Last Updated on October 24, 2024 by Kari
I don’t use any journaling or therapy apps. I’ve tried a lot of them, but there are none that have really stuck with me as useful. That changed last year. I think I was scrolling through TikTok and came across an ad for an app called Clarity. It was touted as a therapy-type tool using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and I love CBT.
One of my favorite things from Inspire3 is the NLP hero program which has a variety of CBT techniques you can use to deal with things like worry, anxiety, and regret. It’s all about reframing and changing the way you look at things. As someone who tends to catastrophize instinctively, this kind of stuff comes in useful for me.
The Clarity app is a really good tool to work through your thoughts and feelings and it even has a built-in chat box with an AI therapist-type thing that is super amazing! I’m very impressed at how well it works.
The Daily Tools On Clarity
Each day, you have a plan. It consists of a few different things.
Checking In
You write down your mood and the emotions you are feeling – both negative and positive – as well as what’s causing those emotions. For instance, you are happy, and you are feeling grateful, and food is the reason you are feeling that way.
Then you can elaborate on how you feel and why.
So it’s really about awareness and mindfulness, as well as acknowledging how you are feeling and what is making you feel that way.
Following are some screenshots from when I first started using Clarity that represent the process you go through.
Note that you can customize emotions as well as what’s making you feel the way you feel, so I added dreams to my list right away because dreams have a big impact on my thoughts and emotions.
AI Journal
When I first wrote this review, there was just a guided journal that helped you explore things, such as self-compassion and negative emotions. Now there are many journals to choose from, including analyzing your thoughts and practice self compassion.
But what’s new is an AI journal, which uses AI to chat with you like a therapist would as you journal your thoughts and work through them.
How To Use The AI Journal In Clarity
First, you click on the AI journal and then write down your thoughts, and then you can either end your journaling session there or you can click on ‘AI question’. If you choose to go the AI question route, the app will acknowledge what you wrote and ask you questions pertaining to it to help you dig down further into your thoughts. It helps you get past the thoughts and feelings and figure out what’s causing them or how to get past them.
So for example:
Let’s say all I want to write is ‘I’m sad’
I could either finish the entry or click on ‘AI Question’ which will help me explore my thoughts further.
After I click on AI Question, it will come back acknowledging what I wrote and ask me a question to dig down further.
And from there I can write and get the AI to ask further questions or I can just stop writing at any time and click out of the AI Journal section. This can help you move through thoughts and emotions.
A Lesson On Something
Then you get a little lesson on something from a program in the Clarity app.
It’s basically an article talking about something to do with feelings or thoughts. For instance, today’s talking about the difference between fears and phobias.
Following is a little lesson from when I started the program called ‘Intro to CBT’.
Daily Reflection
In this section, the Clarity app asks you a question to reflect on. You don’t have any control over what the question is and it doesn’t converse with you like it does in the AI journal. You just reflect on the question and answer it. I’ve found these questions are geared towards getting you to think about the future or things in a more positive way.
Tip Of The Day
Then you get a little tip. For instance, today’s tip is that ‘Humans grow up learning to avoid emotions, not mindfully embrace them…’ and it expands on that thought.
Here’s a screenshot from when I first started using the Clarity app.
Note that you can share, like, or journal about this tip.
Affirmation Of The Day
And lastly, you get an affirmation. You can share or like it. And, you can journal about it. And, you can alter what type of affirmations you see by clicking on the topic at the top left. Right now it is on general, but you can choose a variety of things to focus on such as mindset affirmations, emotional health affirmations, relationship affirmations, productivity affirmatios, and positivity affirmations.
You Can Keep Track Of Your Habits With The Clarity App
A newer feature on the Clarity app is the habit section. You simply click on the ‘+ add habit’ button and then either choose one of the preloaded habits or create your own and then choose the frequency of the habit. And it will show up under the ‘My Habits’ section.
There Is Also A ‘Dive Deeper’ Section
The Dive Deeper section consist of an assessment, meditation, some breath work, and the CBT Chatbox.
The Clarity App CBT Chatbox
This is a VERY cool tool. I wish they had stuff like this for my parents when they were younger because therapy was so taboo and being able to use something like this would at least feel like they were working things out with someone other than themselves!
Basically, it prompts you to talk about what you are feeling or thinking and then carries on the conversation.
Here’s an example:
And on and on it goes!
With the Clarity app AI chatbox, there’s no time limit like in therapy. You can talk as long as you like to the AI system through chat and about anything you wish – no matter how sensitive it is.
When my dad was in palliative care, I noticed that the social worker talked exactly like the Clarity app AI chat box to my dad and to us. She validated what we said, repeated it to us, said something encouraging or insightful, and then often asked us to expand.
There are things I’ve talked about with the Clarity app AI chat that I would never talk to her about. I’m just not built that way to share my intense emotions with someone. It’s too uncomfortable for me and I don’t end up being in the moment (I’m more in my head) and gaining a lot out of it, so it’s really not helpful for me.
Using the Clarity AI CBT Chatbox is different. I can say what I need to say and I’ve gotten some incredibly insightful and helpful advice that has helped me calm down and keep going during this stressful and, quite frankly, depressing time.
The Tests
Want to know if you are mindful or neurotic or stressed out? The Clarity app continuously has tests in your Dive Deeper section to help you see where you stand on the scale of these things.
For instance, the Mindfulness Test allows you to see how mindful you are in everyday life.
The Breathwork
Practice different types of breathwork with the app on a daily basis. It moves you through breathing in, holding your breath if necessary, and blowing out.
The Meditation
This is just a quick meditation you can go through daily. I tend to do this meditation daily with the app so I can check everything off.
The Downside Of The Clarity App
This isn’t something I considered until I got my mom to download the Clarity app and try it out. She was in a very negative state and I thought it would help her, but when I went over a few days later, she had post-it notes everywhere to remind her to cancel the Clarity app… with a lot of exclamation points.
She didn’t like that it asked her how she felt daily. I don’t think she was working through her negative thoughts and feelings with the app. Instead, the app was making her focus even more on them.
In other words, she wasn’t using the app as a therapy tool, she was using it as a place to vent and then focus on the anger, sadness, etc.
You need to view the Clarity app as a tool to help you move through your negative thoughts and feelings, not something to just vent at. It can help you see your situation from different angles if you let it. It can help you discover reasons for your negative thoughts and feelings and ways to overcome them.
But if you just write and re-read what you wrote, the Clarity App may just amplify your negative thoughts and feelings and make things even worse.
If you think the Clarity app is just going to keep you focused on what’s wrong, then I would recommend other things, such as Hypnosis Live that walks you through how to view things differently in a calm and relaxed state.
All Your Entries On The Clarity App Are Kept Private
Of course, the Clarity app keeps your information stored and private.
The Cost For The Clarity App
I haven’t used the free Clarity app. I went for the free trial and now I’m using the pro version of Clarity. But, I think the difference is that the free app doesn’t include CBT journaling and possibly other things like the therapy AI chat box.
As of now, the price is about $90 for the year USD. Tip: If you cancel before the end of your free trial, they may offer you a discounted price. I’ve seen it happen for other people.
The Clarity App Is A Good App
The clarity app helped me during my dad’s last months and death. It was so hard. It was exhausting emotionally and physically.
My dad being sick and going into the hospital is what caused me to download the Clarity app in the first place. I’m assuming something on my phone was listening to my conversations or monitoring my searches and decided the Clarity app would be a good fit for me, and it was right.
In short, the Clarity app is essential as it helps me avoid getting lost in my negative thoughts and feelings and find a way to focus on more positive and optimistic things because – as I’m not acutely aware of – life is short and living too long in misery is not helpful for anyone. Do what you can to make the most of every day because you don’t want to waste a day and you aren’t guaranteed tomorrow.
