Spotlight_Vol 23_Issue_1

marriage, you’d attend counseling. A coach, on the other hand, assists you in prioritizing your life and goals but may not be qualified to navigate mental health issues. The internet has connected various communities in previously impossible ways. Many people who have specific challenges can find online support groups. A community helps people realize they’re not alone, and the people in the group can offer advice and an understanding of the issue. The internet is also an excellent tool for finding and enrolling in self-improvement workshops specific to an individual’s needs. Mindfulness apps are also excellent tools for practicing mental health. Here are five top-notch apps to help you focus your mind and attain a sense of peace. • Happyshift is a great gratitude journaling app for improving mental well-being. • Mindshift helps you tackle negative emotions and form healthy habits. • Headspace is a popular app for meditation and mindfulness that comes highly recom- mended across the internet. • Calm is a great meditation app designed to help through anxiety attacks and other influxes of negative emotions. • Jour: Journal for Mindfulness is a thorough journaling app that helps you track your mood over time and builds insightful reports. Use the Internet for Self-Improvement There’s an app for everything. Whether you want to be more organized, learn how to meditate, or

track your eating habits, it’s easy to find an app to assist you. With vast amounts of knowledge and an ability to connect to communities built upon your various interests, using the internet is an excellent way to improve yourself. When it comes to a healthy lifestyle, the internet has no shortage of advice, videos, and apps to help you out. There are many nutrition apps, such as Lifesum: Healthy Eating, which counts calories and educates you on your eating habits. Plenty of fitness apps encourage you to exercise daily as well. If you’re looking for a community built around healthy eating and staying in shape, no matter where you are, check out Fitness Blend- er’s website or YouTube channel. For yoga, try Daily Yoga or Yoga for Beginners, two apps built to help you practice daily. Before diving into too many fitness and nutrition apps at once, set a budget. There are many free options online and losing track of membership subscriptions is easy if you don’t keep a list of the services you’re paying for. Set your renewal dates in your calendar so you can cancel if you aren’t making the most of it. In addition to practicing your current skills, the internet is an ideal place to build new skills. With sites like Brilliant and Skillshare, you can discover a vast array of lessons that range from basic animation to astrophysics. Take online writing classes or learn to play an instrument. If you want to learn new skills, fold them into your daily routines so you’re prioritizing your time most effectively. If you want a new hobby, but you aren’t sure where to start, try searching for common hobbies you may want to try. Want to read more but hate carrying books? Not only can you read a book on any device now, but you can also listen to audiobooks on places like Audible. The portability of apps allows you to immerse yourself in a book whenever you feel like it.

Looking to connect with people who share your passion for pop culture or fantasy books? Utiliz- ing websites like Reddit allows you to find people with the same niche interests as you and form healthy social connections. From mental health subreddits to groups of folks who love astron- omy as much as you do, there’s something for everyone. Online gaming groups are also rife with opportunities to hang out with people who share your passions. By talking to others in your field of work or who share your interests, you may build up new business contacts, new friends, and new colleagues, which can take you to unexpect- ed and amazing places in life. Finding Balance with Technology You want to be able to utilize technology for your self-care, but you don’t want to be consumed by it. People tend to have difficulty focusing and depend on constantly checking their devices. Social media is the most common area where people waste time. They use the excuse, “I’m catching up with my friends,” but aren’t engaging with those friends meaningfully. The internet is a beautiful place to learn, grow, and improve, and with premium internet packages, you can have easy access to all the tools you need for an organized lifestyle. If you use it to fix a bit of boredom here and there, that’s fine. It may be time for a digital detox if you can’t go more than ten minutes without checking your screen. Try putting your phone in another room while you complete a task or turn it off completely. Too much screen time can leave you bored, dissatis- fied, depressed, or worse. Take a walk, chat with a friend over a coffee, or find a change in scenery that’s internet-free.

How To Organize Your Online Life Disorganization takes a toll on our mental health and our ability to stay productive. Apps bombard your phone with notifications, which clamor for your attention like a screaming child. This fatigues your sense of prioritization. When your phone pings a notification, you check it, and your focus on other tasks is interrupted. Turn off notifications for apps that distract you. If you miss a Facebook message for a few hours, the world will continue to turn. Declutter your digital space — your e-mail inbox is a prime place to start. Do you get a lot of advertise- ments? Unsubscribe from the next new ad you receive, then run a search for that company and delete their older emails. Keep similar programs together in folders for organizing your phone or desktop apps. Like organizing your home, everything should have its place. Manage Your Mental Health Decluttering your digital space removes a lot of the toxic noise vying for your attention. While you remove the bad, consider finding more of the good. Plenty of downloadable apps targeted toward mental health can help you reign in some of the chaos in your life. A therapist is licensed and has studied mental health. These professionals are ideal for folks who experience depression, anxiety, and many other struggles. A therapist can teach you coping methods that’ll aid you as you go throughout your day. Counseling or coaching sessions are often used synonymously with therapy, but the three have fundamental differences. Counseling focuses on a specific issue. If you wanted to improve your

107 VOL 23 ISSUE 1 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE

106 SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • VOL 23 ISSUE 1

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