Smartphones are mighty little gadgets; depending on how you use them, they literally have the power to make or break your confidence. Once upon a time, it would have been hard to believe that certain apps on our devices had a direct bearing on low self-esteem, anxiety and depression, but in today’s technology-driven society, it’s a reality for so many of us.
The proliferation of social media has created a generation of people battling self-doubt and negative thought patterns fuelled by social comparison, imposter syndrome, and instant gratification.
But what if we told you there are a whole host of apps available in the Apple and Google stores that are created to increase confidence and boost self-esteem? Such apps are designed to help you gain confidence in yourself, so you can navigate through real life, making better decisions and fulfilling your potential.
After all, our smartphones have become an indispensable part of our daily lives, doubling up as our personal assistants to our fitness trainers and everything in between, so why not use them for building self-confidence, too?
This article has curated the best self-confidence apps that harness the power of technology to target vulnerabilities in your self-esteem and help give you a confidence booster on the days you need it most.
When you’re in a poor mental state, racing and intrusive thoughts can prevent you from getting a good night’s sleep. After a sleepless night, negative thought patterns can often spiral, triggering a vicious cycle that can wreak havoc on self-image and confidence.
Pzizz is a sleep app designed to quieten a racing mind to help you fall asleep fast, stay asleep throughout the night, and wake up feeling refreshed and confident to take on challenges ahead of the day.
Using a range of clinically-validated techniques, Pzizz plays a range of sleep-optimized psychoacoustic music, voiceovers, and sound effects to help users overcome their sleep troubles.
What makes Pzizz better than all the other sleep apps? Unlike many alternatives, Pzizz doesn’t require changing your behaviour, keeping a sleep journal, or limiting your activities to reap the benefits. Simply switch on the app when getting into bed and leave the rest to Pzizz.
With highly-customizable features, you can personalize your listening experience to suit your preferences. Each time you open the app, Pzizz creates a unique session to ensure your brain doesn’t get fatigued from hearing the same repetitive playlist and maintains effectiveness in the long term.
Download Pzizz on the App Store and Google Play to enjoy your free trial.
Mindfulness meditation can be an effective self-esteem-building tool helping you to shed stressful and anxious thoughts while gaining confidence through positive thinking and gratitude.
Mesmerize is a visual meditation app that helps to clear your mind and relax through a unique audio-visual meditation experience. The soothing psychoacoustic music and engaging visuals combined with expertly-crafted guided meditations are based on clinically-validated principles to ease your mind and body into a state of deep relaxation.
Lowering anxiety, relieving stress, overcoming depression, and enhancing self-awareness are just some of the benefits you can reap with Mesmerize. With audio and visual speed control, the option to fuse external audio with built-in sounds, a health kit to track your mindful minutes, and offline compatibility, Mesmerize offers a whole host of features to help you on your self-improvement journey, making it the perfect meditation app for low self-esteem.
Download Mesmerize on your iOS or Android device today to enjoy a free three-day trial.
Rooted in the clinically-proven cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) model, CBT Tools For Healthy Living encourages users to evaluate their thinking in a realistic and adaptive way, challenging destructive and distorted thought patterns to effectively elevate a sense of self-worth.
CBT tools include a cognitive diary to help evaluate and restructure distressing thoughts, positive affirmations to inspire good mood and behavior, self-assessments to gain a deeper understanding of yourself, a mood log, and more.
Developed by a scientist with over 30 years of clinical experience, CBT Tools For Healthy Living uses such principles in a user-friendly and easily-digestible format to help improve mental health, tackle relationship issues, and achieve career goals.
Overall, the app empowers individuals to navigate the relationship they have with themselves and others with confidence by changing how they perceive and react to specific situations and events. These tools can be used to resolve minor issues or in conjunction with professional therapy to address more deep-rooted problems.
You can download CBT Tools For Healthy Living from Google Play.
If you’re searching for a self-help app that makes taking care of your mental health easier, then Shine is what you’re looking for. The app offers a range of great features to challenge self-limiting beliefs, including an exclusive library of daily meditations, weekly courses centered on self-care, and monthly virtual workshops with wellness experts, to name a few.
Once you download Shine, you’ll receive daily motivational notifications to boost self-confidence, which you can save in your self-esteem toolkit. You can also take advantage of the gratitude journal, encouraging you to take note of the things in your life you are grateful for to create a positive mind frame. The five-minute audio meditations are a great way to quickly boost self-esteem at the moment, whatever time or place.
You can download Shine for iOS and Android.
Numerous studies over the years have proven the benefits of meditation in improving confidence and self-esteem, and Simply Being was developed by healing counsellors to do just that.
Users have the freedom to control how long they want to meditate each day and the option to add soothing music and nature sounds to their sessions. Features include voice-guided meditations to guide you through the practice, making it less daunting for beginners, that have been medically reviewed for effectiveness.
Through consistent use, Simply Being can help people manage symptoms of anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem, helping open the doors to self-discovery and welcoming the best, most confident version of yourself.
Simply Being is free to download for iOS users, with a paid subscription option also available. Android users can buy the app for $1.99 from the Google Play Store.
According to its website, the Happier app is a revolutionary tool that offers concrete, actionable steps to help people build happier lives. So how does it do it?
Based on the notion that if we change our small, daily habits, we can also change our lives for the better one step at a time, Happier uses a personalized habit and goal-tracking method to inspire such change and help people become more motivated and confident.
Users can also curate a collection of special moments, images, people, places, and things that make them happy and share them on the app’s community forum. Other strategies to improve mood include the ten-second daily positivity pause that encourages people to consciously shift their focus to positive thinking, and daily activities, such as going out in nature or being kind to a stranger.
Such self-esteem-boosting activities can also help improve your quality of sleep, enhance productivity and creativity, and reduce stress.
You can download Happier from the Google Play Store or the Apple Store.
Daily affirmations and ‘I am’ mantras are the ThinkUp app’s primary methods to help users manifest positive thinking and the confidence to achieve their goals. Such tools leverage the Law of Attraction philosophy that whatever you focus your energy on will come back to you. So by focusing on positive thoughts and habits, you will essentially attract those elements to you.
Giving yourself positive feedback on a daily basis will enhance your self-perception over time and allow you to navigate daily situations and interactions with increased confidence and assertiveness.
The great thing is you can customize your affirmations by recording them in your own voice to make them more effective, rather than having a robotic, depersonalized voice say them to you. You can also choose from the app’s library of music and audio to make your experience more relaxing and enjoyable.
Additionally, the alarm feature wakes you up to positive words of affirmation to set you in the right mood for the day and boost motivation and confidence. There is also an extensive list of inspirational quotes curated by a whole host of self-care experts to encourage you to take control of your life.
You can download ThinkUp on the App Store and the Google Play Store.
Developed by British hypnotherapist Paul McKenna, Confidence and Motivation Hypnosis is a seven-day programme that consists of mind reprogramming exercises to help users overcome limiting beliefs, low confidence, and negative self-talk.
Recommended for those who can commit to routine check-ins and daily activities, the app is designed to help you reach personal milestones through tailored hypnotherapy sessions. So whether you want to improve self-esteem, combat social anxiety, improve public speaking, feel more confident, and more, Confidence And Motivation Hypnosis is the app for you.
The daily video and audio sessions come with reminders and can be accessed at any time that is convenient for you. The in-depth coaching and mentoring features consist of daily objectives to keep your motivation up and personal tracking to help you monitor your progress over time.
Android and iOS users can download Confidence And Motivation Hypnosis for $10.99 from the Google Play Store or the App Store.
Harness the power of inner monologue to build confidence and self-esteem with the #SelfLove app. The app uses science-backed techniques to enhance supportive thinking and minimize maladaptive beliefs based on CBT models.
#SelfLove is specifically designed to help users increase awareness of negative self-talk, whether it's biases, distortions, or perfectionist tendencies that decrease self-confidence. The app then trains you to challenge such thought patterns through positive and supportive daily affirmations.
Users are presented with various thoughts, and depending on whether they promote negative or positive self-perception, you either ‘drag’ these thoughts off the screen or ‘pull’ them towards you. The more you train, the more automatic the process becomes, and there is also a self-assessment tool to monitor your progress.
The app is often used as a complementary tool in professional therapy and treatment, helping to relieve symptoms of anxiety, depression, and obsessive thoughts between professional sessions.
You can download #SelfLove from the App Store or Google Play Store.
Building confidence and self-esteem isn’t something that can be achieved overnight; it requires patience, perseverance and commitment to embody such qualities. The above apps can offer you the support and motivation you need on your journey to a more confident and self-assured version of yourself.
While each app differs in its techniques and key features, they all aim to improve your overall happiness, sense of self-worth, and positivity. Consider using Pzizz if your anxiety stops you from getting a good night’s sleep, or try Mesmerize if self-limiting beliefs and negative self-talk prevent you from reaching your full potential.
Make the best use of your smartphone with these apps and others featured in this article today.
Low self-confidence and self-esteem can manifest in several ways and can affect everyone at some point in their lives. People who lack confidence may feel incompetent, inadequate, or unloved, engaging in critical self-talk and often comparing themselves to others, afraid of trying new or daunting experiences, and fearing letting people down or being in social situations.
Fortunately, there are numerous techniques you can employ to help reprogramme your brain, replacing negative and self-destructive thought patterns with positive, uplifting, and confidence-boosting ones. This process involves taking conscious action, such as using meditation, positive affirmations, or cognitive behavioral therapy, as well as seeking support groups and role models. It’s important to take it one day at a time, not to be too hard on yourself for your apparent shortcomings, and set realistic goals to improve confidence and self-esteem.
When it comes to regaining confidence, there is no fixed time period or one-size-fits-all approach. Some people may take as little as three weeks to three months to implement positive changes in their lives, while for others, it can take several months or years. Healing from emotional trauma is an ongoing process, and rebuilding your self-esteem is an ongoing process requiring varying levels of dedication, depending on how deep the wounds are.