About Mindapples

Mindapples is the first organisation in the UK dedicated to promoting mentally healthy living for everyone. We encourage people to take better care of their minds, and provide support and training services to help them do so. We want to make looking after our minds as natural as brushing our teeth, by asking everyone: “What's the 5-a-day for your mind?”

We all have mental health, and we can all do things to take care of ourselves. We're always being told how to take care of our bodies - we can eat healthy food, try to keep fit, brush our teeth and worry about our waistlines. Yet when it comes to our minds, we have very little idea what to do, so we hope for the best and leave it to the experts to fix us if things go wrong. But experts can only do so much. We need to take better care of ourselves. So, if we can look after our bodies by going for a run, or eating an apple, then what’s the equivalent for our minds?

We want to know what works for you. We’re asking everyone to pick their own “mindapples” and share them with the world, and using the power of the web to build a thriving community of people supporting each other to make their minds healthier. We use your suggestions to encourage everyone to take better care of their minds through simple daily activities. We want to reach mainstream audiences to build a new, positive image of mental health, and make taking care of our minds a normal, natural thing for all of us.

“I find Mindapples a pretty intriguing concept, which could really catch on. Just as gyms became a big thing in the 80s, will the 2010s see the arrival of serious preventative mental health?”
Madeleine Bunting, The Guardian, April 2011

We offer engagement, training and consultancy services to help businesses and campaigners promote mental wellbeing, resilience and public health. We channel all our profits back into our campaign to promote good mental health in communities around the UK. For more information on the impact of our work, take a look at what people say , and read more about the evidence for what we do and why we do it.

“Mindapples is an idea that is gaining ground at a time when both professionals and politicians are focusing on people’s well-being.”
Julie Cross, The Telegraph, May 2011

So far we have rallied a huge community of fantastic supporters, harvested over 50,000 mindapple suggestions, attracted a lot of recognition and endorsements, secured national media coverage, developed strong partnerships, and built a reputation as a breath of fresh air in the mental health world. If you like what we're doing, please donate to the cause, volunteer or partner with us to help us grow, and most importantly of all, hire us.

“I compile my own five-a-day... and I realise that while doing them may not make that bubbling undercurrent of anxiety disappear, it does subside. I feel less useless, more capable. I even get more done. I vow to incorporate more calming diversions into my day. Old habits die hard, but an anxiety addict has to start somewhere...”
Kathryn Knight, Grazia, October 2011

So, over to you. Have you had your mindapples?

Andy Gibson
Head Gardener

Mindapples is an independent non-profit organisation based in Central London and with volunteers around the UK. Find out more about who we are and how we got here, and if you like what we're doing, please help us grow.