Now, more than ever, mental health and well-being are one of the most important things we can focus on—as a corporation, community, family, and society.
Michael’s own experiences and passion for helping others achieve mental well-being started with his own journey for wellness and recovery. On that journey, the centers and practitioners he sought for help were not very organized. There was no real process—no strong, solid care pathway.
He could tell there was an opportunity to come into this space and make a difference to bring organization, structure aligned with a deliberate approach backed in evidence-based science. There was value in creating a person-centric approach that was customized to each individual.
“At the end of the day, what I saw that what was the most impactful in bringing about the best outcomes was just that human connection,” Michael said.
Michael’s youth and early career was built on a foundation of servant leadership. No matter what line of work he was in, it was steeped in helping lead others. What he has discovered in behavioral health care is that it’s possible to serve others seeking help in a compassionate, empathetic, responsible, yet effective way.
That’s the reason why he’s here and why he wanted to start Mindfuli.
The joy of the journey
Every journey is unique, and here is why that’s a good thing.
We’re always taught to think about the goals—the destination we aspire to reach. While those are important, the framing around the epic journey we need to get there gets lost.
It’s kind of like when you were a kid sitting in a car on a long road trip and your parents tried to engage you with license plate games and roadside bingo. When the fun of that wore away, they may have reminded you to feel fortunate, because how lucky you were to be going on such an adventure. The adventure to the destination is half the fun!
Turns out that there is an entire mental framework at play here. We’ll get into that in another post, but understand that the journey to the destination may be just as important as reaching the finish line. Why not make the most of it in a truly positive way?
Mental health is paramount
All of our mental health is critical. There is no longer a need for it to be stigmatized. Now, it deserves a proper and elevated place in all of our thinking. And, we understand a lot more now that our mental health is not really disconnected that much from our well-being.“The mind and body are inextricably linked. They’re closely tied together,” notes Michael.
New research notes that your mental health actually has more impact on your physical being than a poor physical being has on your mental health.
With Mindfuli, we are going on a journey where we’re learning increasingly more about ourselves as beings. When we responded to that RFP, we were awarded a grant and have become the largest provider for over 30,000 encounters since April 2021 with people who are seeking out emotional and mental health support virtually. In their time of need, they can call, text, and chat with us.
