Australian men and women are turning to a mental health app to ease their anxiety and depression, paying just $14.99 a month for guided meditations, calming music and mindful movement.
Social media manager Sophie Ferguson, 27, first came across the app on Instagram while browsing through travel bloggers Marie Fe and Jake Snow’s account and decided to sign up to a trial.
‘I suffer from anxiety in the sense that I get overwhelmed very easily by environmental triggers,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
‘I have a fast paced, stressful job and I’m hugely empathetic so I take on other people’s emotions really easily and adopt to different environments really quickly.
Social media manager Sophie Ferguson, 27, first came across the app on Instagram while browsing through Marie Fe and Jake Snow’s account and decided to sign up to a trial
Bloom, which is owned by lifestyle content creators Marie and Jake (pictured) as well as Alya Skin creators Manny Barbas and James Hachem, amassed 60,000 new users in Australia three months after launching in 2019
‘If something is stressful, it will hit me really quickly. I suppose I was looking for some tools to help quieten my busy mind. A space where I could take five minutes for myself to calm down.’
Bloom, which is owned by lifestyle content creators Marie and Jake as well as Alya Skin creators Manny Barbas and James Hachem, amassed 60,000 new users in Australia three months after launching in 2019.
Its much-loved features include guided meditation videos, breathwork exercises to aid relaxation, calming exercises to help mindfulness, space for daily journaling and a dedicated sleep section including relaxing music and sleep tracking.
‘I’m a huge fan of the meditation time options. There’s a meditation for one minute which I can literally do sitting at my desk at work with headphones in when I feel overwhelmed or a 15-20 minute one when I have more time,’ Sophie said.
‘I also love the sleep features, you can pop them on to wind down and help yourself get to sleep peacefully.’
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‘I’m a huge fan of the meditation time options. There’s a meditation for one minute which I can literally do sitting at my desk at work with headphones in when I feel overwhelmed or a 15-20 minute one when I have more time,’ Sophie said
It has become a tool that Sophie can turn to at any point of the day because she carries it around on her phone.
‘Along with many other little things I do to keep my mental health in check, this is by far the one that has helped me the most,’ she said.
With one in five Australians reporting high levels of psychological distress since the Covid outbreak began in 2020, there are plenty of other Aussies getting just as much out of it as Sophie.
‘I’ve had anxiety since I was a teenager and have tried several different methods to help me manage and reduce my anxiety levels,’ one woman remarked.
‘Along with many other little things I do to keep my mental health in check, this is by far the one that has helped me the most,’ she said
‘Exercise works best for me but I’ve been looking to deepen the work I’m doing on myself and have tried meditating in the past.
‘I’ve never stuck to it because I’ve tried so many in the past and haven’t loved them and wanted to find one source I can use daily to increase my chances of committing and sticking to consistent meditating.
‘I’m seven days in to Bloom and have completed every daily task and I’m absolutely loving it.’
Another said: ‘I find it really hard to meditate because I’m either feeling lazy or impatient. Much the same as trying to keep physically fit… This app helps me keep mentally fit by offering meditation, mindfulness and helpful activities’.
Bloom can be downloaded on the App store with subscriptions starting at $14.99 a month – or 50 cents a day.
Source: Daily Mail
