CRAZE
OR
CRAZYAPPS FOR CRAVINGS, FERTILITY, AND MORE
HELP FOR “EVERYDAY
ADDICTIONS”
Coping with cravings is one
of the stickiest aspects of
fighting addiction, but a new
suite of apps may help. Digital
therapeutics company Mind-
Sciences has launched three
extensively researched and
tested apps for habit change.
Helping users understand
and unhook from the brain’s
harmful habit loops, the DrJud
apps offer interventions for
what neuroscientist (and
mindfulness expert) Judson
Brewer, the eponymous DrJud
and founder of MindSciences,
calls “everyday addictions”:
anxiety, emotional eating, and
smoking.
ABORIGINAL
MINDFULNESS
Traditional women healers
in South Australia part-
nered with developers from
nonprofit Smiling Mind to
produce an app that draws
on both Aboriginal wisdom
and Western psychology
to bolster mental health in
Indigenous communities. The
app offers guided practices
and songs in three local lan-
guages: Kriol, Ngaanyatjarra,
and Pitjantjatjara.MEDITATION FOR
MOMS-TO-BE
For yoga teacher—and
now mom—Chrissy Carter,
meditating helped her movethrough her grief after losing
her first pregnancy. With
understanding and compas-
sion around fertility strug-
gles, Carter crafted Fertility
Meditations—hosted by the
Meditation Studio app—to
help others find peace on
their unpredictable journeys
to motherhood.CALM REACHES
“UNICORN” STATUS
Earlier this year, Calm was
the first mindfulness app
company to skyrocket to a $
billion value, thereby becom-
ing, in business-speak, a
“unicorn.” (Hey, we’re not say-
ing mindfulness is magic, but
it sure is making waves.)JEDI MINDFUL
TRICK
If sparring like
a Jedi Knight is
your calling, well,
there’s a school for
that: Sabre Mas-
ters, in Leicester-
shire, UK. Instruc-
tors start class
with a mindfulness
practice—though
it’s less about
using the Force
and more about
attention to safety.LASER FOCUS
Flag Tag AZ, a
laser tag center in
Flagstaff, Arizona,
recently hosted
a meditation-
and-laser-tag
workshop. The
battle included
“meditation micro-
hits” along with
teacher-led mind-
fulness sessions.IN THE
TETRIS ZONE
According to
research, when
worry creeps up on
you, try playing Tet-
ris: a study found
the tile-matching
game may help
to ease anxiety.
Participants who
played Tetris at
regular speed—
rather than pain-
fully slow or fast
games—reached a
“flow” state, which
allowed them to
relax while waiting
for test results.14 mindful August 2019
top of mind