Self-care across all facets of life, including higher education, is essential for numerous reasons. Self-care is crucial for maintaining physical, mental, and emotional well-being. It allows individuals to maintain their health with activities such as exercise, sufficient sleep, meditation, or hobbies that can reduce stress. Self-care activities can improve mood and mental clarity. Taking time for yourself allows you to recharge and better cope with life’s challenges. It can also enhance self-esteem and self-confidence. In the past, I’ve struggled with engaging in self-care but thanks to one of my professors, I’ve learned about an easy and fun way to embed taking care of myself into my daily routine. Finch is a safe and trustworthy self-care pet app that helps individuals feel prepared and positive one day at a time. This app is free and available on Apple, Android, Google Play, and even Windows.
Users can take care of their pets by also taking care of themselves. The app provides self-care features such as mood assessments, habit monitoring, guided breathing sessions, motivational and inspiring quotes, and in-depth analysis of your emotional well-being. The better you take care of yourself, the more nurturing attention your virtual pet receives. You can even customize and name your pet. The more self-care you engage in, the more prizes and accessories you have access to also increase.
For example, here is my pet Hope. I’ve earned all these free clothes, shoes, and accessories for Hope and her room just by taking care of myself.
The app allows individuals to choose from a wide variety of personalized self-care exercises. You can set goals for each day, check them off as you go about your day, and earn energy for your pet to grow. In addition to this, there is an option for you to self-reflect into your journal as you wish. The app allows you to do quests, shop for your pet and its home, open daily gift boxes, and even collaborate with other friends. You can invite a friend to your tree town to send them positive messages and see how their pet grows. In addition to that, daily affirmations are presented with an option to express how you are currently feeling at the press of a button.
Using Finch for the past couple of months has significantly helped my self-esteem, confidence, and motivation. It’s easy to embed into my daily schedule and is a fun, easy, and helpful way to engage in taking care of myself. I enjoy having access to this app at my fingertips to reflect and express my emotions whether I’m having a good or bad day. I’ve even been able to encourage some of my friends to download the app and have been able to see how they and their pets are growing. I encourage everyone to embed self-care into their everyday life routines because it can only help an individual. I encourage you to check out the Finch app or incorporate self-care into your daily routine somehow because self-care helps you feel prepared and positive, one day at a time.
by Aliyah Galvan, Intern of Pre-College Upward Bound
*Disclaimer: The Education Research & Opportunity Center is not sponsored by, does not sponsor, or affiliate with this app.