8 Ways to Use the Calm App

If you’ve read my post, 28 Coping Strategies for Anxiety, then you know how much I love Calm! I am not sponsored by Calm in any shape-or-form, but I think it is a great app! Calm is an app that focuses on helping people meditate, sleep, and relax.* I personally think that this is a great app for everyone, but especially people who are hoping to improve their mental, emotional, and physical health.

Calm has great free resources on their website: daily gratitude journals, mental fitness training guides, and a lot more. They also have a YouTube channel with a bunch of free meditations, stories, and more. 

There is a free 1-week trial period and then the cost to use the app is $14.99/month. That's quite a lot of money for some people... but did you know that some insurances will cover this cost? Check with your health care provider to see if they will cover the cost to use Calm. 

Now that you have Calm, here are 8 ways you can use the app:

1. Meditate

• There are many guided meditations that you can listen to on this app! There is the Daily Calm, which is a 10-minute guided meditation. The meditations often focus on breathing, body scanning, and mindfulness. Meditation is a great way to manage anxiety and stress. 

2. Sleep

• One of my favorite parts of the app is the focus on sleep. Sleep is so important! There are sleep stories, sleep meditations, music for sleep, and soundscapes for sleep. These are all great options if you have difficulty falling asleep. You can also choose the duration... 10-60 minute sleep focused meditations and stories. 

3. Coping with anxiety

• There are several categories in the Calm app (sleep, meditation, music, stories, and more). In each of these categories there are sub categories including anxiety and stress. This is a great opportunity to manage your anxiety and focus on relaxing your body. 

4. Relaxing

• If you just need a couple minutes to relax this is a great app to use. There are many calming sounds and meditations that enable the user to relax. 

5. Listen to music

• You can even listen to calming music by popular artists such as Katy Perry, Post Malone, Shawn Mendes, and Ariana Grande! 

6. Listen to stories

• As I mentioned before, there is a category on the app for sleep stories. There are different types of sleep stories too! Most of the stories are anywhere from 30-40mins. There are some stories with celebrity narrators: Harry Styles, Matthew McConaughey, and Mandy Moore.

7. Listen to sounds

• Calm calls this category Soundscapes. These sounds include sounds of lakes, rain, waterfalls, rivers, fireplaces, beaches and many more. The great part about this feature is that you can play it as long as you’d like. You can listen to these nature sounds during studying, before you go to bed, or anytime you want!

8. Journaling

• There is an awesome feature on Calm where you can daily journal your feelings. This is a great feature because it can show you how your feelings have changed day-to-day or week-to-week

There are many other ways you can use this app- you can listen while exercising and driving just to name a few. I hope that this insight on Calm was helpful! I know that you are going to do great things!

References

*https://www.calm.com/blog/about