The Global Wellness Institute
The Wellness Moonshot:
A World Free of Preventable Disease
The Wellness Moonshot Calendar’s monthly theme for August 2022 is ADJUST.
Authored by Renee Moorefield, CEO of Wisdom Works Group, and member of the GWI Advisory Board
IT’S TIME TO ADJUST OUR THINKING TO TRANSFORM OUR WELLNESS IMPACT
We’re living in a transformative time where tech has the potential to accelerate wellness for all. Yet, as highlighted in The Future of Wellness 2022 Trends Report and the Global Wellness Institute’s new Web 3.0 initiative, the wellness industry has been notoriously slow to embrace technology. If we are to democratize wellness for the planet, it will require us to adjust how we think about wellness and transform our wellness leadership.
Leveraging tech to make wellness accessible for everyone is right in line with the mission of The Wellness Moonshot to create a world free of preventable disease. So I was eager to talk with Jesse Pickard, CEO of Elevate Labs, a tech company that’s helped over 50 million people improve their brain health, stress levels, quality of sleep, and more through its unique Elevate and Balance apps.
A PERSONAL DOCTOR IN YOUR POCKET
In our conversation, Jesse brimmed with excitement about the unprecedented access to technology that exists for people today, unleashing untold possibilities for wellness. Consider that close to 6.5 out of our planet’s 8 billion people own smartphones. The overwhelming penetration of these devices on our globe, along with fitness, glucose, heart rate variability, voice recognition, and other biometric and behavioral smart-sensors alone, is providing new avenues for health and wellness data capture, integration, interpretation, early detection and prevention, delivery, and adoption at scale for governments, scientists, and health and wellness care providers.
Plus, for individuals, the smartphone has quickly become a tool of wellness self-empowerment—a “personal doctor” in your pocket, says Jesse. Through this kind of technology, you can become more aware of your mental, emotional, and physical wellness using personalized data and experiment with new approaches to elevate your own health and wellbeing.
> Tech is a double-edged sword for wellness. Listen to Jesse talk about how technologies, such as social media, can link to depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and poor sleep—if these tools aren’t used mindfully.
THE ROLE OF APPS TO CREATE #WELLNESSFORALL
A meditation coach, therapist, or wellness retreat are not only intimidating prospects for some people; for many, they are inconvenient, unaffordable, and inaccessible. When it comes to wellness tech, Jesse believes apps are magical. Whether the topic is maintaining a healthy brain, managing stress, breathing, sleeping, eating, moving, finding a counselor, or stopping smoking, there is likely an app for it. Apps don’t fix systemic wellbeing problems, such as a toxic work culture, discrimination, and poverty. But they can provide personalized wellness insight, education, and tools for positive change for a low price point at scale. In Jesse’s view, apps are a wellness amplifier, reaching people that were unreachable in the past, such as marginalized groups at work and in our societies, along with people who have traditionally been ignored by the wellness industry.
> Hear Renee and Jesse talk the role of tech in making wellness more inclusive (which is a huge challenge for the wellness industry today).
TELL US ABOUT YOUR PLANS
Do you have a #WellnessMoonshot story you want us to feature in our monthly articles or Wellness Moonshot celebrations? Let Kendra Kobler ([email protected]) know how you are elevating wellness in your corner of the world.
Next month, we’ll touch on what the topic ACCOMPLISH means to leading wellness. Until then, check out each of these Wellness Moonshot articles from past years with science insights and strategies to support you on your wellness leadership journey.
RESOURCES TO SUPPORT YOUR WELLNESS LEADERSHIP
- Find out more about Jesse Pickard’s terrific brain training and meditation apps—and experiment with these apps for yourself.
- Check out these 5 top wellness tech trends for 2022.
- Get your wellness tech featured in the Tech Innovation Pavilion at the 2022 Global Wellness Summit, October 31-November 3.
- Learn about the emerging role of tech ethicists—and why they are vital in the wellness space.
- Get involved in the GWI’s groundbreaking Web 3.0 Initiative to learn about the interactions between the $4.4 trillion global wellness economy and major web developments (such as the metaverse, NFTs, cryptocurrency, decentralized finance, etc.)—and the implications for the business of wellness and society at large.
- Dive into the resources from the GWI Digital Wellness Initiative, such as their Wellness in the Age of the Smartphone whitepaper, to help you address the growing relationship between technology and wellbeing within your organization.
- Measure your resourcefulness as a wellbeing leader via the pioneering online assessment Be Well Lead Well Pulse®.
