Solving The Mental Health Crisis with Technology w/ Jewel | EP #66
Sep 28, 2023
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Jewel, the celebrated singer-songwriter and actress with over 30 million albums sold, dives deep into mental health and technology's role in promoting well-being. She shares her incredible journey from homelessness to fame, emphasizing resilience and the power of mindful presence. Jewel discusses her co-founded platform, Innerworld, as a fresh approach to mental health support, especially for youth. The conversation also touches on innovative solutions like virtual reality interventions, advocating for a holistic strategy to tackle the intertwined issues of mental health and homelessness.
Mental health can be addressed through technology, like virtual reality interventions.
Being present and observing thoughts and behaviors is crucial for emotional well-being.
Accessible mental health education and support are necessary to address the crisis.
Deep dives
The Power of Behavioral Tools for Mental Health
The podcast episode discusses the speaker's personal journey and the importance of mental health. She shares her experience of growing up in a challenging environment and how it led her to explore behavioral tools to cope with her pain. She highlights the significance of being present and consciously observing thoughts and behaviors. The speaker emphasizes the value of finding true happiness and how it can be achieved by cultivating an emotional posture that promotes growth and resilience. She also talks about her work in developing programs and curricula to provide mental health education and support, particularly for children and teenagers.
The Journey from Homelessness to Success
In this segment, the speaker reflects on her personal journey from homelessness to success. She discusses her upbringing in Alaska and the difficulties she faced growing up in a challenging environment. Despite the hardships, she developed a sense of resilience and determination. The speaker shares how she used philosophy and writing as tools to understand and transform her emotional language. Through introspection, she discovered the power of choosing one's mindset and behaviors. This realization empowered her to overcome adversity and pursue her passion for music. Her inspiring story serves as an example of how embracing growth and staying true to oneself can lead to personal transformation and success.
Unlocking Emotional Language and Overcoming Pain
The speaker shares her insights on emotional inheritance and the need to learn a new emotional language. She describes her experiences growing up in a community where pain and coping mechanisms were prevalent. She embarked on a journey to understand and manage her own pain, which led her to explore the connection between nature and nurture. The speaker highlights the importance of consciously observing thoughts and behaviors to navigate emotional challenges. She also discusses the power of positive affirmations and antidote thoughts to shift from contracted states to more relaxed and grateful mindsets. Her personal journey exemplifies the possibility of transcending difficult circumstances and transforming one's emotional well-being.
Scaling Behavioral Tools for Mental Health
The speaker delves into her work in scaling behavioral tools for mental health. Recognizing the need for accessible support, she aimed to develop programs that help individuals cultivate resilience and well-being. She discusses her foundation's focus on providing mental health education and support to underserved populations, particularly children and teenagers. Through the foundation's efforts, they have integrated behavioral tools into curriculum development, targeting core subjects like English language arts. The speaker emphasizes the importance of efficient and widespread implementation to address the mental health crisis. By partnering with organizations that specialize in curriculum development and sales, she seeks to make mental health tools more accessible and impactful.
Scaling mental health interventions through virtual reality
The podcast episode discusses the use of virtual reality (VR) as a scalable solution for mental health interventions. The speaker shares their experience of realizing that scaling their mental health intervention program would be more effective through virtual reality rather than physical presence. They explain that their for-profit venture, Inner World, offers mental health interventions through VR that can be accessed via phone, laptop, or tablet. The program utilizes scientifically proven tools and trains laypeople to teach these tools to groups of 30. The speaker shares a success story of a participant who hadn't left their house in six years but, through the program, was able to attend a concert with 5,000 people. The program is affordable, with both free and subscription options available.
Addressing the homelessness crisis and addiction
The podcast episode also touches on the issues of homelessness and addiction. The speaker acknowledges the complexity of the homelessness crisis and emphasizes the need for a holistic approach to solving it. They describe homelessness as the visible result of a broken ecosystem and stress the importance of addressing mental health, safety, and opportunities within this ecosystem. Regarding addiction, the speaker discusses how Inner World addresses addiction as part of their platform, offering tools that focus on emotional fitness, mindfulness, and teaching positive coping mechanisms. They highlight the need for new forms of education to replace negative coping mechanisms and the potential of AI technology to provide empathetic support in addressing these issues.
In this episode, Peter and the renowned American singer-songwriter and actress, Jewel, discuss the topic of mental health, emphasizing its significance and the challenges associated with addressing it on a large scale. They highlight the potential of technology to be a force for good, especially in the realm of mental health.
14:06 | From Homeless to Fame
30:10 | The Power of Mindful Presence
58:59 | A Mental Health Revolution
Jewel is an American singer-songwriter and actress. With four Grammy nominations and over 30 million album sales by 2021, her debut album, "Pieces of You" (1995), is among the best-selling debut albums ever, achieving 12-times platinum status with hits like "Who Will Save Your Soul." She’s the co-founder of Innerworld, a social-virtual platform offering mental health resources through trained non-professionals using cognitive behavioral tools. Innerworld is a peer-based model serving as a valuable complement to traditional therapy and structures, enhancing the spectrum of mental health support.
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