The 6 Best Completely Free Health Apps From Nonprofits - MUO

The 6 Best Completely Free Health Apps From Nonprofits - MUO unknown

Almost everyone has a health app or two on their phone. While your phone probably comes with a default health app, there are plenty of other options that you can choose from.

While many of these apps come with a price tag, there are also plenty of completely free options available from nonprofit organizations. These apps are designed to help users improve their physical and mental health, track their fitness goals, manage chronic conditions, and improve their overall wellbeing.

Here are six of the best completely free health apps from nonprofits.

1. MindShift - Anxiety Canada

Mindshift is an excellent health app from Anxiety Canada, a registered nonprofit organization that offers self-help resources and aims to create more awareness about anxiety. The Mindshift app helps you track your moods and allows you to better understand your feelings over time.

There's a slider on the home page that you can use to track your anxiety. It can even show you a graph over the last few days about how anxious you've been, making it easier to track your anxiety levels and identify patterns.

For people who wish to better understand anxiety in general, the app offers plenty of informative resources, such as identifying causes and taking action.

There are also tools available that you can use, such as a tool for positive thinking, breathing exercises, and even visualization exercises.

Download: MindShift for iOS | Android (Free)

2. PTSD Coach - VA USA

PTSD Coach is one of several apps released by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). It is an app that's designed for users to help them manage their post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and to seek help when needed.

One of its best features is that it allows you to track your PTSD symptoms by answering a series of questions and logging the results. There's also a small self-screening quiz to help you better understand if what you're experiencing is related to PTSD or not.

The app offers a myriad of tools to help people better manage their symptoms, including:

• Ambient sounds
• Meditative exercises
• Information about nearby events or relevant places, such as a shop or a hardware store
• Inspiring quotes
• Relaxation exercises

For people who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or find it difficult to balance their moods properly, this is an excellent app.

Download: PTSD Coach for iOS | Android (Free)

3. Mindfulness Coach - VA USA

Mindfulness Coach is another fantastic health app by the VA. It's one of the best free meditation apps to help you practice mindfulness and control your thoughts.

You can practice mindfulness using the app through a series of exercises. There's also a dedicated section for resources to help you better understand the benefits of mindfulness and understand how you can practice it in everyday life.

There's also a progress tracker that you can use to regularly practice mindfulness and chart your progress, allowing you to evaluate your progress based on different levels.

It features a range of exercises, including seated and standing, as well as various breathing techniques too. This is a great app for people on the go, as most of the exercises are a minute or two in length.

Download: Mindfulness Coach for iOS | Android (Free)

4. Headspace - Headspace Health

While Headspace is a for-profit organization, it also has a nonprofit arm, which is why they're on this list. Headspace is a really popular meditation app that offers an array of breathing and meditation exercises.

If you've been suffering from anxiety or find it difficult to sleep properly, this is a great app. There are different exercises available for various parts of the day, including techniques for improving your focus, movement, and more.

One of the best things about Headspace is that they offer dedicated exercises for different people, such as meditative exercises for parents, teenagers, professionals, and others.

From mindful eating to managing your breathing properly, Headspace has lots to offer. It even features training sessions and lessons from popular media personalities.

Download: Headspace for iOS | Android (Free, in-app purchases available)

5. Healthy Minds Program - Healthy Minds Innovation

The Healthy Minds Program is an excellent health app that offers various programs to help people improve mindfulness. It offers a range of different programs, starting from building a foundation all the way to learning how to manage physical pain and discomfort.

The Healthy Minds Program offers exercises and training sessions to help relieve stress, improve mindfulness, and also includes guided and unguided mediations (both short and long).

You can favorite your commonly used meditations, track your performance, and use different tools like practice timers to improve your meditation. For people who are always on the go and need to improve their focus, this is a great app.

It features practice meditations starting from simple one-minute lessons going all the way to 30-minute sessions that you can perform before you sleep. The app uses an interactive "path" to help you slowly build your way up, starting from smaller lessons.

As you work your way up, the lessons and the number of meditations also increase. The guided lessons are some of the best that you'll find, making it an excellent choice for people who want to use technology to practice mindfulness-based stress reduction.

Download: Healthy Minds for iOS | Android (Free)

6. 29k: Mental Health & Wellbeing - 29k

The name '29k' is derived from a calculation stating that on average, every person has 29,000 days to live. The app wants you to make the best of each day available to you.

It offers courses, challenges, dedicated meditations, exercises, tests, and it even has a tracker so that you can check in daily and track your moods. Unlike other apps on the list, this one even contains lessons in different languages, such as French or Ukrainian.

Whether you need guided meditations for coping with different events in your life, such as loss or grief, or need an app to help you better understand, and deal with stress, 29k has all of it.

There are even community features, allowing you to find different groups in app, arrange a call with them, and support each other by meeting once a week. For people who find it difficult to stick to exercise, this might be an excellent option.

Download: 29k for iOS | Android (Free)

Use These Apps to Lead a Healthy Life

Every person walks their own path, especially when it comes to personal growth. Apps such as these just make the journey a bit easier.

From tracking your thoughts to leading a healthier life, these apps from nonprofits are designed to help you improve your quality of life. However, while these are great for improving your mental and physical health, sleep quality is also equally important.

You may want to consider using a dedicated sleep tracking app to improve and build a healthy circadian rhythm too.