December is the time of year when we pause to be grateful, but if we shift from gratitude as a passing season to a way to live daily, science says the mental, physical and emotional health benefits are plentiful. Eastern and Western healing traditions have long incorporated gratitude as part of a holistic wellness strategy. Gratitude reduces our hassles in life and work (as well as our complaints), decreases anxiety…
One of the largest sleep studies ever (Michigan State University) just revealed that sleep deprivation has a much more negative effect than earlier studies indicated. Prior studies showed how too little sleep hurts a person’s ability to maintain attention, but this one also looked at how it impacts placekeeping, or the ability to complete a series of steps without losing one’s place. The impact, the…
The US is currently one of the rich world’s fastest-growing economies, but from a wellbeing perspective, the dissonance between the macro and micro pictures it offers is quite striking. In particular, the US economy shows why focusing on GDP data to the detriment of more qualitative indicators can be so misleading when evaluating wellbeing. Here is the reason why: The US currently has the most…
When people promote time in nature as the key to wellbeing, they usually focus on green spaces. But a new article in the Guardian explains why and how “blue space” (the ocean, rivers, lakes, canals, waterfalls, even urban fountains) positively impacts our mind and body—from boosting Vitamin D to having a stronger psychologically restorative effect than other natural environments. Support for the idea of “blue”…
MONTHLY BAROMETER – WELLNESS EDITION MONTHLY BAROMETER A growing sense of uncertainty about what is coming next is affecting the global economy. It is further entrenched by (1) trade wars being waged on multiple fronts; (2) greater political and geopolitical instability around the world; and (3) mounting policy concerns about big macro issues, such as the effectiveness of monetary policy or impending regulatory backlashes related…
Let’s Wage a War on Loneliness – The New York Times, November 9, 2019 The columnist explains why the condition of loneliness that corrodes modern life isn’t just depressing but can also be deadly. More than one-fifth of adults in both the US and Britain now report they often or always feel lonely, and the problem has now become so pervasive that Britain appointed a…
