being wiser than me, knows that the things I spend my time thinking about and listening to or watching will most certainly affect me – which is why He wants me to think about good and pure and beautiful things.

So… how powerful are your thoughts? It hit me that maybe finding 30 minutes a day to listen to positive affirmations really would make a difference in my life. I stopped listening to my “Joyful Affirmations” because it was only meant for the time while I was pregnant. What I didn’t consider was that there are many more ways to incorporate affirmations into my life no matter what stage of life I am in – and many good reasons to do so!

All that being said, I have downloaded two different meditation and positive affirmation apps, and am planning on taking time to listen to them daily. If I end up liking them I’ll try to write a review on here later!

I will write an update on how it’s going in a few weeks – in the meantime, if any of you have any positive affirmation apps or techniques please share them with me! I’m looking forward to seeing positive change in my thoughts and in my life!