http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/16/business/positive-thinking-with-a-little-help-from-your-phone.html 2014-10-15 19:44:47 Positive Thinking, With a Little Help From Your Phone A roundup of apps to help you get happy, or at least figure out what is stressful in your life. === At dinner with friends recently the conversation turned to things that were stressing us out. Yes, it was one of those moody evenings. But it ended up being upbeat because someone asked the inevitable “I wonder if there’s an app for that” question. And it turns out there are lots of apps to help you think positively or aim at happiness, and we all had fun examining them on our phones. Happify is perhaps the most sophisticated positive vibes app available now. The idea of this Happify, which claims its technique is based on science, starts by asking you some thought-provoking questions about your life and your goals in using the app. Then it recommends some tracks for you, and within a few taps you’ve begun. Each track contains bite-size quizzes, games and activities that guide you to seeing more positive aspects of your daily life. For example, one activity may ask you to list a few things you’re grateful for at home, another will get you to notice positive words in a game where you lose points by clicking on negative words. The app also regularly helps you assess your happiness level, that way pointing out how you can feel more positive merely by changing your habits. There’s also a community page in the app where you can see inspirational comments by other users and even upload your own — though you don’t have to use this page. The app is fun and definitely draws my attention to the happier side of life. Perhaps Happify’s only drawback is that while it’s free to download and use, access to its full range of activities costs $13 a month or $70 a year. It’s also only for iOS devices. Other apps use a different route to developing positive thinking habits: repeated affirmation. These apps simply expose you repeatedly to motivational ideas, quotes and suggestions. On iOS, Positive Thinking by On Android the app Positive Thinking by Juniper Islet has a very similar goal, but offers extras like being able to add your own motivational quotes to its archive and to push quotes onto an Android widget so you can read them without opening the app. It’s also Another approach to thinking positively is to track your moods so you can either notice what makes you feel glum or simply be more aware of when you think positively. The app iMoodJournal on iOS, which When you’ve accumulated enough entries, the app presents some analytics in the form of graphs that show your positivity over time. This could help you plan strategies to be more positive. The T2 Mood Tracker app is a rough equivalent on If you prefer a more meditative approach to positive thinking, check out Smiling Mind, a free Depending on the goal of the program, like breathing control or body awareness, each track asks you to think about your habits or past in different ways. Clearly meditation is a very personal experience, and your mileage may vary, but I found the app fascinating and relaxing. Quick Call Reflect+ is a new special effects app for iOS devices that quickly and easily transforms ordinary snaps into magical images by adding a fake reflection effect. It’s as if the subject of the original photo were at the edge of a lake or ocean, or even a sheet of ice or metal. Fun, and just