Photo illustration by Katya Castillo
Sitting in a room all alone except for thoughts and feelings, a rush of emotional anxiety comes, and getting it out seems impossible.
For someone who experiences this, the solution might lie in the palm of their hand—their cell phone. It can be an electronic buddy and lifeline.
Cell phones are used for more than just calls and text messages. From keeping up with the latest news and social media trends to accessing personal bank accounts and doing school assignments, it’s a necessity in people’s lives.
Why not use it to find peace and clarity?
The Calm app, available for free, seeks to help users manage their mental health.
The app’s icon is a bright blue color with the word “calm” written in cursive, an enticing reason to open the app. Once opened, users are brought to a welcome page. At the top of the home page is a beautiful hillside mountain view with a blue sky. This image helps bring a peaceful vision of being in nature. The background image can be customized with any image the user wants.
Depending on the time of day, there will be a good morning, good afternoon or good evening message with a smile emoji. This is a fun feature that makes the app more personal to use.
At the bottom of the app there are five different icons. These include “For you,” which puts a user’s personal favorite meditation categories into one personalized section, “Sleep,” which is intended to help users fall asleep, “Meditate,” “Music” and “Search.”
Each section has different meditations and music for users to find the perfect meditation based on their mood or need.
The app offers a wide variety of meditations, including daily calm, sleep, anxiety, beginners, stress, work, self-care, inner peace, focus, relationships, personal growth and even meditations for children. This app covers many areas of life and makes it easy to find something to help get through one’s day or night.
For example, “How to Meditate,” narrated by Jeff Warren, is a great mediation intro for any beginner. Warren takes listeners through a simple 30-day program that teaches meditation skills and knowledge. The first meditation, “The Big Idea,” is free. The rest of the program is locked behind a paywall.
Warren walks listeners through a simple meditation. Water flows in the background as the meditation plays, which helps relax the mind and body. It brings a sense of peace and allows the mind to flow, aligning the mind, body and soul.
“It’s the practice of making space,” Warren said.
This meditation helps the listener become more aware of emotions and thoughts and teaches how to be present in the moment and just be still.
Another good feature is the ability to scroll down through the app from the homepage to quickly and easily find sections on mental fitness, sleep stories, recent sparks and daily calms.
The meditations range from five minutes to an hour. Many natural sounds also are included in the meditation, including the beach and rain themed meditations.
But most of the content is locked until you pay for the premium version of the app. The free version only gives a small sample. The premium fee is $69.99 per year, with a cancelation anytime option.
The app offers a seven-day free trial, which is a good option for users to see whether or not they enjoy it before paying for the premium version.
This app is just like its name—calm, cool and collected. It provides a boost for mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health and wellbeing.
It is worth it to keep Calm in one’s palm.
Calm is available on the iTunes App Store and on Google Play. It is also available on web browsers at calm.com.
