wellness

Dos and Don’ts of Therapy on the Go: Navigating the use of apps for mental health care

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It might be sur­pris­ing to think about brows­ing for ther­a­pists and order­ing up men­tal health care the way you can peruse a menu on Grub­hub or sum­mon a car on Lyft.

But over the last decade, dig­i­tal access to ther­a­py has become increas­ing­ly com­mon, in some cas­es replac­ing the tra­di­tion­al mod­el of in-per­son week­ly ses­sions between a ther­a­pist and client.

Apps for men­tal health and well­ness range from mood track­ers, med­i­ta­tion tools and jour­nals to ther­a­py apps that match users to a licensed pro­fes­sion­al. My team’s research focus­es on ther­a­py apps that work by match­ing clients to a licensed pro­fes­sion­al. [Read more…] about Dos and Don’ts of Ther­a­py on the Go: Nav­i­gat­ing the use of apps for men­tal health care

How COVID-related stress can disrupt your brain circuits and nine tips to prevent it

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COVID-19 has touched each of us some­how. Many now rec­og­nize that car­ing for our men­tal health is as essen­tial as address­ing the virus if we are to emerge stronger, more con­nect­ed and more resilient.

The Ancient Greeks said “know thy­self” to live sound­ly, but it is only now that we have the tech­nol­o­gy to start under­stand­ing how our indi­vid­ual expe­ri­ences arise from the com­plex­i­ty of our brains. [Read more…] about How COVID-relat­ed stress can dis­rupt your brain cir­cuits and nine tips to pre­vent it

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

“We need people-centered wellness solutions that integrate brain health factors” — Charlie Hartwell, Operating Partner at the Bridge Builders Collaborative

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Ques­tion: Char­lie, please share 1–2 major brain health needs you observe right now whose solu­tion demands a cre­ative and sig­nif­i­cant tech-enabled innovation.

Answer: I’d encour­age peo­ple to remem­ber that Brain Health is just part of over­all Whole Per­son Health.  Brain health solu­tions may reduce some dis­ease symp­toms but not help achieve actu­al well­ness.  We need peo­ple-cen­tered well­ness solu­tions that inte­grate brain health factors.

What advice would you give an entre­pre­neur launch­ing an inno­va­tion to address that?

Think hard about the way to grow and through what dis­tri­b­u­tion chan­nel you want to bring your solu­tion. No dis­tri­b­u­tion, no innovation.

– Char­lie Hartwell is the Oper­at­ing Part­ner at the Bridge Builders Col­lab­o­ra­tive, help­ing fund and sup­port the visions of social entre­pre­neurs build­ing bridges in the mind train­ing space. Char­lie is a Har­vard Busi­ness School grad­u­ate who has led, found­ed, run and worked in orga­ni­za­tions in 16 dif­fer­ent indus­tries. He will serve as a Judge in the first Brainnova­tions Pitch Con­test host­ed by the 2017 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit: Brain Enhance­ment in the Dig­i­tal Age (Decem­ber 5–7th, 2017).

– Brain­no­va­tions Judg­ing Panel

Monitoring health, wellness and fitness via wearable devices: Key Neurotech Patent #29

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– Illus­tra­tive image from US Patent No. 7,261,690.

Today we are shar­ing a fas­ci­nat­ing 2007 patent assigned to Body­media. (As men­tioned, we are fea­tur­ing a foun­da­tion­al Per­va­sive Neu­rotech patent a day, from old­er to new­er by issue date)

U.S. Patent No. 7,261,690: Appa­ra­tus for mon­i­tor­ing health, well­ness and fitness.

  • Assignee(s): Body­media, Inc.
  • Inventor(s): Eric Teller, John M. Stivoric, Christo­pher D. Kasabach, Christo­pher D. Pacione, John
  • L. Moss, Craig B. Liden
  • Tech­nol­o­gy Cat­e­go­ry: Neuro-monitoring
  • Issue Date: August 28, 2007

SharpBrains’ Take:

The ‘690 patent dis­clos­es an appa­ra­tus for mon­i­tor­ing human health and well­ness, includ­ing men­tal health ele­ments, through a wear­able device with phys­i­o­log­i­cal and con­tex­tu­al (envi­ron­men­tal) sen­sors. [Read more…] about Mon­i­tor­ing health, well­ness and fit­ness via wear­able devices: Key Neu­rotech Patent #29

The Nine Habits of Highly Effective Brains

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sharp brains—————

While we are still (hope­ful­ly) enjoy­ing some down­time, let’s review some good lifestyle options we can all fol­low to not only main­tain, but improve, our vibrant brains. [Read more…] about The Nine Habits of High­ly Effec­tive Brains