Why build Embraceme yet another mental wellbeing app?
Ever since starting in tech, I was crazy about building my own product. Being my own boss. Following my passion, which I had no idea about. Constantly thinking of how to bring together tech and mental health. Dreaming of…
Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.'
Mark Twain
Loads of books, blogs, videos. Still not so many answers for myself. It changed during a simple “make a wish right” challenge I took. Systematic mindfulness tasks once in three days: not done — you’re out. After this one I started doing things, not just over-analyzing myself anxiously. Bingo, the missions app that makes you do things, tiny ones, regularly. Although my way to Embraceme app was about a few years of ideation and transformation.
Idea #1
A chat bot that automates therapy or accompanies it in 2016. In 2017 I discovered Woebot, a Stanford University Facebook messenger bot that eventually turned into a mobile app. It just closed a $90 million Series B funding round. Starting it in 2016 might have been a very good idea.
Idea #2
I received a gift: it was a calendar with a daily task like “Hug him” or “Wait for him to blah-blah”. Really? Just relying on your partner to make you happy? I brainstormed it with friends: we thought it could be a daily tasks app that truly cares about one’s feelings. But we never tried to build anything.
Idea #3
Bite-sized tasks. 5 minutes each. Cognitive behavioural therapy inspired ones. Mindfulness. Self-care. Just stop and stare… Go back to real life. Feel the moment.
At this point I’ve met people I really wanted to spend my time with. Perfect tech partner, witty content creator and design guru. Months of weekly calls and hours working during our spare time, here we are.
And, yeah, there are around 1000 mental health products to date. And the content app idea does not seem that promising. But in 2020 kicking it off felt just right.
Embraceme app as a collection of paths to yourself
Ever since I took up mental care, I’ve been learning about how my brain works and how different schools of therapy approach it. I realised that methods are not made equal. Every person is supposed to co-create one’s own way to healing with a counselor or on their own using books, apps, meditations, mind exercises, etc. And whether you are in therapy or not, you can build your own path to becoming yourself. What Embraceme offers is experimenting and trying the most subtle but trusted missions to make a journey to yourself more stimulating. While self-caring in the most gentle way possible, hearing yourself and unplugging from work and social. Or not. You can skip missions and keep a diary to come back to your thoughts when you want to. Or not.
Community
What’s next? Helping people find fellow travellers. It is always easier to do things when you’re not alone. Shaping up a community that is truly supportive. Creating science-based experience, digitalised as delicately to you and your feelings as possible. Helping you build your own network that will help you get by. Even Frodo Baggins would not make it if not for supporters, especially, the closest one
Identity
Personalization is key. We are also looking to partner with organizations working to help representatives of different identities to bring together all the content that might be the starting point for help or supportive at some point they feel lonely or stressed. People identifying as gender non-conforming, LGBTQ(+), dyslexic, native American, those in existential therapy.
Help
Also, we found something that resonates with all of us. The help component. We want people to help each other not just online but offline as well. We’re inspired by charity projects and local communities. It also can work around mental well-being. We want to offer people to get closer to each other and help those in need. Whether, it’s a young transgender person who needs to share the burden or en elderly person who struggles with loneliness. We want to bring people together and make their lives a way more tolerable. Or even more bright.
If this is something you will be interested in, our public beta is the first step to building an ecosystem that offers support while you’re on your way to embracing yourself. It is about the most natural way to become a bit more mindful, and happy. Possibly. Or not.
P.S. We are looking for partner organizations supportive of different communities and mental health advisors. Contact us for partnership or advising requests at now@embraceme.app.