Headspace

Meditation app Headspace raises $93 million in equity and debt to accelerate clinical validation and geographic expansion

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Head­space rais­es $93 mil­lion in equi­ty and debt as it pur­sues clin­i­cal val­i­da­tion for mind­ful­ness (TechCrunch):

“Head­space, the Los Ange­les-based mind­ful­ness and med­i­ta­tion com­pa­ny locked in a bit­ter com­pet­i­tive strug­gle with Calm for lead­er­ship in the men­tal well­ness world, has raised new cap­i­tal to try to take the pole position.

The com­pa­ny has just closed on $93 mil­lion in new equi­ty and debt financ­ing [Read more…] about Med­i­ta­tion app Head­space rais­es $93 mil­lion in equi­ty and debt to accel­er­ate clin­i­cal val­i­da­tion and geo­graph­ic expansion

Will personalized meditation apps be able to replicate the experience of working with a coach?

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‘Men­tal fit­ness’ start­up Ele­vate Labs launch­es a per­son­al­ized med­i­ta­tion app called Bal­ance (TechCrunch):

“While investors are already writ­ing big checks for med­i­ta­tion star­tups, Ele­vate Labs founder and CEO Jesse Pickard said that none of the exist­ing med­i­ta­tion apps can replace the expe­ri­ence of work­ing with a human coach. [Read more…] about Will per­son­al­ized med­i­ta­tion apps be able to repli­cate the expe­ri­ence of work­ing with a coach?

Trend: Consumers increasingly taking care of their behavioral health via DIY tools like these

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8 con­sumer-friend­ly dig­i­tal tools to sup­port behav­ioral health (mobi­health news):

“From vir­tu­al ther­a­py to mind­ful­ness and med­i­ta­tion aids, there’s lit­tle short­age of dig­i­tal tools catch­ing investors’ eyes and break­ing into the crowd­ed behav­ioral health mar­ket. Although a num­ber of these ser­vices are posi­tion­ing their busi­ness to focus on pay­ers and employ­ers, many oth­ers are tak­ing their prod­ucts direct­ly to con­sumers via month­ly sub­scrip­tions, one-time retail pur­chas­es or out­right free downloads.

Of course, hav­ing a wealth of options and vary­ing qual­i­ty of evi­dence can make select­ing the most effec­tive dig­i­tal tool quite a chal­lenge. Here, Mobi­Health­News has com­piled a selec­tion of eight such con­sumer-friend­ly behav­ioral health tools (Note: Basis, Calm, Sim­ple Habit, Woe­bot, Muse, Vida Health, Head­space, Able­To) that have recent­ly been mak­ing head­lines with new launch­es, fund­ing or major prod­uct updates.” [Read more…] about Trend: Con­sumers increas­ing­ly tak­ing care of their behav­ioral health via DIY tools like these

Mental fitness self-care named app trend of 2018

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This was the hottest app trend of the year (Mar­ket Watch):

“Apps were all about inner peace in 2018.

Apple named “self-care” its app trend of the year with its Best of 2018 list released ear­li­er this week, which high­light­ed what apps, games, movies and music were on everyone’s list — and fin­ger­tips — over the past year. “We became mind­ful of some amaz­ing well­ness apps,” the report not­ed, list­ing med­i­ta­tion apps such as 10% Hap­pi­er, Calm and Shine, as well as the Fab­u­lous – Moti­vate Me life coach and habit track­er [Read more…] about Men­tal fit­ness self-care named app trend of 2018

Update: 200 common prescription medications increase depression risk

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Dear read­er,

Time for Sharp­Brains e‑newsletter.

It’s been a busy month, once again bring­ing to the fore­front the lim­i­ta­tions of our cur­rent health­care sys­tem and, on the pos­i­tive side, the grow­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties to improve Brain Health and Men­tal Health for all, if we pay atten­tion to (and act on) lat­est research, think­ing and tools.

New research:

New thinking:

New tools:

 

Final­ly, we invite you to tease your mind with these four opti­cal illu­sions. Sur­pris­ing, aren’t they?

Have a great month of July,

 

The Sharp­Brains Team

Want to feel more Calm, get some Headspace, and practice Mindfulness Daily?

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Let me ask again…want to feel more Calm, get some Head­space, and prac­tice Mind­ful­ness Daily?

There are apps for that—hundreds of them, besides the three I just mentioned.

These apps make a promise: Rather than invest­ing count­less hours and dol­lars in mind­ful­ness class­es or mind­ful­ness-based ther­a­py, we can choose to med­i­tate from the com­fort of our smart­phones. Users are flock­ing to mind­ful­ness apps in hopes of cul­ti­vat­ing kind atten­tion to their own thoughts and feel­ings, and of reap­ing the men­tal and phys­i­cal ben­e­fits that go along with mindfulness.

But do they work? What does sci­ence say about mind­ful­ness apps? [Read more…] about Want to feel more Calm, get some Head­space, and prac­tice Mind­ful­ness Daily?