Over the previous few years, J Balvin (José Álvaro Osorio Balvin) has overtly shared his struggles with psychological well being. It started with a collection of movies he first shared on his Instagram Tales in 2020 and in his Amazon Prime documentary, “The Boy From Medellín,” the place he will get candid about his chemical imbalance and the way he manages his nervousness and melancholy. Balvin has not solely been clear about his personal private journey, however he is additionally develop into an advocate for destigmatizing and normalizing conversations round psychological well being and remedy inside Latinx communities. In 2020, he teamed up with Deepak Chopra to launch Renew Your self: Physique, Thoughts and Spirit, a 21-day, free meditation in each English and Spanish. Earlier this yr, he introduced that he can be collaborating with NBC Information Studios to host a brand new six-part docuseries titled “Gente Sana” with Exile Content material Studio to launch on Peacock. So it is sensible that he is now utilizing his platform to assist individuals discover the assistance they should get higher. Final month, the Grammy Award-winning artist launched Oye, the very first bilingual wellness app for Latinx communities with a mission to “allow Latinx and Gen Z youth to discover ways to really feel higher, unlock their creativity, and rework feelings by inventive actions.”
Balvin, who serves because the app’s chief dream officer, was very a lot impressed by his personal expertise with overcoming psychological well being challenges by leaning into creativity. The app, constructed by Latinx creators in each Spanish and English, supplies a variety of choices, from emotional check-ins to useful inventive workout routines. Additionally on board and closely concerned within the venture is Balvin’s supervisor, Fabio Acosta.
“José realized that it was potential to really feel higher and develop into inventive once more by key wellness practices corresponding to meditation, motion, and connection, assuaging his beforehand skilled nervousness, melancholy, and burnout,” Acosta tells POPSUGAR. “Additional, when he started sharing the story of his psychological well being struggles and proactive meditation with the world, lots of his followers resonated with him. This struck a chord with José, inflicting him to extra totally notice the significance of making a secure area the place individuals cannot solely leverage neighborhood to really feel higher however, moreover, use these collective, shared emotions to gas constructive, inventive actions — the identical method José used his personal experiences to encourage the creation of Oye. As his supervisor, I consider that by incorporating inventive wellness practices into his day by day life and incorporating these practices in a neighborhood sense, as a bigger staff, we’ve got found that they convey emotional and psychological steadiness — so we might act harmoniously with ourselves and with others.”
Throughout fall 2020, within the thick of the pandemic, Acosta linked with Isaac Lee of Exile Content material to current Balvin with the idea of making a psychological well being app. “We then partnered with Mario Chamorro, Oye CEO and cofounder, and Patrick Dowd, Oye COO and cofounder, to construct the staff and convey model product imaginative and prescient for Oye to life,” Acosta says. “From the onset, it has been wonderful to see how the entire partnerships that José has constructed as a musical and cultural icon come collectively to assist him in his endeavor as effectively, following him into the world of know-how and supporting his imaginative and prescient for wellness affect. Each on a person and organizational degree, individuals perceive the significance of what José is doing — exponentiating the aim of Oye and multiplying the affect. We’re very grateful.”
“In contrast to different wellness apps that exist available on the market at present, Oye goals to attach a various and international viewers, spanning not solely generations however cultures as effectively, accessible in each English and Spanish.”
Balvin desires to deliver to the neighborhood a deeper understanding of the therapeutic advantages of incorporating creativity into wellness practices, ensuring it is accessible to each Spanish- and English-speaking audiences. “In contrast to different wellness apps that exist available on the market at present, Oye goals to attach a various and international viewers, spanning not solely generations however cultures as effectively, accessible in each English and Spanish.” Acosta goes on to elucidate how one of many largest challenges in emotional and psychological wellness is having the ability to perceive one’s emotions, course of them, after which identify them. “Whereas most wellness choices label these emotions as ‘good’ or ‘dangerous,’ Oye as an alternative will get to the underside of what they actually imply — a complicated app device that helps you establish your deepest core feelings, reworking them into inventive actions with tangible and sustainable mind-body practices.”
With a purpose to create an app that authentically speaks to Latinxs, it was vital to have a very good variety of people from the neighborhood concerned. Oye’s staff is made up of 90 % Latinxs, with 80 % being girls. Current research from the US Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention present that Latinx communities dwelling within the states have the very best charges of psychological sickness, with youth reporting suicide makes an attempt at alarming charges, together with the disparities they face in each entry and high quality of therapy. Oye, which suggests “pay attention” in Spanish, goals to extend the quantity of constructive, therapeutic, and significant listening individuals have of their lives. With Balvin sticking to Spanish in his musical profession and never compromising who he’s to hit stardom, it was actually vital to the staff that Spanish be championed as a worldwide language. In consequence, the entire content material is out there in each English and Spanish.
“We’re aiming to succeed in Gen Z and millennials that need to really feel higher and activate their inventive potential. We additionally want inventive wellness content material that’s partaking for Latinx communities; that is why we construct it each in Spanish and English,” he says. “We need to deliver into individuals’s day by day lives the energetic boldness of the inventive wellness Latin motion. Our Latin cultures are filled with vitality, and thru Oye, we wish individuals to embody their inventive beings with wellness practices filled with that energy.”
Oye additionally addresses the stigma that also exists in our communities surrounding psychological well being and remedy. In actual fact, Acosta explains that one of many app’s major targets is to acknowledge that it is regular to have emotional and psychological ups and downs. Subsequently, it supplies mind-body content material that additionally contains ancestral drugs, therapeutic practices, and modalities. Oye additionally supplies training surrounding the anatomy of feelings, corresponding to anger, worry, disgrace, or disappointment, whereas offering instruments on learn how to make the most of them for progress.
“With out psychological and emotional wellness, there isn’t any gas for efficiency and creativity.”
“With out psychological and emotional wellness, there isn’t any gas for efficiency and creativity. Within the music trade, you want to be totally current so as to have the ability to creatively deal with surprising issues that come up throughout your day-to-day,” Acosta provides. “That is the core of inventive wellness — being totally current, feeling higher, and filling the current with new prospects. I consider that by enhancing the Latinx neighborhood to faucet into their emotional and psychological superpower, we are able to change the course of our lives, our communities, and our world.”
Oye is presently accessible by way of the Apple App Retailer and Google Play, with subscription choices beginning at $4.99/month. Obtain by Oct. 31 for a one-month free membership.
