How to Turn Your Smartphone Into a Wellness Hub

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TL;DR: Discover how to turn your smartphone into a wellness hub by creating healthy habits with apps and curated online subscriptions that focus on mental, physical, and emotional well-being. 

Do you ever feel anxious about all the time you stare at screens? You're not alone.

The numbers are growing more daunting each year with the average American logging around seven hours of screen time every day.

Balancing out social media scrolls and work emails with physical activities can be tough, but you can find ways to create healthy habits with your phone or computer by subscribing to workout programs and signing up for wellness apps and courses. 

By curating an ideal roster of supportive platforms and health-conscious solutions, you can turn your phone into a solid wellness hub, helping transform some of that screen time into something restorative without doing a full digital detox. 

What Constitutes a "Wellness" App?

If you set out to curate a better-for-you selection of smart apps and online activities, it's important to be open-minded about what they find healthy and meaningful. You can find tools and platforms that are committed to specific mental and physical goals and others that you can tie more indirectly to your overall health, wellness, and digital well-being. 

A Straightforward Wellness Approach

StackSocial and the Internet at large host many fantastic platforms and services that offer mental, emotional, and physical wellness support. 

For example, if you struggle with stress, focus, or anxiety, the Mindabout personalized mindfulness app might be an ideal addition to your home screen. With features and sessions covering sleep, developing healthy habits, happiness, LGBT issues, and more, you can customize your journey.

Here are a few more wellness options for the mind: 

NeuroNation Brain Training: A training tool for your memory and logical thinking—the main components of your intelligence and overall wellness. With just 15-minute sessions, it can cover the neuro boosters needed to improve your focus and speed of thought over time. 

Unplug Meditation App: This wellness app has been featured by The New York Times and Vogue for its fantastic curation of over 800 meditation videos, and led by more than 80 of the most renowned teachers in the world. 

The Essential Mind Hacking Bundle: This online course series, led by highly rated professional speakers, coaches, and trainers, focuses on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to encourage positive thinking and break self-sabotaging patterns.

Workout Apps and Subscriptions for Your Smartphone Wellness Hub

When it's time to get out of your head and break a sweat, you can turn your smartphone into your own personal trainer by curating a selection of fitness courses and wellness apps for your needs and routine.

Here are some of our favorites: 

• Verv Premium Home Workout Planner: A thoughtful planner that takes the guesswork out of how to get in shape. With it you can pull pre-loaded workouts for losing weight, running and walking, as well as meal plans,
   meditation guides, and more.
• Jillian Michaels: The Fitness App: This popular option includes a full workout video catalog of celebrity fitness trainer Jillian Michaels. Its 1,000+ exercise videos range in difficulty from beginner to advanced, and users can select their own fitness goals on the platform to work towards.
• YogaDownload Unlimited: Subscribers of this wellness app can enjoy unlimited access to the content and downloads, which means you can turn off that pesky Wi-Fi to stretch and pose free of distractions. Includes over 1,500 online yoga and fitness classes.
• CardioCast Audio Workout: CardioCast sets you up with a fitness coach who will create playlists to match your workouts down to the beat. It features workouts up to an hour long, and you can track progress via the Apple Health app, making it easier to stick to your routine and maintain healthy habits. 

Unexpected Wellness Solutions Available on Your Phone

In contrast to apps driven directly by mental health or physical health, perhaps you could benefit from an app that's focused on wellness-promoting subjects without being overtly wellness-driven.

For example, Plantum is an AI-driven plant identifier that can take an image and generate an in-depth breakdown of the plant being photographed and how to care for it. Subscribing to Plantum can counteract excessive screentime by inspiring you to get outside, garden, breathe fresh air, and perhaps even eat more vegetables. You can almost always benefit from a little digital detox. 

A few more examples of indirectly helpful wellness solutions available on your phone:

• Ancestral Quest Genealogy: A fun and unique wellness app for those who like to get more specific and thoughtful when meal and workout planning. Making it easy to build your family tree, the program can give you a good point of view on your family's medical history, perhaps inspiring you to take a DNA test, and even make lifestyle adjustments based on your findings.
• Trainer Certification Courses: Learn the science and inspiration behind your most valued workouts. These courses can also give you the tools you need to become your own personal trainer, informing future workouts and saving you money for years to come. 
• Headway Premium: This award-winning wellness app can turn personal growth into a healthy habit with its 15-minute summaries of the best nonfiction books. Available in audio or text summaries, you'll get a customizable and gamified approach to learning that keeps things fun.

Your Smartphone Wellness Hub: A Work in Progress

Just like scrolling the same social media feeds, using the same wellness apps over and over again can grow dull, making it hard to stay motivated. Use this guide as a jumping-off point, and you never have to stop refining your smartphone wellness hub. By keeping a fresh, rotating roster of apps and subscriptions, you can use your screentime to regularly add new healthy habits to your routine and boost your digital well-being.  

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