The Hanu Method: Our Story and Approach to Mental Wellness
It was a beautiful fall day in Salt Lake City, the perfect backdrop for a meeting with my co-founder Dr. Jay Wiles. We had arranged to meet and discuss the future of Hanu Health. I had a clear vision: to steer the company towards a greater focus on mental wellness and create a product capable of reaching well beyond one million users. Up until then, we had been focusing on a narrow set of biomarkers for stress, far from being a comprehensive mental wellness solution.
We sat down in the lobby of the hotel, and with a mix of excitement and nerves, I laid out my hopes for Hanu. I prayed that Dr. Jay would be open to my ideas and not dismiss them outright. To my relief and delight, as soon as I finished, Dr. Jay smiled and said, "That's what I want to build too."
That was the moment Hanu, the product you can now download and use, was truly born.
It’s Deeply Personal
I've been a lifelong sufferer of anxiety. It's been a constant battle. Every day when I wake up, I HAVE to bring peace and calm into my life. Otherwise, I can easily fall into a death spiral of anxiety. I don’t show up for my family, for my colleagues and simply I’m just not my best self. Hanu, through its comprehensive approach to mental wellness brings more peace and calm into my life. And, by doing so, I hope to also help millions of others who are suffering alongside me.
Many members of our team have shared with me their struggles with PTSD, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, and a lower quality of life due to unresolved mental and emotional wellness issues. So, when I say it's personal to us, you honestly have no idea.
A Connected & Complete Solution
Hanu is the operating system, the cornerstone of your mental and emotional wellness journey. Anything you do for your mental wellness can be tracked and analyzed by Hanu.
Hanu is designed to be low friction, allowing you to seamlessly integrate it into your daily life. We connect with a wide range of wearables like the Apple Watch and Oura Ring, and we also gather data from gyms like Orange Theory, fitness trackers like Strava, and mental wellness solutions like Headspace. This integration ensures that all aspects of your wellness journey are captured and analyzed to provide comprehensive insights.
Hanu’s Rings: Our Approach
Our ring system revolves around three essential pillars: mind, body, and sleep. These rings are designed to help users isolate and focus on the key aspects of mental wellness every single day. By providing a clear framework for balance and focus, we ensure that users are attentive to their mental and physical health, promoting a holistic approach to well-being. Psychophysiology, the study of the mind-body connection, is at the heart of our approach, reflecting the most progressive and comprehensive methods therapists use to treat mental and emotional dysregulation.
Each day, our community is encouraged to achieve 100 points in each of the three areas: mind, body, and sleep (although you can score more if you want!). This incentivized scoring system motivates users to engage in activities that promote their overall wellness. While much of the necessary data is automatically collected from wearables and connected apps, users also have the flexibility to manually add activities when automatic data ingestion is not possible. This ensures that everyone can fully participate in the program, regardless of their technology setup.
By focusing on these three rings, Hanu provides a structured yet adaptable approach to mental wellness. Users can track their progress, identify areas that need more attention, and ultimately achieve a balanced state of well-being. Our goal is to empower individuals to take control of their mental and physical health, creating a supportive environment for lasting positive change.
The Hanu Score
The Hanu score is a daily composite score ranging from 0 to 100, giving users a quick snapshot of their mental wellness progress each day. It encapsulates the balance and progress in three crucial areas: mind, body, and sleep.
The Hanu score serves as a constant reminder of the importance of prioritizing your holistic wellness in order to achieve a more balanced life.. It emphasizes the need to maintain equilibrium across the mind, body, and sleep attributes, encouraging users to focus on all aspects of their well-being. The score not only helps users stay aware of their daily mental health status but also motivates them to engage in activities that contribute positively to their overall wellness.
By regularly monitoring their Hanu score (and the each ring score), users can track their progress, identify areas that need more attention, and make informed decisions to improve their mental and physical health. This consistent feedback loop fosters a proactive approach to mental wellness, empowering individuals to take control of their well-being and achieve a balanced, healthier lifestyle.
The Power of AI & Behavior Change
We harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to create a groundbreaking behavior change platform. By leveraging vast amounts of data, whether automatically ingested from connected devices or manually entered by users, we can offer comprehensive insights into every aspect of mental and emotional wellness. Our advanced algorithms analyze this data to identify patterns, trends, and correlations, providing users with personalized recommendations and actionable insights.
AI and ML allow us to go beyond basic tracking and offer a deeper understanding of what truly impacts mental and emotional well-being. For example, we can correlate sleep quality with daily stress levels, physical activity with mood fluctuations, and mindfulness practices with overall mental resilience. These insights empower users to make informed decisions about their wellness routines, helping them to identify what works best for their unique needs.
Our goal is to transform the way people approach mental and emotional wellness by offering a data-driven, personalized experience. With Hanu, users can gain a holistic view of their well-being, uncover hidden factors affecting their mental health, and receive tailored guidance to foster positive behavior changes. By integrating AI and ML, we provide a powerful tool for individuals to enhance their mental and emotional wellness journeys.
In Conclusion
Hanu is all about helping you be your best self by focusing on mind, body, and sleep. Our rings system and daily Hanu score give you a clear picture of your mental wellness, making it easy to see how you're doing and where you might need a little extra focus. By leveraging AI and machine learning, we provide personalized insights and recommendations based on your data, whether it's automatically collected from wearables or manually entered. Our goal is to make mental wellness a seamless part of your everyday life, empowering you to take control and create lasting positive change.
Here’s to better mental wellness!