World Mental Health Day: How to use your Apple Watch for your mental wellbeing

Each year, Oct. 10 is celebrated as World Mental Health Day. With the emphasis on mental wellbeing, wearables like smartwatches are gaining traction. Apple Watch is one popular smartwatch for tracking mental wellbeing using various features. On this occasion, Apple has a limited edition award, which can be earned by the users. To receive the award, users need to complete 10 minutes of mindfulness using any app that integrates with the Health app on iPhone, including the Mindfulness app on Apple Watch.

On the occasion of World Mental Health Day, here are some more tips to improve your mental wellbeing using features in the Apple Watch.

Boost Your Mental Health with Apple Devices

Here are a few ways you can use your Apple Watch, iPhone, or iPad to improve your wellbeing:

Track Moods and Emotions

Studies show that reflecting on your emotions helps build emotional awareness and resilience. The State of Mind feature on Apple devices allows users to log their momentary emotions and daily moods, offering insights into how factors like sleep and exercise impact your mental state.

Take Mental Health Assessments

Apple’s iPhone and iPad offer access to clinical assessments for depression and anxiety. These assessments help you understand your mental health and can be shared with healthcare providers to facilitate more informed discussions.

Monitor Time in Daylight

Research indicates that spending 15–30 minutes outdoors can reduce stress and improve mood. Apple Watch’s ambient light sensor tracks your time spent in daylight, with data available in the Health app. For family members with a managed Apple Watch, you can also monitor how much time they spend outdoors.

Using Journal App

The Journal app allows users to capture life’s moments through text, photos, videos, and audio. Journaling has been shown to improve mental health, and Apple’s on-device machine learning provides personalized suggestions to encourage regular reflection and gratitude.

Focus

The Focus feature helps users reduce distractions and set boundaries. It allows you to silence notifications for specific activities like work or sleep, and customize which notifications come through. You can also schedule Focus to turn on automatically at certain times or locations.