After The Signal’s story on the WellTrack app now being available for free to UHCL students, I decided it was only right to try this app and use it to track my own wellness as this year comes to an end. Follow my journey over the next few weeks by checking back regularly for updates.
Week One
Day 1 (Oct. 14)
Well, so far this certainly seems to have the potential to be just as addicting as Twitter, if not more. It started me off by having me take a “Wellness Assessment” in which it rated my depression, anxiety and stress. It seems to be a test that can be taken multiple times, with each assessment tracked (duh) so I can see my changes over time. All my levels (depression, anxiety and stress) came out as fine. Nice! Aside from this assessment, the addicting factor is the highly encouraged ‘MoodChecks’ which the app told me I should be doing throughout the day. In doing the checks, I choose what mood I am in, as well as what activity I am doing, who I am with, where I am, and then a final “Notes” section in which I actually type what is on my mind. If the options for mood, activity, people and place don’t fit what you would like to say, you can click “More” to create your own options. I already made my own options. This is proving to be quite fun. On my first day, I did a total of four mood checks. Let the journey begin.
Day 2 (Oct. 15)
Four has already gone to 10 as I have found myself mood checking very often today. As I have done so, however, I find that I am already creating new options due to the options for Mood, Activity, People and Place not fitting what I am doing, feeling or associating with. To do so is quite simple too. One simply clicks the ‘+More’ option and types a new option. So far my use of the app has only involved the mood checks and the one assessment I did. However, I do soon plan to try out the courses offered as well as the tools, which I am especially excited about. One of these tools, in particular, is ‘The Zen Room,’ in which I am provided an array of ambient tracks to do different kinds of meditation. As a practitioner of meditation, I am very much looking forward to trying this tool out.
Day 3 & 4 (Oct. 16-17)
As I’ve made the mood checks a habit, I found myself finally exploring other areas of the app, specifically the Zen Room. So far from what I have seen, it provides three ambient tracks based on natural settings: Waves, Organic, and Space. As a big fan of astronomy, I, of course, chose the space track. Along with these three tracks are an array of “Meditation Type” options one can choose to play with the track. These options are various audio recordings by a female voice instructing the listener on how to do certain meditations. Some of the meditations include “Traditional Deep Breathing” and “Increasing Awareness” (which is the mindfulness meditation I have been trying to perfect this year). I must say I can already feel the impact this app has had. It very much has a similar feeling of catharsis one gets from writing and journaling because I am documenting my emotions.
Overall first week impressions
Well, my first week consisted mostly of trying out the mood checks and occasional use of the Zen Room. I ended this week with 35 mood checks in total, averaging five checks a day. The mood checks are averaged to show how much I am happy or unhappy. After a week of mood checks, the app revealed that I am happy 64% of the time and in a bad mood 11% of the time. Everything else is in between. I seem to be happiest when I’m by myself.
What I have really taken away from the app during my first week of its use is that using the mood checks has allowed me to track and see when and what places are most likely to put me in a bad mood. I certainly feel more mindful and ready for emotions I am likely to have. As I said before the app definitely seems to act as an extension of journaling.
On that note, I am wondering how the “Thought Diary” tool will be. Overall I would say the biggest takeaway I have from my first week of using the app is knowing where I am likely to feel positive and negative emotions. How I use this info is what I will look into next, and I’m certain WellTrack will play a role in my decision.
Week Two
Journey through the three boxes
As I continued my exploration of the Zen Room, I decided to try another one of the meditation techniques offered. Most of them I have chosen to try or not try based on their names, as they mostly indicate what type of meditation it is (“Traditional Deep Breathing,” “Relaxing Phrases,” etc.), but one of the names caught my attention: Sort Boxes. Me being the curious person I am, I selected that option and proceeded to listen to the audio, revealing what I have found to possibly be the most effective form of mindful meditation yet, especially for clearing one’s mind. I have chosen to call it the “Three Boxes Technique.” This meditation involves the usual practice of sitting down and observing one’s breathing. But rather than focusing on just your breathing, you are told to imagine three boxes, one labeled thoughts, the other sensations, and the third one emotions. As you breathe, whenever a thought, sensation or emotion arises in your mind, you sort each into its box. Upon hearing these directions, I was amazed that I had not thought of something like this before. As I did the meditation I found myself able to clear and organize my mind to have a mindfulness I had not felt in so long. I think this is a technique that should definitely be practiced by anyone who wishes to start practicing meditation, particularly mindfulness meditation.
Return to the gym
Just as I found the app already encouraging me to be more mindful of my health and well being, this greater monitoring was the final push in getting me to make going to the gym one of my priorities again. Starting Tuesday, I went to the gym every day this week and couldn’t be more thrilled about the matter. My return to the gym has given me the energy I needed to feel more productive and it feels great being able to seriously exercise again.
Pushing up and never down
Although I took a long break from the gym, one thing I have always set out to do is ensure I at least do 100 push-ups every day, especially on the days I do not go to the gym. Unfortunately, this semester that has been easier said than done, until now. Aside from the Zen Room, one of the tools I have begun trying out is the app’s Activity Scheduler, which is used to schedule both fun activities and business activities. The tool categorizes activities into three types: pleasurable, social, and achievement. I found myself scheduling myself to do a certain number of push-ups at particular times of the day to ensure I did 100 push-ups every day. Despite my return to the gym, it certainly does not hurt to have the practical workout of push-ups still be part of my goal towards getting in better shape. In total, I ended this week doing 700 push-ups. I think anyone can see why my push up reminders was categorized as achievement activities.
Week Three
They say the third time’s a charm. Well in this situation, not the third week that is for sure. This week was without a doubt a chaotic but interesting one. I found myself loaded with so much work and stressed to the point where I hardly did any mood checks. As if my workload and stress were not enough, this week came to an end with me getting sick. This week was such a busy one I even fell behind on my push-ups and meditation. I for one find it quite interesting that the week I was not tracking my wellness became the week I was not well. I will say though, whenever I did make any mood checks, it would be to mark many of my happy moments this week, with me still having plenty of fun moments on Halloween and other days
Looking back on this week, I wondered if things would have turned out differently if I had been using the app more to not only track how I was feeling but also use its other features to ensure I was balancing each of my classes properly so I did not get behind. I suppose we can only see the next time I have a busy week. Either way, with things cooled down, for now, it is time to ensure I do not fall behind and further explore the app’s features while making sure I stay on top of everything.
Week Four
After a week of not using WellTrack as much, I chose to finally get back to my usual usage of the app. I decided to finally try out the courses the app offers, one focused on handling anxiety and stress, and the other one on dealing with depression. I decided to try the anxiety and stress course due to stress being something I do have to deal with as opposed to depression. The courses consist of short audio files the user is recommended to listen to during a particular week. The Anxiety course is designed to be a five-week course, and as I found out, the courses seem to be the first thing a person is supposed to use when downloading the app. Realizing this was my fourth week of using the app, I decided to do the unorthodox and listen to all audio files for the first four weeks to catch up. As it turned out, the videos began by recommending how to start using the app. I found that my first three weeks of exploring and using the app had very much been what the course had recommended, specifically starting with mood checks and then moving on to the tools section (this was certainly relieving). The course then began giving techniques to use to help one practice relaxation, battle unhelpful thinking and changing one’s thoughts to not be filled with negativity. Two techniques recommended for one to relax properly are deep breathing and progressive muscle relaxation, with the course recommending one tries deep breathing for a while before they try muscle relaxation. As someone who practices meditation, I think I certainly have deep breathing down and will spend the rest of the semester trying the other methods the course has recommended.
Week Five
Completing the Anxiety and Stress Course
After catching up on the first four weeks of the app’s Anxiety and Stress course, I listened to the fifth and final audio clip for the course. The course turned out to have helpful insights into helping one deal with the issues the course was created for. Would I recommend the course to someone? I think I certainly would due to its helpful tips and recommendations for handling a stressful situation and how it helped me during what could have been a stressful week.
Week Six
Putting WellTrack to the test through a stressful week
As fate would have it, my final week before the Thanksgiving Break turned out to be one filled with work that ensured I would have to work as hard as possible before my week off. In other words, it was time to stress. However, having gone through a course on how to deal with stress, I refused to give in to such feelings and experience a week similar to Week Three, in which my stress resulted in me retreating from the app and overall having a less than successful week. Admittedly, my average amount of mood checks were certainly down (and have been steadily decreasing) and I did not use the app as much.
Sounds like I was repeating the cycle right? No. In realizing I was not using the app as much to monitor my mood, I took it as an opportunity to truly test what five weeks of using the app has taught me. Having taken a whole “course” on dealing with stress and anxiety, as well as having spent the past five weeks getting better at different forms of meditation, it was time to finally apply all that I learned during this busy week whether I actually used the app a lot or not. After all, what good would this app be if I couldn’t apply its teachings when I am not on my phone?
I found myself combating the stress of having a test to study for, a project to finish and various other assignments to complete by calmly approaching each task one at a time and being mindful only what was in front of me to work on. As the Zen Room narration says, anxiety and stress happen when we worry about both past and future events, something that can be combated when we “only focus on the present.” This is, of course, mindfulness meditation which I have had some experience in. Instead of focusing on how this one assignment was one of many I had to do, I instead utilized techniques recommended by the course such as deep breathing and progressive muscle relaxation whenever I felt myself getting anxious about all I had to complete during the week. Overall, I found myself getting through a busy and crazy week that had the potential to be one filled with a grand amount of stress, something I vowed I would not let happen, and the WellTrack helped in ensuring.
Final Thoughts
One of the lessons the Zen Room and Anxiety courses taught was that our feelings of anxiety and stress often arise due to focusing too much on the past and future, and how one of the ways to help this is by focusing only on the present. Well, having used this app for eight weeks, I think it is safe to say that I feel better about the future of my college career and the obstacles I will inevitably face as a student of higher education. The use of the WellTrack app was one that was unexpected but in the best ways. Over the past few weeks, I have found myself learning more about myself, the environments and the feelings they arouse, and the kind of thoughts and emotions that populate my mind as a student in higher education. Despite not being able to always practice meditation as a means of developing mindfulness, this app is one that provided another way of being more mindful and aware of what my college psyche goes through and experiences in different settings. I am amazed this app has not gained greater notoriety.
Would I recommend this app to other UHCL students and college students as a whole? The answer is wholeheartedly yes. This is an app that any college student can benefit from. UHCL’s deal it has made to allow students free access to the app is a gift many here should take for granted, and I for one will continue using and exploring the app. Even if I was to delete the app off my phone after this semester, I would forever go on through college utilizing the skills, practices and knowledge it has given me, as I have written about during weeks I did not physically get on the app.
These weeks of tracking my wellness and developing greater mindfulness have been very transformative, allowing me to not only better my combat to stress and provide an outlet for tracking my thoughts, sensations and emotions, but also enhance my college experience as a whole, focusing in the moment in ways I always dreamed of. College is certainly not easy and I know many students here are going through more than me. This app is one I believe the entire student and even staff and faculty population can benefit from. I hope the university continues to allow the app to be available for free to students but I also know not to stress about it.