This is the first public articulation of the tool we originally set out to build, the healthy habits tool. Well, as far as operating under the moniker Mindful Apps anyway. The way back (9 months?) original vision was a web-based treatment program for depression called Mindful Action Training, which grew out of my local therapy practice Mindful Action Therapy for depression. Then it was Therapist Tool Box … I’ll spare you the fascinating entrepreneurial journey that lead from there to here and just talk about the essence which has survived the quite necessary shedding of startup fat.

The essence? Behavior change. How to create and sustain change towards a healthy lifestyle that leaves one feeling good much more of the time than not. Just to put it out there right now- feeling good all the time? – haven’t seen it yet and I’d have to be some kind of crazy futurist to tell you that’s what we’re going for here. Further, it’s really still a question as to whether or not feeling good could exist without feeling bad sometimes. Don’t think about that one too long; just read on.

And in case you haven’t noticed, we don’t simply think our way to health and vitality. It typically involves a fare amount of action, mindful action to be exact. As opposed to careless, cavalier, unconsciousness action alternating with a kind of ruminating inaction accompanied by self-loathing and self-slander, as just one example.

In treating depression, action is essential because you can’t trust your feelings to some extent. And you sure as hell can’t trust your thoughts. So hopefully, you find a therapist that helps you find your underlying sanity so that you can use it, with a little help, to formulate an action plan. These are actions that you know deep down are healthy and good for you and even lift you out of depression. The trick is slogging through the lack of motivation and actually activating (behavioral activation in psycho-professional parlance).

And out of this was born the healthy habits tool, various ways to de-cogitate the self, de-couch the self, incentivize the self, motivate the self; put simply, get thy-self moving. And obviously you don’t have to be depressed to benefit from such a tool.

The base of the healthy habits tool is an activity log. It is a highly interactive activity log that supports making a behavior a habit. It will allow you to enlist friends and family for support. You’ll be able to set reminders or encouragements in your quest to consciously make a behavior unconscious, ie a habit. You just do it. Yes, in case you haven’t noticed, life is absolutely riddled with paradox. It’s actually quite funny when not just out n’ out heart wrenching, or both simultaneously, which is my personal preference. I digress.

A habit is something you just do without giving it much thought. Like, what if you just went to the gym every other day without much thought, without all the psychological accoutrement that is much heavier than the weights you will lift. What if doing it was so powerfully connected to the sustained health and vitality it produced, that not doing it would seem outlandish, strangely silly, an ontological impossibility? What if you became one of those get up at 6am everyday yoga people, bopping around town with that yogic glow?

I know that habit creating, goal striving software tools are nothing new. But none are actually habit forming for the user and you know, how are you going to make a behavior a habit with a program that doesn’t make a habit of itself? Yes, we are a service with self-consciousness. In fact, its a new tech category, SasSC (pron. sassssk), service as self consciousness. (techie joke)

Finally, we are going for extensive social media integration so that users can draw support from friends and family in the most convenient ways. It takes a community to raise a healthy self. Stay tuned.