In this day and age, I suppose you could be an AI bot scanning this article for machine learning purposes, but I’m going to believe the best and assume you’re a human. And as humans, none of us is immune to stress.
The cause might be a work project, moving house, having a baby, or any number of other life events. That feeling in your chest, your brain becoming overwhelmed, or tension in your stomach are just some of the symptoms that alert us to something not being quite right.
I’ve long been a fan of breathing techniques to help manage anxiety and stress, and have recently found the Lungy app helping me unwind in new ways. Another app that has given me tools to manage stress is called Bear Room.
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This is part of a regular series of articles exploring the apps that we couldn’t live without. Read them all here.
It’s a neat little app that delivers a range of science-based practices, including breathing, tapping, humming, affirmation, micro-meditations, therapeutic soundscapes, and more. The combination of these is designed to support you before, during, and after moments of stress.
(Image credit: Future / Paul Hatton)
Stress relief from the very first second
As soon as I opened the app for the first time, the first thing that hit me was the relaxing music that was playing in the background. It was beautifully calming and helped to set the tone for engaging in some mindfulness and breathing exercises.
If you find sound to be a powerful stress reliever, then Bear Room also has a dedicated section devoted to it. You can choose to be transported into any number of locations, each with its own bespoke soundscape. These include the Awakening Dawn and the Path Beneath the Bridge, with each one tailored towards relaxation, focus, mindfulness, and more.
Let me draw you back into the room, though, or the Bear Room, to be more precise. The heart of the app is this affectionately named room where a cute little bear lives. The room contains a range of different interactive objects, with each one providing access to an activity to help relieve stress.
The first is a cushion where you can describe your feelings via emotion card, text, or voice, and the built-in AI instantly recommends the best-suited practice sequence for getting you back into a happier state. These practices include muscle relaxation, breathing exercises, and even self-massage.
The room also includes a support letters section where you can write to other Bear Room users, affectionately called Bear Roomies, and receive kindness back. Additionally, there is quick access to Singing Bowl Breathing, Blossoming Affirmations, and Tea’s Aroma Breathing. I appreciate these names might seem a little odd and abstract, but once you get used to the environment of the room and the features, it is the familiarity of these odd names that helps you destress quickly.
(Image credit: Future / Paul Hatton)
Much more than just a stress-relief room
But Bear Room is much more than just the physical room that the bear lives in. Through the Library tab, you can access a list of all the individual Practices as well as sets, which combine Practices together into longer forms of stress relief.
One of my favorite Sets is called Quiet a Busy Mind. In just under ten minutes, the app guides you through a forest walk meditation, a breathing exercise called Tea’s Aroma, and a mindfulness exercise designed to help you affirm yourself. Having gone into the exercises pretty stressed, I was glad to exit them feeling a lot better. There are a number of these sets designed for different purposes, including calming exam nerves, airport anxiety release, and even one to help avoid procrastination.
Along with the room, practices, sets, and meditations, there is also a progress tracker that lets you do exercises, log your mood, earn rewards, get analytics, and spot triggers. It’s not the strongest motivator, but it’s nice to know when you’re doing well or when you need to up your game. You can also collect paper cranes, one per day, which unlock access to customizable items that you can then add to your Bear Room.
(Image credit: Future / Paul Hatton)
Get instant stress relief for yourself
The free version of Bear Room provides a limited experience, and I would expect most users to quickly run out of features to help them. The premium version unlocks more stress relief practices and sets tailored to challenges, access to the AI engine, as well as analytics and personal insights.
You can subscribe to Bear Room Premium for $2.99/£6 per month or $29/£29 per year. There is also a free week-long trial that gives you access to everything on offer, so you can decide whether it’s an app that’s going to work for you.
If you’re looking to lower your anxiety and stress levels or boost your focus and productivity, then I’d recommend giving Bear Room a try. It’s easy to use, effective, and pretty affordable.
Bear Room is available to download on Apple and Android.
