An AI-motivated reminder to look after yourself

Sphere is a cultural research tool that studies online data and applies machine learning models for deeper, more empathetic insights.

The World Health Organization recognizes 10 October every year as the World Mental Health Day, an official opportunity to inform and educate the world about the effects that mental illness has on millions of lives everyday.

While the pandemic greatly aggravated the prevalence of mental health issues, there was a silver lining in the positive momentum of community action to raise awareness and offer crucial aid to those affected.

We’ve come a long way in accepting mental wellbeing as being on a par with physical health. There has been a noticeable shift towards recognizing the personal and social challenges of neurodivergence in mainstream and social media, as well as a rise in dedicating public and corporate resources to provide support for mental conditions.

The theme of this year’s World Mental Health Day is to ‘Make mental health and wellbeing for all a global priority’. To discover how people are prioritizing their mental wellbeing, we applied Sphere’s AI analytics on online conversations around #mentalhealthday as the hashtag gains traction every October:

Monthly count of tweets mentioning #mentalhealthday

Sphere identified 6 main categories in these Twitter conversations. By diving in deeper, we found some tried-and-tested ways for happier and healthier minds in an age of anxiety:

Sphere analytics in action: Categories

Top discourse categories on #mentalhealthday identified by Sphere’s AI analytics

1. Your most important relationship is with yourself

Category: Family & Relationships

Tweet: Today I am choosing me, which is one step toward my happiness

Tweet: Proud of myself to have survived this far. sometimes want to give up

Tweet: Sometimes you just need to take a day to love on yourself, to spend time with yourself, to enjoy your own company.

2. Listen to your body

Category: Healthy Living

Tweet: my body is tapped out. between all the traveling… my body is trying to catch up. I’m exhausted… & mentally, I am too. just need to unplug for a bit

Tweet: Listen to your body more. If your body says: not today. Take the day off & rest up for tomorrow.

Tweet: It’s time to start picking people who are good for your mind, your body and your soul.

3. Treat yourself to alone time

Category: Art & Entertainment

Tweet: Today I accomplished something and I just cried. Reading is one of my fundamental joys. But due to life, I’ve been distracted & busy. I haven’t sat down and finished a WHOLE book in so long. Today I took time to myself & I did that

Tweet: Being alone dancing and zoning out was much needed today.

Tweet: Classic Disney movies are one of my comfort spaces and coping mechanisms. Today was Oliver & Company, then I fell asleep to Robin Hood. Now Beauty and the Beast before the Cowboys game starts.

4. Don’t feel guilty about taking the day off!

Category: Travel

Tweet: Today, I’m doing something that I rarely do. I’m taking a complete day off in the middle of the week to take care of myself with no personal expectations and no commitments.

Tweet: We took off to have a movie and snack day love those vibes

Tweet: Taking a day off in the middle of the week is strangely delightful. Just chilling, getting chores done, and hanging with the fam.

5. A little outer care goes a long way in inner healing

Category: Style & Fashion

Tweet: getting a haircut and color. soon hitting aramen place for lunch.

Tweet: Just broke out a fresh washing up sponge. The therapy I need.

Tweet: Take time to make your skin happy

6. Disconnect to reconnect

Category: Technology & Computing

Tweet: Let me turn my phone off

Tweet: Realized today is #MentalHealthDay and I’m going to partake by putting my phone on DND for the remainder of it

Tweet: The internet allows us to be entertained literally every single second of every single day. Remember to take time to better yourself and cultivate peace of mind.

Write to anurag.banerjee@quilt.ai for more information on how Sphere can radically transform the way your company understands online data.