Improve stress and anxiety resilience in just a few minutes a day with this game
Reduce anxiety and build stress resilience with Personal Zen. Backed by a decade of NIH-supported clinical research, this mobile game rewires subconscious habits of thinking to reduce stress and anxiety.* It just takes a few minutes a day, 4 days a week! Based on your current stress levels, a daily goal of gameplay is recommended (typically between 6-10 minutes). Then, you can choose from a number of different game regions and start playing to meet your daily goal. It’s that simple!
In addition to gameplay, you can also access brief, science-backed tools to support your mental health journey including:
-Journaling & mood tracking to help identify feelings and triggers
-Breathing exercises to calm anxiety and improve sleep
-Mindfulness practices to regulate emotions and reduce stress
*Safety and efficacy claims have not been evaluated by the FDA. Personal Zen is available via the Enforcement Discretion Policy introduced by the FDA in April 2020, allowing computerized behavioral therapies for anxiety disorders to be commercially distributed without a 510(k) premarket notification and a prescription.
HOW DO I USE PERSONAL ZEN?
Start by completing a daily check-in and tune into your stress and mood. The check-in helps determine your personalized goal for game play. To use Personal Zen, look for the sparkle to follow the friendly sprite (the smiling face) after it disappears. Don't try to capture the friendly sprite. Simply tap on the sparkle quickly, then smoothly trace the path left in its wake. A “medallion” will appear, telling you where to focus your attention next. Don’t let the angry sprite divert your focus from finding the sparkle. It’s natural to sometimes trace the path a couple of times to achieve accuracy. Play until reaching your goal for the day.
Do a mood check-in or visit the Positive Practices area to take a few minutes to review tips and tools for reducing stress and anxiety from Dr. Tracy, creator of Personal Zen. Personal Zen offers science-based tools, like breathing exercises, musical therapy, and journaling, among other tips that help better manage stress and anxiety.
HOW DOES PERSONAL ZEN WORK?
During gameplay, angry and happy sprites briefly appear then disappear. You are then prompted to trace the trail left by the happy sprite. During gameplay, you might notice that your attention draws to the angry sprite instead of the happy sprite. This is called ‘threat bias’ - a subconscious habit of attention that drives you to focus on negative information at the expense of the positive. Threat bias acts like an information filter that distorts your ability to cope with anxiety, sparking vicious cycles of distress and worry. By playing the game, we change this habit and shift your threat bias to focus more on the positive, rather than the negative. Personal Zen helps to short-circuit these negative habits of attention and allows the user to develop a more flexible and positive focus.
Brief training with Personal Zen can even reduce your body’s stress response! Our studies show that using the app 6-10 minutes a day, 4 days a week reduces levels of stress hormones known as cortisol, and reduces anxiety.
Improve your stress resilience and reduce anxiety today - try the app free for 30 days!
HERE’S WHAT EXPERTS IN THE FIELD OF PSYCHOLOGY HAD TO SAY ABOUT PERSONAL ZEN:
“Personal Zen brings cutting-edge research and well-established strategies for reducing anxiety and stress into the palm of your hand.”
Dr. Shannon M. Bennett, Assistant Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College
“Instantly engaging for adults and kids, Personal Zen is a rare example of science turned into fun in order to reduce stress and anxiety.”
Dr. Tony Simon, Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, University of California Davis
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