3 Free Relaxation Apps You Need To Download

Nurses and healthcare leaders do an amazing job caring for others. But at the end of the day when you kick your shoes off and take a breath, how do you ensure that you’re taking care of yourself, too?

We know that you’re busy and that your spare time is sacred (and sometimes scarce). Next time you’re looking to wind down, consider flexing your mental health muscles with these three free mindfulness apps:

1. HeadSpace
Headspace is a great option for folks who are just starting to dabble in mindfulness. It offers a variety of features, such as: daily meditations, sleep meditations, stress relief and coping, focus and productivity, and tension release. Newbies can dive right in to the 10-day beginner course. If physical fitness is more up your alley, HeadSpace has you covered with the Centered Fitness & Tension Release series. This series offers mood boosting at-home workouts, like “28 days of mindful fitness and cardio.”

Ready to download? You can find this app for Android and Apple devices. Look for the logo with the big orange dot. We’re sure you’ll find something that fits your lifestyle and personality. After all, 875,000 ratings in the Apple store must count for something, right?


2. Insight Timer
Insight Timer has a few unique features that separates it from the other mindfulness apps. It contains the usual guided meditations, and then some. This app focuses on community by showing a world map on the home screen, which lets users (nearly 20 million) know exactly how many others were meditating with them. It also offers live events each hour of the day, so there’s always something that will fit into your busy schedule. This app features thousands of teachers that discuss topics that are beneficial to everyone, such as relationships, stress, and creativity.

The most highly rated meditation on the app is called “Breathing into Sleep.” This is a 17-minute meditation that has more than 80,000 user reviews, ranking at 4.7 stars on a 5-star scale. For tips on how to get the most out of your meditation minutes, check out our article.


3. Moodfit
With Moodfit, users can customize daily goals, keep a mood journal, and even take standardized mental health assessments. The goal of this app is to help people understand what they’re feeling, and why they’re feeling it. Users have access to weekly and monthly reports that summarize activities and help to identify patterns of behavior and mood change. Verywell Mind, an online mental health publication, selected Moodfit as the best overall mental health app of 2021. If you’re not looking to add another app to your phone or tablet just yet, check out the Moodfit blog for helpful tips and tricks.

Setting aside just 10 minutes a day to intentionally focus on yourself can make a huge difference, and can help lead to habits that improve your overall well-being and decrease feelings of burnout.