Having a Tough Day? J Balvin’s New Bilingual Mental Health App Offers Real-Time Solutions

When J Balvin found himself struggling to create music in the midst of her struggles with mental health, made the difficult decision to seek help. Now she is using what she learned to help others.

The Colombian singer, whose birth name is José Álvaro Osorio Balvín, is one of the best-selling Latin music artists of this generation, known for breaking barriers through sound, fashion and art. After speaking publicly about his personal struggles with anxiety and depressionis throwing HEARSa bilingual wellness app. The goal? To empower anyone in the Latinx community, and other cultures, who is struggling with mental health by providing a space to help channel their emotions into creativity.

“In my own journey, I found it difficult to find my creativity while dealing with personal mental health issues,” J Balvin, known as the app’s Dream Director, shared in a statement to TODAY. “However, after understanding and harnessing the powers of creative wellness and using my own creative vision to drive true solutions for myself, I was able to feel better and express myself in new ways I never thought possible.”

His statement continued: “This is why I created OYE, to bring a deeper understanding of the healing powers of these creative wellness practices to the global community, for Spanish and English speaking audiences around the world.”

The app has taken about a year to develop, OYE co-founders Mario Chamorro and Patrick Dowd told TODAY via Zoom. They officially began building the app together with Balvin in late 2021. The app’s name, which translates to “listen,” was chosen after Chamorro and Dowd discussed how they could significantly increase the number of people listening.

From the beginning, the team wanted to create a platform that could help people feel better in the Americas. To accomplish that mission, they knew their app had to be fully bilingual.

“We had our entire design and build process in both languages,” Dowd said. “It’s just part of our DNA. And I think we are also very inspired by our co-founder and director of dreams, José, who has sung in Spanish throughout his career, even when he has had a lot of pressure to become a world star. He always seemed true to where he came from and feels that it is very important to defend the Spanish language as a global language”.

According to SAMHSA National Survey on Drug Use and HealthMental health problems are on the rise for people of Latino, Hispanic, or Spanish descent between the ages of 12-49. mental health america notes that the challenges within these communities are only exacerbated by a shortage of Spanish-speaking or bilingual mental health professionals, often coupled with poor communication from health care providers.

However, Chamorro and Dowd emphasized that OYE is for everyone, not just Spanish speakers, as the app can be easily switched between language preferences.

OYE’s features include an emotional logging tool with around 100 sentiments to choose from, such as “disinterested” to “alone”, “anxious” or “peaceful”, which will then provide the user with content tailored to their current emotional state. .

There are also creative wellness videos and exercises that range from five to 30 minutes, a personal goal-setting tool, and downloadable generative art that tracks personal growth and can be shared with friends. There are also mindful notifications that will encourage persistence, self-love, and responsibility.

Hailing from Mexico, Chief Wellness Officer Mari Serra helped build an “eclectic and inclusive group of wellness guides,” Dowd shared, including shamans, healers, dancers, meditation experts, and yogis, among others, from different parts of the Americas. Latin. Balvin’s own therapist, Latin American psychologist Carlos López, is also part of the wellness council.

HEARS

As part of the app, members are also invited to become “OYE Creators” and are encouraged to share how they are coping and managing their own mental health.

“We believe that every artist is a healer, and every healer is an artist, and we believe that all human he is an artist,” Chamorro said. “We’re just bringing together this community of people expressing how they deal with their emotions to unleash their creativity and shape their future.”

Above all, OYE’s purpose is to help the world feel better by providing easy access to a holistic range of practices from Latin America. Globally, Dowd said, “they want to transform emotional well-being from something that is seen as a private burden to something that is seen as a powerful resource for creating the life you want to live.”

Chamorro added that having a resource that can curate content from mental wellness experts and be completed in English or Spanish in an easy-to-follow way, “is a really powerful thing.”