Tis the season to subscribe to happiness. The @Event Minds Matter community has put together a list that has been carefully curated with you in mind so that your journey into 2023 is led with care, self-awareness and happiness no matter where you are or where you might be going.
MPI BOOK LOVERS
Books are more than just a comfort. They can be a portal to different worlds, a bridge to a new past or future, an outpost for philosophies and a support system for times of need.
The community at Event Minds Matter has chosen some great content for you to consume or gift to others.
1. “The Book of Boundaries: Set the Limits That Will Set You Free” by Melissa Urban. New York Times Best Seller. End resentment, burnout and anxiety—and reclaim your time, energy, health and relationships. In this powerful and practical guide to setting boundaries, Urban shows you how to prioritize your needs and revolutionize your relationships.
• 130+ scripts with language you can use to instantly establish boundaries with bosses and co-workers, romantic partners, parents and in-laws, co-parents, friends, family, neighbors, strangers—and yourself
• Actionable advice to help you communicate your needs with clarity and compassion
• Tips for successfully navigating boundary guilt, pushback, pressure and oversteps
• Techniques to create healthy habits around food, drink, technology and more
2. “(Don’t) Call Me Crazy” edited by Kelly Jensen. What does it mean to be crazy? Is using the word crazy offensive? What happens when such a label gets attached to your everyday experiences? “(Don’t) Call Me Crazy” is a conversation starter and guide to better understanding how our mental health affects us every day. Thirty-three writers, athletes and artists offer essays, lists, comics and illustrations that explore their personal experiences with mental illness, how we do and do not talk about mental health, help for better understanding how every person’s brain is wired differently and what, exactly, might make someone “crazy.”
3. Best for people battling trauma: “The Body Keeps the Score”
4. Best for anxiety: “Hope and Help for Your Nerves: End Anxiety Now”
5. Best for battling burnout: “Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle”
6. Best for healing from emotional pain: “Emotional First Aid”
7. Best for practicing self-love: “Loving Bravely”
8. Best for finding order in life: “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”
APPS PERHAPS?
The gift of a mentally fit mind
Help everyone on your list unwrap a gift of less stress, more joy and restful sleep with meditation. Event Minds Matter and the minds behind Meditation Mondays offer this list of well-reviewed apps that you can give yourself or others to have a brighter, healthier and more mentally fit New Year in 2023.
Best-reviewed app: Headspace
Top free app: Insight Timer
Best app for children and families: Smiling Mind
Best app for beginners: Ten Percent Happier
Best app for relaxation and sleep: Calm
Best quick fix app: Unplug Meditation
MENTY: Designed for the men who work in silence
Mikula Jung and Adrian Wangerin are the dynamic duo from Berlin responsible for a brand-new app launching in February 2023 known as Menty. Jung is a former consultant with a personal stress and burnout experience that led him to change professional paths. Wangerin is a psychologist and coach who has been working for numerous online therapy companies where his experience is that most mental fitness apps are designed for and address women.
Why design a men’s mentally fit app? From science, we know that men and women exhibit different mechanisms of dealing with stress and psychological problems. While women tend to look for solutions like personal contact with friends and family, men tend to use action-based problem/solution strategies and like to fix things on their own. They want to offer a solution that matters.
How does the app work? Mission: To develop a safe space anywhere, anytime while preventing the possibility of worsening of symptoms. The app consists of a personalized feed that includes content from various social media sources and other online platforms that a psychological team curates and categorizes carefully.
NOURISH YOUR MIND
Our goals and suggestions for healthy eating have shifted. Rather than count calories, we’re counting nutrients and colors! The latest health food trends are centered around eating minimally processed whole foods, clean ingredient labels and obtaining our foods from local and sustainable sources. What a welcomed mindset shift!
Conscious gift baskets
One fantastic option isThe Kind Curator Co, created by culinary nutrition expert Miya Didrichsons. The Kind Curator boxes are made with love in Canada featuring locally sourced, eco-conscious, wellness-centric products. With every purchase, they plant a tree!
Kombucha is King is one of our favorite fermented foods and it’s super easy to make at home! We like the starter kit from Tonica Kombucha because they are local to us, but you can find other kits online in Canada and the U.S.
Anyone can learn to cultivate a green thumb with these easy indoor herb gardens! All you need is a windowsill, some sunshine and a positive attitude. We like Back to the Roots, where you have the choice between multiple herbs, mushrooms and tomatoes, plus you have the options of growing in super cute cans or Mason jars
Why not let your recipient choose his or her own gift? You can buy gift cards from local grocery stores or farmers markets or opt for an online gift card. We like Well.ca here in Canada, and Thrive Market is great for those in the U.S.
Sleep solutions
Loopearplugs’ “Quiet” earplugs come in 10 pretty colors and reduce noise by 18 decibels—and by combining an acoustic channel and filter for natural sound, they protect your hearing in style.
Sleep hygiene
Brown Noise on Instagram contains all frequencies, like white noise, but plays the low frequencies at a louder level and the high frequencies on a softer level. Though brown noise hasn’t been proven to be any more effective at aiding in sleep than white noise, it’s definitely worth a try for folks looking for help falling—and staying—asleep.
The community at Event Minds Matter and MPI would like to thank you for embracing mental health and well being over the last many months. We can’t wait to share some more cutting-edge content with you all in 2023.
