The Pursuit of Appiness

**In certain situations, your smartphone can be a lifeline. In other respects, it can be something of a bad influence. **Feeling hungry? Fast food is just a phone call away? Feeling lazy? Ditch the gym and cue up another episode of 24 on Netflix. Feeling tired? Having your work emails directed to your handset probably isn’t going to lead to complete relaxation.

It doesn’t have to be this way, however. Instead of letting your mobile device corrupt your lifestyle, why not make it work towards your wellbeing. This can be achieved in a few easy steps. Firstly, delete those pizza delivery numbers from your contacts. Secondly, leave work at work. Lastly, check your app store, and turn your smartphone into your very own lifestyle coach.

Make exercise fun

As the old cliché goes, a healthy body equals a healthy mind. Whether you want to shed a pound or two, or just to be a little more active in your daily life, you’ll find you can take the chore out of exercise by making a game of it. With Nexercise installed, you can log your daily activities and weight updates to see your improvements over time. Enjoy the rewards and encouragements of the app, or add your friends to compare progress. We recommend that you don’t see exercise as work – make it fun.

Munch your way to happiness

Getting active is a great start to a ensuring a healthier you, but it’s more effective when combined with a proper diet. We’re not suggesting that you should eat less, just eat more of the good stuff. As with exercise, healthy eating can be tough to stick to, and you’re more likely to succeed if you make it social. With The Healthy Food Network, you can connect with other healthy eaters to collect recipes, build shopping lists, are share helpful tips. Be truly social by posting your progress on Facebook, and you may just inspire a few of your friends to follow your lead.

Train your brain

With your body taken care of, continue your journey to a healthy mind with an introduction to meditation. The Headspace app is a great place to start; it’s championed Emma Watson so you’re sure to be in good company with this one. Headspace introduces you to your new best friend, Andy Puddicombe, who leads you through a series of guided meditations geared towards health and happiness. Covering a series of topics such as relationships, stress and creativity, the relaxing tutorials and charming animations on board are sure to lead to a happier you. It’s like a big hug for your mind.

The importance of 40 winks

Finally, any doctor will tell you that one of the most important things you need to ensure a healthy, happy life is a good night’s sleep. Those who have trouble switching off may be interested to learn that white noise can subdue an over-active brain. Relax Melodies offers a library of 46 relaxing sounds which you can mix together to create the right ambience for you. Whether you fancy the lull of a flute, or the background noise of rain on a roof, Relax Melodies is sure to find the perfect audio to make your eyelids grow heavy. Luckily it also features an alarm function to wake you up when naptime is over.

Changing the habits of a lifetime

So why not put all that time spent on your smartphone to good use? We challenge you to use one of our recommended apps for a month, and see just how much happiness potential there is locked away in your handset.

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