Our strenuous lifestyles do not allow enough flexibility or quality time for ourselves. With life moving at such a rapid pace, increasing work load at your job can cause mental fatigue / tiredness, which can be linked to increasing stress related problems that are common nowadays. Our stress factor may have multiplied due to increasing use of social media apps like Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter that can become very addictive. On the flip side, the same technology offers us various apps, for both iOS and Android, to dissociate ourselves from this stressful condition; some of these apps are discussed below:

1) Plasticity (Free)

This app aims to fix work related stress problems on a daily basis by engaging you to share one aspect of your job that makes you feel satisfied. It offers short training videos to help cultivate a healthy relationship between you and your colleagues, as well as ensuring workplace happiness at the same time. It offers an intuitive and simple interface, with no steep learning curve. For iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id910863962 & Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.plasticitylabs.android

2) Relax melodies (Free)

Stress is known to cause insomnia and sleeplessness in a lot of people, which can also impact their health in the long run. Thanks to this app, with a variety of soothing sounds to choose from, you can mix and match them to make you sleep peacefully. Lay back, listen and enjoy falling asleep. Besides using it as a sleeping aid, you can use it for your favourite activities such as while doing yoga or in massage sessions or even making your baby fall asleep! For iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/relax-melodies-sleep-zen-sounds/id314498713?mt=8 & Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ipnossoft.rma.free&hl=en_GB

3) Gratitude Journal / Attitudes of Gratitude (iOS $2.99 and Android Free)

These journaling apps for both iOS and Android allow you to record your highlights of the day, list down those that you are grateful for. It will allow you to look back into these recorded gratitude journals whenever you are feeling down and help you in focusing away from things that you may be missing in your life. For iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/gratitude-journal-original!/id299604556?mt=8 & Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=no.vistamedia.grattitude&hl=en

4) Pacifica (Free download, with in-app purchases)

Pacifica offers daily tools for stress and anxiety, which are based on cognitive therapy and meditation. It allows you to track your mood as it changes throughout the day, offers relaxation techniques, a thought diary that can identify and correct distorted thinking patterns, and tracking your health, etc. It offers you ways to ward off your stressful state and feel holistic in the longer term. For iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/pacifica-anxiety-stress-depression/id922968861?mt=8 & Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pacificalabs.pacifica&hl=en_GB

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine May 22nd, 2016