LTRC Roundtable: What Apps Do You Use to Achieve Mental and Physical Well-Being?

Our Panelist: Michael Golder (MG), Alan Klevan (AK), Debra Bruce (DB), Allison C Johs (ACJ), Michele Carney (MC), Sarah Gold (SG), Mark Rosch (MR), Michael D.J. Eisenberg (MDJE), Brett Burney (BB).

What Apps Do You Use to Achieve Mental and Physical Well-Being?

MDJE: The function I use for mental wellbeing is the "power off" switch (doesn’t happen often unless I am asleep). I turn off my phone, laptop, computer, etc. And just break away from the world. For my physical wellbeing, I use my Apple Watch and Apple Fitness app along with my Weight Watchers app to try to keep my weight at a healthy number (still fighting the COVID-19). Nothing is perfect, as they say, it’s not the goal but the journey for a healthy self!

AK: I don’t think there is a lawyer practicing today who does not have some kind of stress. Be it stress from their practice, or stress at home, stressors are always present. For me, I am working on my emotional well-being at the moment and will soon concentrate on my physical well-being. Presently, the app I use is called “UCLA Mindful.” What I love about this app is that it provides a host of basic meditations ranging from three minutes to thirty minutes. It also provides a timer so you can set the length of your own mindfulness session. The app also provides mindful meditations for those suffering from difficult health conditions, as well as weekly mindfulness recordings. The app also supports meditations in many languages. I use it every morning before I begin to work to put myself in a “good place.” For apps I will use to support my physical goals, while I belong to Planet Fitness, which has the “Planet Fitness Workouts” app, I have been recommended “Fitbod: Gym and Fitness Planner.”

DB: For my mental well-being, I have an annual subscription to the “Calm” app. It has daily 10-minute meditation/mindfulness practices by a few regular contributors. In addition to those, the app has various other meditation, relaxation, or wisdom segments of varying lengths to address particular situations, such as reducing stress or anxiety, improving focus, and overcoming burnout. For help in falling asleep or getting back to sleep the app has “sleep stories.” They are read in a calm and relaxing voice, and last an average of 30 minutes, at which time they shut themselves off. They are not the kind of stories with plot tension, so they don’t create an urge to stay awake until the end. They just provide enough gentle focus of my attention to shut out my monkey mind. There are also soundscapes of soothing background music or nature sounds to play in the background for work, for relaxation, or at bedtime. Those are just a few of the features of the “Calm” app, and they continually add new content.

For physical well-being, I use “Water Reminder” to track my fluid intake and to be reminded to drink more. I use “Yuka” to scan barcodes on groceries, toiletries and cosmetics to find out whether they contain harmful ingredients. Yuka rates the product with a numeric score as well as an excellent, good, poor, or bad evaluation. Just click for more detail on their reasoning and the type of worrisome ingredients in the product. At one point I used “My Fitness Pal” to track what I ate, but after 2-3 months I was really tired of that level of input and felt I had a good picture of my habits. My watch has built-in apps for tracking my exercise, steps, heart rate, and other health parameters.

MDG: I do not use any apps for mental well-being specifically. For health, tho, I do use the iPhone’s built-in “health” app to track my steps, since I try to get in 4-6k of steps as a daily average. Walking for me has been and continues to be my main exercise, and this app provides a pretty accurate history going back years.

MC: I use the Calm app on a regular basis. This app, along with yoga and meditation has taught me the secret of being able to clear my mind with breathing and focus on emptying the mind of clutter thoughts. Although this question is app based, I also think stepping away from all devices and engaging with friends, challenging yourself to a new adventure or just doing what you love are important components of maintaining mental health. 

ACJ: I couldn’t agree more, Michele - it’s smart to remember that while technology can certainly help us by providing us with better data and easier ways of tracking that data, as well as workouts and meditation aids at our fingertips, stepping away from technology sometimes is extremely helpful.

That being said, one of my biggest personal health challenges is getting enough sleep, so one of my favorite apps is the Oura app, which works with my Oura ring to tell me how much total sleep I get each night, and how much is REM and deep sleep. It also monitors my breathing, heart rate, and other vitals while I sleep to give me information that can help me determine what’s keeping me from getting good sleep and track whether changes I am making are making a difference. Oura also keeps track of my steps, activity, daytime and workout heart rate, and stress level throughout the day, giving me valuable insights to help me stay healthy. It will even alert me if my vitals show I might have a cold coming on.

The Oura app provides some tools for my mental well-being, including guided meditations in the app, but I don’t frequently use those features, preferring other apps and methods for those purposes. I like the Insight Timer app, which includes simple timers for meditation, as well as guided mindfulness and meditation exercises of all different lengths. They also offer various music options to accompany your meditation sessions, some instrumental only, some with chanting, and more.

Finally, I use an app called The Movement which includes workouts with affirmations as well as guided meditations.

MR: I use my generic health ring in a lot of the same ways, Allison. I wanted to see how long and how well I was sleeping, along with heart rate, blood pressure, and blood oxygen levels while I was working out. I started with the generic ring to see how diligent I’d be about wearing it - and reviewing the information - before committing to the more expensive Oura.

One drawback to the ring for me while I’m working out, is having to refer to my phone to check heart rate, blood pressure, and blood oxygen levels. It was the inconvenience of having to take my phone out of my pocket, navigate to the app, and interrupt my streaming music to see what was going on. The “Functional Workout” feature of the Apple Watch keeps most of the basic information I want to see as close as a flick of the wrist. I can log into the ring’s SmartHealth app later to do a deeper dive.

The SleepWatch app gives me more detailed information on my sleep time than the app on my ring. In addition to breaking down the kinds of sleep I’m getting, as Allison described, the watch app also gives me more detailed information on heart rate (and heart rate change) and breathing while I’m asleep. One drawback is that I have to wear my watch to bed, though.

SG: For mental health, I make sure I do certain things every day, including two language apps (Duolingo and Drops) and a journal (Daylio). However, I’m not one for doing physical health apps, mostly because I don’t like maintaining health information in the cloud. HIPAA runs strong with me, I won’t even opt in to our insurers’ offerings.

DB: For mental health, I wholly endorse the saying that “laughter is the best medicine.” Two apps that I like for good, clean chuckles are AVF (America’s Funniest Videos) and Dry Bar Comedy+. I also agree with Michele and Allison. Sometimes we just need to get away from technology. Yesterday I dealt with so many tech issues that I finally just had to get away. I shut down everything and went for my first Spring float in the pool. It did wonders for my attitude.

BB: A 20-minute nap does wonders for my day, but I always get nervous that I’ll oversleep. The Pzizz app guides me through an amazingly restful nap and I wake up refreshed and energized! 

Microsoft To Do is my task manager of choice because it lets me forget what I need to remember. I make a note of anything that runs through my head and give it a “due date” and then only add 3-4 tasks to the “My Day” list. When I get through those tasks, I had 3-4 more. It’s less overwhelming when I can just focus on the task in front of me. 

And lastly, I always try to close my 3 rings every day tracking this on my Apple Watch and iPhone.