At Dootrix, we're passionate about building products that drive real change. Our team strive to help our clients deliver the best experiences and outcomes for their customers. We're also passionate about creating a culture where our team are supported to deliver on that ambition.

This week we're trying to help raise awareness about mental health. What better way to start than by sharing the apps that we love, that have helped us with mental health.

So here it is: the apps we love at Dootrix #MHAW edition.

Greatful

According to the folks at the Harvard Medical School, “Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.” Grateful is an app created with this mind, making it easier and more fun to express gratitude in your life, as well as to remind you, during times of imbalance, the blessings in your life.

The app has a range of features to make expressing gratitude easier, including daily prompts, with simple questions such as "what made you happy today?" which you can answer with a simple sentence, a paragraph or attachments such as photos. You can browse previous entrees when you're in need of a little inspiration.

Practice a little gratitude now!

Headspace

Mindfulness is getting a lot of positive attention at the moment and Headspace is the perfect place to start. It has a series of intro meditations that take you on a real journey and teach you a range of mindfulness skills to help with mental health. The app includes stunning animations which help to teach you the techniques to get you started.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgfycCiZl8s[/embed]

They also have a range of ‘singles’ and ‘minis’ which make exploring meditation fun as well as giving you access to meditations on the go or at work.

They also have ‘packs’ alongside the shorter meditations which focus around day to day stuff like coping with cravings, stress, sleep and more which are really valuable.

Give it a go!

Breathesync

Following on from the success of Do Breathe, BreatheSync is an app designed to help users harness the power of the breath, to help calm your mind and get stuff done. Rather than trying to cover meditation and mindfulness from a holistic perspective, BreatheSync focuses specifically on the scientific benefits of awareness of the breath.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2Tc1bye3R4[/embed]

The app includes intelligent biofeedback features, to help you to deal with stress more effectively, bringing calm and focus to your mind and body when you need it most.

The app helps measure your heart rate variability, one of the pivotal biomarkers for physical health, emotional wellbeing and cognitive performance as well as longevity of life. It then takes this measure and combines it with demographic information such as your age to produce a Wellbeing Quotient (WQ) - an effective metric for tracking and improving your general wellbeing and resilience.

Download it now!

7 Cups

7 Cups is a complimentary service that connects users with trained "active listeners" giving free therapy and counselling. Their team of volunteers provide anonymous and completely free online chat service that can cover a range of mental health challenges including depression, anxiety, relationships, LGBTQ+ issues and more.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RVw5nvDG18[/embed]

The app is simple and intuitive, the chat functionality is everything you'd expect from the most modern chat platforms. The ability to be able to connect with a trained professional is really powerful, not least because once you've finished your initial discussion, you can return to the same listener.

The app also includes a 7 step programme for personal improvement and goal setting. You have access to a personal growth path that teaches you skills and techniques to help you make incremental improvements in your mental health. Each step is combined with a simple activity, designed to help you feel better.

Give it a try!