Masawa Minute 34
Wellness market is booming | Does mindfulness work for everyone? | + More!
This is the Masawa Minute — mental wellness, social impact, and impact investing snippets on what we’re pondering + where you can get active.
While the last Masawa Minute focused on our experiences of mental wellness in our daily lives, this one is just the opposite. The articles revolve around mental wellness on the societal level — the progress (or lack thereof) in the mental health care industry, the booming wellness market, mindfulness in workplaces, and more. We hope you enjoy it!
Masawa Thoughts
Fostering positive change is tough. Do you feel the constant striving for balance between your professional and personal lives? Dealing with many stakeholders, deadlines, priorities, and lofty expectations impose a great strain on our minds and wellbeing, and if left unfettered, can undermine our potential to bring about the change we want to see in the world.
Are you doing the inner work needed to clear out the old cobwebs preventing you from truly fulfilling your most optimum role? We are, tryingly. ☺
Following up from the last newsletter, thank you for the interest in the two existing investment opportunities:
- Immersive digital therapeutic games to help children understand and reduce stress and anxiety
- An evidence-based digital companion to build better and healthier smartphone habits
There’s still some space left, so act fast!
Attend
Deep-dive: how do we measure impact?
Norrsken VC is holding a deep-dive conversation on measuring impact on April 16, 12 pm CET. After releasing their first Annual Impact Report back in March, they decided to start a debate around impact measurement methodologies for early-stage startups, and they want everyone to take part.
As a step towards transparency and framework standardization in the sector, they’re planning to walk us through their impact methodology and some examples from their portfolio. If you’re interested, sign up and come prepared — there will be plenty of time for a Q&A!
What we’re reading…
🔬 Science keeps advancing — does mental health care follow?
It’s becoming increasingly apparent that the pandemic will have a long-lasting effect on our mental health. Luckily for us, the science informing the mental health field is booming — it’s attracting great talent, and in the last years, there have been plenty of significant discoveries. But does it actually contribute to the lives of millions of people experiencing mental health problems all over the world?
The research doesn’t always benefit the recipient of the treatment — like in the case of the antidepressant wars, a controversial debate about the use and side effects of the drugs when it became clear that a lot of the findings are influenced by money. While some research is undoubtedly authentic and valuable, other is hardly anything more than an infomercial. Without being aware of the money trail, it can be hard to distinguish one from the other. Next to that, even government-funded research projects aren’t necessarily valuable for people that are hoping to get help.
While the tools and the understanding of the brain are continuing to advance, it doesn’t translate into the same progress in mental health care. For the situation to turn around, scientists must speak more candidly about how money can affect research priorities. At the same time, funders should listen and consider supporting small teams working on treatments and tools that could be made available in the near future. The time to act is now.
Science Plays the Long Game. But People Have Mental Health Issues Now.
👯♂️ It’s Real — a new approach to therapy
Real is another rising startup in the therapy world. Founded by CEO Ariela Safira, this startup works towards its mission to make mental wellness an essential part of wellbeing by revolutionizing mental health care. They’ve developed a new therapy model based on member-centered care, resembling the models used to help people struggling with addiction. So far, Real has raised $10 million in Series A to deploy the service. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from existing and new investors.
Real believe their model is making mental health support more accessible and effective. They employ full-time therapists with expertise in various fields, including but not limited to anxiety, anger, identity, childhood trauma, to lead group sessions. It costs the users $28 per month to have on-demand access to interactive therapy experiences in the form of a recorded video or audio, as well as journaling prompts. There are also possibilities for joining a therapist-led roundtable session with other members, as well as member-only events.
Besides allowing users to join the conversations and therapy whenever they want, the biggest differentiator of the platform is the focus on providing tactical advice on the issues rather than simply exploring them. The company has also proven its commitment to its mission, as evidenced by the launch of a product called Real to the People, offering free access to users during the moments when the world is in turmoil, such as the Covid-19 pandemic or the recent spike in hate crimes targeting Asian people. This could be a valuable product for those uncomfortable discussing certain topics in a one-on-one therapy setting, as well as a significant step towards making therapy more affordable. We’ll continue following Real’s journey and will look forward to their next achievements!
Real raises $10M from Lightspeed, Megan Rapinoe and others to rethink therapy
🍍 The rise of the $1.5 trillion wellness market
What is wellness? The understanding of the concept is continuously evolving, but these days consumers view wellness as something more sophisticated than a workout tape and a new diet — it encompasses not only fitness and nutrition but also physical and mental wellbeing. And they care about it deeply — McKinsey’s research shows that 79% of surveyed people consider wellness to be important, and 42% would go as far as to call it a top priority. In fact, McKinsey reported the increase in wellness prioritization in every market they researched in the last 2–3 years.
Currently, the global wellness market is estimated at $1.5 trillion, with annual growth of 5–10%. As consumers are increasingly more willing to spend on personal wellness, the companies are presented with tremendous opportunities. That, in turn, makes the market more crowded, forcing the companies to think seriously about their strategy of reaching the consumers and differentiating themselves from the competition. The chosen delivery model can determine a lot — whether it’s end-to-end ownership, strategic partnerships, outsourcing and co-manufacturing, or marketplaces.
As it became increasingly apparent during the pandemic, physical and mental health is now more of a priority to people than it was in a long time and likely is to stay that way for a foreseeable future. That spells great news for the wellness industry, as consumers continue to spend on personal health, appearance, fitness, and more.
Feeling good: The future of the $1.5 trillion wellness market
🐥 Let’s talk about maternal mental health — and how to improve it
Covid-19 has challenged everyone, but it placed a cumbersome burden on parents — juggling work (often from home), childcare and homeschooling while living with the uncertainty of the situation is no easy feat. A lot of these challenges fell on mothers, which could explain the elevated rates of maternal mental health difficulties — the depressive symptoms in mothers reportedly increased by 16%, and anxiety symptoms grew by 13% compared to pre-pandemic statistics.
The situation becomes even trickier when we realize that the wellbeing of mothers has a significant impact on the wellbeing of children, who are also experiencing unprecedented challenges and deteriorating mental health on their own. That’s why maternal mental health should be a top priority for Covid-19 recovery efforts — luckily, there are some ways to help.
An effective government response could go a long way in this situation. Increased availability of easily accessible mental health services is needed, as well as financial support for families. According to the research, more mothers lost their income compared to fathers, which is a major stressor likely to worsen their mental health symptoms. Additionally, it’s crucial for the government to invest in universal child care and out-of-school care as well as provide flexible leave, helping the parents adequately care for their children. After all, when the caretakers are supported, it benefits the whole family.
COVID-19 is damaging the mental health of mothers. Here are 4 ways to help
🧘♂️ Can mindfulness be right for everyone?
Mindfulness. It’s a word we see everywhere lately — in the magazines, on TV, on the yoga flyers in our local coffee shops. It’s almost safe to say it’s gone mainstream. And such popularity is justified. The benefits of mindfulness are supported by scientific evidence, which clearly points out that it can have a lasting impact on our attitude, relationships, mental wellbeing, you name it. However, as with many seemingly cure-all solutions like that, it’s interesting to find where the limit is. It’s time to learn where mindfulness falls short.
After surveying almost 1700 employees in a range of roles and industries, Harvard Business Review discovered that the elevated feeling of awareness and presence that mindfulness can bring doesn’t always do us good — when we’re experiencing unpleasant feelings, we become more aware of them, granting them an even bigger space in our lives. It can also interfere with many customer-facing roles where surface-acting — hiding the true feelings to perform the task — is required. Having the unpleasant feelings surface reduces job satisfaction, performance and drains people mentally as they become increasingly aware of their inauthenticity and negative emotions.
It’s essential to note that these findings do not suggest that organizations should stay away from mindfulness training for employees whose roles require surface-acting. Mindfulness still offers a range of powerful benefits. But to get the most value at the lowest costs, leaders should consider a few strategic questions before bringing mindfulness interventions to their workplaces — they should approach the subject mindfully, if you will. It’s not the only answer to everything, and making sure that the solutions are tailored to the employees and the specific organizational needs is the only way to go.
In Closing
Like the Masawa Minute? Show your support by sharing it with someone else or tell us what you think! Or both.
Give someone a big [virtual] hug today + take care of each other! 🤗😘
Gabija works as a Marketing & Communications Coordinator at Masawa. She lets her vision of a more just, sustainable, equitable world guide Masawa’s story and inform the work towards transforming global mental wellness to make it accessible and accepted.
