My Myers-Briggs results are ENFP — extroverted, intuitive, feeling, and perceiving. The version I last took also shared the percentage of each characteristic. After reviewing those percentages, my favorite joke is that I’m 90% feelings.
In other words, I’m easily overwhelmed and tend to sponge up others’ emotions. This is precisely why I’m such a huge fan of seeking to better understand mental health (especially among marketing professionals) and mindfulness. I like to lean into insightful and vulnerable conversations where people let their guards down and talk openly about their own struggles –– we all have them because we’re all human.
I’ve heard stories from colleagues about adjusting to a new normal, loss, and re-discovering therapy. I’m always grateful to hear others share their stories and to build on the understanding that we’re not alone.
In that spirit, I wanted to share some of my favorite mindfulness resources. From meditations and therapy apps to coloring books and newsletters, these are resources that have, at various times, offered me comfort and happiness. While the following resources aren’t all specifically marketing-related I hope you’ll discover something new that will spark a small sliver of joy for you.
Journals
1. Calm the Chaos
Bullet journals can be a coveted respite from the daily anxieties that plague us all. This journal was one of the most affordable I found and offers simple prompts to encourage even the most diary-agnostic folks to reflect for a few moments each evening. Content varies from checklists that ask if you managed the basics — get outside, exercise, do something kind for someone — to what you’re most grateful for that day. It’s a simple and quick way to remind yourself that yes, you’re actually doing just fine.
2. The Five-Minute Journal
There’s a reason this universally loved journal has 10,000 Amazon reviews. It promotes helpful daily habits with the goal of inspiring gratitude and improving confidence. The journal’s prompts include weekly challenges, daily highlights, positive affirmations, and more. And as the name suggests, it takes about 5 minutes per day to fill in and has enough pages to last you 6 months.
3. A Year of Zen
A tool for the Zen Buddhist, this journal encourages the practice of reverence and curiosity. It encourages owners to take note of all their senses by grounding themselves in the present, with prompts like, “What spring sounds did you hear today?” and “Draw the scent of rain without naming it.” It’s a gentle nudge to notice the things in life that really matter — and despite what your anxiety says, your full inbox is not one of those things. If you’re drawn to Zen philosophy or spirituality, this journal is for you.
Coloring books
4. Enchanted Forest
This coloring book is a #1 New York Times bestseller. Honestly, I didn’t even know coloring books could be bestsellers, but I own this book and I believe it. Described as an “inky quest,” flora and fauna feature magical spirals and patterns waiting to be filled with vibrant colors.
4. Mandalas
For those who’d rather color abstract mandalas than specific scenes, meet this spiral-bound-never-again-struggle-with- keeping-the-pages-flat-coloring-book. I also have a mandala coloring book, but before you think my entire library is filled with coloring books, I do own real books, too. Don’t judge me. Coloring books in general bring out your inner child and unleash your imagination. Isn’t that what everyone needs right now?
5. You Fucking Got This
The Amazon product page says, “Relax your mind with this beautiful sweary adult coloring book. Be honest, you’ve had a shitty day.” I’m not sure there’s more I need to say — you probably have had a shitty day and that’s exactly why I’m writing this blog post. If you want to color in four-letter words to your heart’s content, get this coloring book at a steal.
Games
6. I Love Hue
I Love Hue is a mobile game that describes itself as “a gentle journey into colour and perception”. Set to peaceful music, players re-arrange colored tiles into spectrums of ombre. If you enjoy puzzles or feel a sense of satisfaction turning colorful chaos into vivid perfection, you’ll enjoy a few moments of tranquility from this game.
7. Monument Valley
If you know, you know. Monument Valley is one of the best mobile games ever created — and that’s a fact, not an opinion. Having won 21 awards between the two releases, it’s a game described as “impossibly gorgeous”. Players follow the silent princess Ida as she wanders a world of 3D puzzles. The ambient music is well-worth getting off the couch to fetch your headphones and it will result in an hour or two of zen-like gameplay that will leave you at peace.
8. Loóna
Loóna is an app dedicated to helping you wind down at the end of your days and fall asleep easier. Featuring sound healing, sleepscapes, and immersive stories voiced by soothing narrators, 20 minutes on Loóna will help you catch a better night’s sleep — so you can face everything that tomorrow throws at you.
Meditations
9. Headspace
I personally swear by Headspace. The animated videos and guided courses are fantastic for those new to meditation. Crucially, the soothing narrators remind you (frequently) that it’s ok for your mind to wander and that doesn’t mean you’re “bad” at meditating. Beyond the courses, you can also select timed meditations, SOS meditations, and meditations for just about every scenario you can imagine, from coping with unemployment to taking a mindful walk around your neighborhood. There are also sleepscapes (“Midnight Launderette” is my favorite), sleep music, and soundscapes. And if you want to tie multiple points of your day to mindfulness, Headspace has a “start your day” feature where you can check-in and take short breaks to keep yourself grounded.
10. Calm
Similar to Headspace, Calm aims to improve sleep, focus, and your general well-being, while decreasing stress and anxiety. It’s for everyone, both meditation newbies and seasoned experts. To talk you through each mindfulness exercise, Calm offers masterclasses from world-renowned teachers to help you get the hang of meditation once and for all. You can log in for 3 minutes or 25, whatever works for your schedule. It’s worth noting that Calm has 1.5M reviews and still hangs on to a 4.8-star rating.
11. Insight Timer
If you’re turned off from paying for meditation apps, try Insight Timer. This lesser-known, free app has tons of content, including meditation, yoga, and sleep resources. There are even sleep stories for kids, like this one about a magic bracelet and a forest of “moonbow” unicorns. (Oh, to be a kid again.) There are of course resources for adults, too, with sessions taught by both teachers and celebs, including Russell Brand, Goldie Hawn, and Gisele Bündchen. If you’d like to dive deeper and take a longer, multi-day course, you can sign up for the Member Plus track.
Therapy
12. BetterHelp
BetterHelp makes therapy accessible, affordable, and convenient, opening it up to people who found the process of finding the right match and paying for therapy too overwhelming. Whether you need to vent about work or you’re navigating deeper challenges, BetterHelp helps you find licensed, accredited, and experienced therapists. As a bonus, you can communicate exactly how you want, via video calls or messages.
13. Brightside Health
Price: $95-349/mo depending on the service
Brightside Health offers evidence-based therapy as well as prescription medications. For those who prefer to approach anxiety and depression more holistically, getting resources for both of these can be incredibly helpful. Interested customers start with a mental health questionnaire, meet with a virtual provider, and then keep in touch with continuous surveys and check-ins. Brightside also offers a visual path, so you can see how your journey shifts and start to identify positive ways to make a difference in your mental health.
14. Ayana Therapy
Ayana Therapy focuses on offering mental healthcare for marginalized and intersectional communities. Those interested fill out a culturally informed questionnaire to match with a provider who can best serve their needs. This service takes into consideration diversity, accessibility, cultural competence, anonymity, and destigmatization. Similar to the services above, Ayana Therapy conducts sessions both through video and messages.
Hypnosis
15. Hypnobox
If you think hypnosis is only for the woo-woo, think again. Hypnosis can be a powerful tool to relax your subconscious mind and make you more open to new thoughts and behavioral suggestions — and it’s completely safe. Hypnobox, the most popular hypnosis app, lets you choose from 600 audio modules around specific topics, such as self-worth, better sleep, and inner balance.
16. Grace
Price: $19.99/mo or $119.94/yr
Grace believes that hypontherapy is simply meditation with a goal. The service claims that after listening to hypnosis recordings twice per day for a week, participants experienced 45% fewer stressed feelings and 51% reduced procrastination. To reach these goals, Grace offers hypnosis sessions for work, parenting, relationships, happiness, and more. You can dabble in one session to see how it feels or opt into a full 7-day workshop to feel better, longer.
17. Harmony Hypnosis
Harmony Hypnosis is another hypnosis app that has benefits that extend into your work life. The service will enhance your focus, reduce stress, give you confidence, and help you achieve your goals more effectively. The hypnosis recordings leverage dual vocal delivery, meaning it plays different suggestions through the right and left headphones, as well as sending rhymes that are recreated in your brain in the form of electrical impulses. Together, these two effects send listeners into a deeply relaxed, hypnotic state.
Yoga
18. Yoga With Adriene
With over 11M subscribers, Yoga with Adriene is the person you think of when you think of “YouTube yoga.” She provides high-quality practices on yoga and mindfulness and encourages everyone to slow down and “Find What Feels Good.” Viewers love her Mr. Rogers-esque attitude and her dog Benji, who takes center stage in many of her videos. It doesn’t hurt that she also has yoga practices for everything that you can think of — yoga for when you’re sick, when you’re sad, and so much more.
19. Yoga by Biola
Biola is a Nigerian-American yoga educator committed to making yoga adaptable for different bodies. She invites you to participate in yoga in a way that feels safe, approachable, and non-performative and creates space to honor the experience of those underrepresented in the yoga industry. She also provides education beyond individual poses to support mental health off of the mat. Playlists include slow flows, gentle yoga, restorative yoga, energizing yoga, and more. Notably, Biola also focuses on introductory yoga, so you never feel intimidating tuning in.
20. Yoga With Zelinda
Zelinda is on a mission to make yoga accessible and beneficial for people with all kinds of bodies. Drawing from her experience of feeling nervous while visiting her first yoga studio, she has built a practice around making yoga therapeutic for all. She has a series of “Yoga for Bigger Bodies,” daily “Yoga for EveryBody” challenges, and yoga for hyper-specific needs, like easing knee or back pain — something every office worker could probably use right now.
Podcasts
21. On Being
Krista Tippet, the host of the widely popular podcast, On Being, invites a new guest on her show each week to discuss the immensity of human life. She explores questions such as, “What does it mean to be human?”, “How do we want to live?”, and “Who will we be to each other?”. Recent episodes include “The Inner Landscape of Beauty,” “Pathfinding Through the Improbable,” and a memorial episode dedicated to Thich Nhat Hanh, a revered Zen master, teacher, and poet.
22. Unlocking Us
Unlocking Us is hosted by Brené Brown, a beloved professor, author, and podcast host, who went viral in 2010 for her TED talk, “The Power of Vulnerability.” Her podcast covers “conversations that unlock the deeply human part of who we are, so that we can live, love, parent, and lead with more courage and heart.” Each episode puts emotion at its heart, unafraid to dive into what makes people sad or afraid. It’s a heart-warming podcast that won’t disappoint.
23. On Purpose
If you can’t consume enough podcasts (guilty as charged), check out Jay Shetty’s podcast, On Purpose, which airs twice per week. Most episodes feature fascinating guests, such as Miranda Kerr and Jane Goodall, while others offer actionable tips for a better life, like “8 Strategies to Remove Distractions.” As a former monk and current “purpose coach,” Jay dishes out wisdom straight into your headphones.
Music
23. Spotify Chill Mix
Ok, it’s worth starting out by saying there is no shortage of amazing music to chill out to. This section could be thousands of links long, but to keep things manageable, here are 3 I like. The first is Spotify’s Chill Mix, which is customized to each listener to give them the right sounds to vibe with. The playlist currently has over 4M likes, and mine runs just shy of 3 hours. Whatever genre you’re into, if you need to relax, Chill Mix has the right picks to set the mood.
24. My Analog Journal
During the early pandemic days, I turned to My Analog Journal for soothing morning jams. I can’t explain exactly why I loved it so much. Every video is a little different, featuring music you like haven’t heard of before (think Turkish female singers from the 70s or disco records from Ghana). And there’s something serene about watching the DJs spin in plant-filled apartments as you sip your morning coffee. If I’m feeling stressed and need a break, I turn to this channel time and time again.
25. Lofi Girl
What is there to say about Lofi Girl that hasn’t already been said? As of writing this, Lofi Girl has 10.4M subscribers on YouTube. This channel has beats to study to, beats to sleep to, and even beats for your morning coffee. Plus, there’s almost always a live stream playing that you can join in on.
Newsletters
26. The Latest Kate
The Latest Kate is a feel-good newsletter delivered to your inbox every morning. It’s run by Kate Allen, a mental health author and illustrator. Each day, you wake up to 3 colorful and heart-warming illustrations of animals that remind you that everything will be alright. “You deserve to spend kindness on yourself.” “You don’t need to be perfect today.” “Small steps still count.” It’s the nicest way to ease into the day and treat yourself a little better.
27. Good News Network
The Good News Network delivers a morning jolt of good news, good talks, and good gits to your inbox daily. From the oldest Chihuahua setting a Guinness World Record to a sloth that cuddles with a zookeeper, there’s content spanning every topic imaginable. Despite what traditional news shows, Good News Network reminds everyone that there’s still hope for the world.
28. Ten Percent Weekly
Ten Percent Weekly is a weekly newsletter curated by Ten Percent Happier, a meditation app with a very popular podcast as well. One of our Hopineers loves the brand because it helps answer basic questions like “Am I doing this right?” when starting out with meditation. For the newsletter, you’ll get access to blog posts about how to sleep better, how to manage self-doubt, and how to interrupt depression, to name a few. Generally, all the content that Ten Percent Happier offers — whether it’s the newsletter, podcast, meditation app, and even the book — will put your noisy mind at ease.
Getting outside
29. All Trails
The best thing to do when you’re feeling stressed out is to get outside. In fact, one study shows that even spending as little as 20 minutes outside can alleviate stress. If you feel like wandering through nearby nature without getting long, download AllTrails onto your phone. AllTrails offers inspiration and guidance to explore the outdoors, featuring trails all around the world.
30. Randonautica
Randonautica is an app that tracks your location and then sets a journey for you to take. By breaking out of your usual routes and comfort zone, you can explore your nearby neighborhood in a new way. The Randonaut community calls this the “probability tunnel” and claims that breaking out of it can spur spontaneous experiences and fun.
31. Garden Manager
Price: $0-7.50/mo depending on the plan
There’s something magical about growing your own food and using it to nourish your body — it can completely transform the way you think, eat, and feel about food. Even if you can’t keep a succulent alive, Garden Manager walks you through the basics, with 3 plans depending on how much hands-on help you need. And even if you only have a small balcony, you can get started growing tomatoes, herbs, and more.
Prioritizing mental health
That’s it! I hope at least one of these mindfulness resources resonates with you, and makes it easier to prioritize your well-being — especially when it comes to balancing your professional life with your mental health.
Remember: You’re not alone. There’s a global community of marketers out there navigating challenges and triumphs.
With that, I wish you joy, fellow marketers.
Read more about this series, We're All Human: Mental Health Stories From Real Professionals.
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