I Tried the Smiling Mind App to See if It Could Help Me Stop Worrying Constantly

I need to chill. It's not just that I have an anxiety disorder, like around 19% of the American adult population, and it's not that my anxiety is particularly severe—I don't experience panic attacks, for instance—but it's constant. There's always something to worry about. Soon, I'm moving into a house that's a block from my best friend. Is this incredible news? Certainly. Yet, instead of being excited as I pack my belongings, I'm flooded with worries. I have too much stuff. My elderly cat won't survive the move. The new vet will be terrible. I won't be able to afford the rent increase. Just worry after worry after worry…

I also have ADHD. That means my brain operates very well in emergencies, and as a result, it makes everything an emergency. (I mean, how else would I get rid of the stuff I don't need if I didn't worry about having too much of it?) I know, logically, that my life is going well. My career is taking off. My cat is somehow still hanging in there. I have great friends. Yet, even with therapy, I can't shake the worries.

So, for one month, I tried Smiling Mind, an app, that like the Buddhify App teaches mindfulness and meditation techniques. It was created by an Australian nonprofit with the same name whose mission is "to provide accessible, life-long tools to support healthy minds.”

While I didn't emerge from the experience as the Zen master of my dreams, I will continue to use the app as I adjust to my new life across town. The app's streamlined design, well-constructed exercises, and customizable programming make it the best mental health app I've tried. It taught me what mindfulness means and how to incorporate meditation into my everyday life. I don't know if I'm less anxious, but I'm more aware of the tiny moments of joy sprinkled throughout my day.

My Experience With Smiling Mind

The good news is, Smiling Mind is an entirely free app that I could download on an Android or iOS phone—which I appreciated. I didn’t feel like I had to spend money to give it a try (or worry about a free trial running out before I was sure I wanted to throw money at it, like I might have had to do with one of its competitor apps, like Headspace or Calm).

Right from the start, it was clear that the app focuses exclusively on building mindfulness techniques. While most of these are auditory meditations, a few are also written exercises, such as directions on how to take a mindful walk. The Smiling Mind nonprofit wants to provide accessible tools to improve mental health across the lifespan, and its app does that through the combination of a vast quantity of high-quality exercises. In addition to the main programs for adults, like me, the app also has several programs designed for children and teens, as well as a whole series built to be used in schools.

I liked that it allowed me to choose how I wanted to use the app. I could choose whatever program—i.e. set of exercises aimed at developing a specific set of skills—I wanted to, and skip around to different programs as desired. 

There's a program for pretty much every situation, from helping you sleep to a series built for different types of commutes. I started with the two introductory programs: "An Intro to Mindfulness" and "Mindfulness Foundations." 

"An Intro to Mindfulness" started with three one-minute animations that covered the basics of mindfulness. The first one answered the question "What is mindfulness?" The second half of the program consisted of three meditations that taught me the basics of how to meditate. 

The second program, "Mindfulness Foundations," was much longer and broken down into nine modules. While most of them were meditations, there were also exercises such as journaling and thinking about where your food comes from before eating it. There was a clear structure to each program, but I was free to skip around between exercises. 

I could do as many exercises as I wanted on a given day, but I also found this to be one of the app's few faults: I would have liked a recommendation for how many exercises I should do per day to get the most benefit. While the app recommended doing 10 minutes of meditation per day, the exercises ranged from under a minute to over a half-hour in length, so that wasn't a useful guide. Fortunately, there was an option to save my favorite exercises so that I could go back to them.

My favorite exercise was "Are You Really Listening." It involved having a conversation with a friend while mindfully listening to them. The app had me sit down with a friend, ask them what makes them happy, and listen for three minutes. The challenge was not to try to come up with any responses or even think about whether I should be nodding or smiling. I had to just listen. This was invaluable. By asking "What makes you happy," I was able to practice this skill in a low-stress environment while learning more about my friend.

A Few Drawbacks

Not all of the activities I tried went as smoothly as “Are You Really Listening,” though. One of the things I learned from Smiling Mind is that I am terrible at mindfulness. One of the exercises entailed reminding myself that I am breathing every time I opened a door for one week. I failed miserably. I even tried writing "breath" on my arm in permanent marker to remind myself, but to no avail. I would inevitably cross through the door and a few moments later curse to myself as I remembered that I had forgotten to remember to breathe. I can't decide if the exercise itself was badly designed or if I was just terrible at it. Either way, I felt defeated at the end and wished the app offered some sort of troubleshooting list on what to do if you can't manage to remember that you are breathing. 

Another feature I felt was poorly implemented was the well-being check-In. 

Before each activity, I was presented with a short series of questions about my mood, such as whether I was agitated often or felt satisfied with my sleep. While these could have served as a way to measure my progress, they were instead a nuisance because they were asked before every single activity. While you can toggle these questions on or off, that option is buried in a systems menu that I didn't find until I started writing this article.

Pros and Cons

I’m glad I tried Smiling Mind because it helped me improve my mood and taught me some techniques to focus my mind. Still, it didn’t ease my worrying as much as I was hoping it would. Here are some of the benefits and downsides of using Smiling Mind.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I enjoyed my experience with Smiling Mind. I did start to feel a bit better over the course of the month. While I remained an anxious little being, the app helped me remember to be grateful for the little things in life: the food I eat, the rainstorm I got caught up in, and being a better listener for my friends. Maybe if I continue to use the app, I will learn to lower my anxiety. Regardless, I'm happy it helped me grow.

If you want to try mindfulness, I would highly recommend downloading the Smiling Mind app. With the exception of a few pesky features, the app delivers some of the best mental health content I've seen on a free app. It made my mind healthier. Each meditation on the app encourages you to leave "with a smile on your mind." I don't know if my mind can smile, but this app certainly left a smile on my face.