Noom Introduces “Mindful Art Break” — A Weekly Practice Designed to Spark Awe, Relieve Stress, and Boost Psychological Wellbeing
Noom open sources wellbeing by releasing its art-impact research, AI art-scoring tools, and the A.R.T. (Art Research Tool) into the public domain
PRINCETON, N.J., Oct. 15, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Noom, the leading platform for preventive health, today announced the launch of Mindful Art Break.
Blending the science of positive psychology with the emotional resonance of fine art, Mindful Art Break encourages members to pause, reflect, and reconnect. Each week, members are invited to a short “microhabit” designed to ease anxiety, reduce stress, and cultivate positive feelings like joy, calm, awe and fascination.
This new feature underscores Noom’s continued expansion of its platform beyond weight management into whole-person, everyday wellbeing.
Mindful Art Break stems from Noom’s Blueprint for Everyday Wellbeing, which drives the company’s approach to product innovation and strategy.
“The science is clear: Viewing fine art can be a powerful mood enhancer,” said Geoff Cook, Chief Executive Officer of Noom. “We created Mindful Art Break to make that healing experience accessible to everyone. It’s about turning a moment of pause into a moment of peace.”
Research by Semir Zeki, a pioneer of neuroaesthetics, demonstrates that art activates multiple brain regions involved in emotion, reward, and cognitive function. Meanwhile, systematic literature reviews have revealed the therapeutic nature of art in reducing stress and anxiety, and major research universities continue to advance the understanding of how the visual arts induce human flourishing. Several studies conducted on both cancer patients and trauma patients have concluded that interaction with fine art filled occupational voids, distracted thoughts of illness, reduced distress, and improved focus on positive life experiences. The World Health Organization notes "that the creation and enjoyment of the arts helps promote holistic wellness and can support positive clinical outcomes."
Science Meets Art: A New Frontier for Digital Wellbeing
Noom set out to examine whether making art a habit for our members might produce flourishing benefits for them. Mindful Art Break draws from existing research in neuroaesthetics and positive psychology, as well as original research by Noom. The Noom team surveyed over 5,000 participants to understand which works of art sparked the strongest emotional uplift—then leveraged that original research to create a data-informed prompt to feed an LLM to AI-score tens of thousands of public domain artworks based on those findings.
The result? A deeply engaging, evidence-backed art experience that promotes flourishing.
To further this field, Noom is releasing the entire toolkit behind Mindful Art Break into the public domain—including its art-scoring AI prompts, curation engine, and research methodology—so that others can build on this work.
“We believe in open-sourcing wellbeing,” said Cook. “That’s why we’re not just sharing art—we’re sharing our research and tools, so the entire field of therapeutic art can benefit.”
A Spark of Inspiration Brings the Museum Home
The inspiration for Mindful Art Break began with a spark from a long-time Noom member and Princeton-area resident. After reading in Town Topics that Noom had moved its headquarters to Princeton, NJ, she reached out and met with Noom CEO Geoff Cook at the company’s Palmer Square offices.
As a Noom member, she valued the app’s ecosystem of tools supporting her weight loss journey—but she wanted more. She proposed that Noom explore art as a form of therapy, sharing.
“I appreciated Noom’s tools for helping me with my weight loss journey, but I realized I also needed ongoing support for developing my mindset and mental habits. I figured that a feature centered around art could be a powerful new way to promote wellness—helping people better understand their own mindset through the lens of creative expression.”
That conversation sparked Geoff’s curiosity. Later that evening, he discussed the idea with his family. His daughter, a student artist, offered an insightful addition: not only could art help people flourish, but artists themselves could intentionally create works designed to foster wellbeing.
“Those twin insights led me on a personal journey into the academic literature of positive psychology and neuroaesthetics,” said Cook. “They ultimately motivated both the feature we launched today and our ongoing research into how art can promote flourishing. To honor our roots in Princeton, we’re proud to feature a public-domain artwork from the Princeton University Art Museum in every Mindful Art Break.”
The company celebrates the role of museums as centers for human flourishing. Noom sees this digital experience as a complement—not a substitute—for real-world art engagement. This view reflects a growing global trend: nearly one in four UK art museums now offer wellbeing-focused programs, and in some regions, doctors even prescribe museum visits for stress and anxiety.
“We want digital engagement to spark real-world curiosity,” said Cook. “Each artwork prominently identifies its source museum because we hope users will one day experience it in person. We are thrilled to help bring the beauty and impact of fine art beyond the museum walls and into the digital spaces where people spend so much time.”
“The data we released today suggests it is possible to identify art that is more likely to maximize flourishing benefits, and given that, this knowledge may be used by both art curators and art makers. As Semir Zeki noted, 'every new technological development has also brought forth new art.'”
Mindful Art Break is an additional feature within Noom’s new free tier, which launched last month to promote healthy psychological habits. It joins features like rewarded step tracking and healthy food logging, which are meant to encourage healthy movement and eating habits.
Key Features of Mindful Art Break
- Weekly Prompts: Members receive a short, guided experience with 10 artworks grounded in a weekly theme.
- Reflective Questions: No art background required—just an open mind.
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In-App Rewards: Earn “Seeds,” Noom’s microcurrency, for each mindful art break completed.
Highlights from Noom’s research, which surveyed 5,000 members in pre-post surveys and then leveraged those findings to AI-score 15,000+ public domain artworks, were published in this blog post today: Everyday Awe: An Empirical Approach to Art Therapy.
Standout works that boost dimensions of flourishing the most include these — all scoring in the Top-10 for their dimension among 15,000 public domain museum artworks.
- Awe - Solar Eclipse by Howard Russell Butler (Princeton University Art Museum)
- Beauty - Twilight in the Wilderness by Frederic Edwin Church (Cleveland Museum of Art)
- Fulfillment - A Calling by William Adolphe Bouguereau (Cleveland Museum of Art)
- Fascination - Valley of Aosta: Snowstorm, Avalanche, and Thunderstorm by J.M.W. Turner (Art Institute of Chicago)
- Happiness - The Jolly Flatboatmen by George Caleb Bingham (National Gallery of Art)
- Calm - Landscape with St. Philip Baptizing the Eunuch by Claude Lorrain (Princeton University Art Museum)
Open-Sourcing Wellbeing Technology (Public Domain Release)
To accelerate further research into the healing powers of art therapy, Noom is releasing—into the public domain—the core tools behind Mindful Art Break. Effective today, the following assets will be available for unrestricted use:
- Art Research Tool (A.R.T) that enables easy sorting of art based on flourishing dimensions and AI-scoring.
- Art‑scoring algorithm used to rank images for flourishing-related responses (e.g., calm, fascination, joy).
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The methodology used to evaluate artworks and the results of our studies, including a more detailed analysis of results.
Download the tools, scoring prompt, and data via Noom’s launch blog post: Everyday Awe: An Empirical Approach to Art Therapy.
Mindful Art Break is available now in Noom’s free microhabits tier within the Noom app and will roll out to all members in the coming weeks. Noom plans to publish a peer-reviewed journal article next year related to art therapy and will continue supporting research in the intersection of digital wellness and the arts.
About Noom: Noom is the leading platform for preventive health and longevity solutions, empowering everyone, everywhere to live better longer — every day. Noom Health partners with top health plans and employers to offer a suite of solutions, including Noom Med, Noom Med with SmartRx, Noom Weight, Noom Weight with GLP-1Rx, Noom Diabetes, and Noom Diabetes Prevention Program, to millions. Noom has received multiple National Institute of Health grants and was the first mobile app recognized by the CDC as a certified diabetes prevention program. With offices in New York City and Princeton, NJ, Noom has been named one of Inc.’s Best Places to Work and Fortune’s Best Workplaces in Technology.
Contact:
Brandyn Bissinger
comms@noom.com
Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:
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Noom launches Mindful Art Break
Mindful Art Break encourages members to pause, reflect, and reconnect.
Noom survey data
Viewing art for 2 minutes boosts dimensions of human flourishing.
Artwork Boosts Wellbeing
To accelerate further research into the healing powers of art therapy, Noom is releasing—into the public domain—the core tools behind Mindful Art Break.
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