January | Awareness

The focus of the January Wellness Moonshot Calendar is Awareness, the foundation from which positive change can take root and ultimately succeed. The following ideas and information are designed to help you engage and inspire your colleagues, employees and community to become Wellness Aware. They are curated with the support of Renee Moorefield, chair of the GWI Wellness at Work Initiative and CEO of Wisdom…

Wellness Trends for 2019

The wellness trends forecasts keep rolling in, and Fast Company’s recent report on the “most promising” for 2019 identifies everything from the home fitness revolution to the “Drybar Effect” to a wave of wellness companies by and for people of color to “plant-based foods getting meatier.” One key trend: wellness real estate, a sector put on the map by GWI research. The prediction: In the…

Employers & Insurers Increasingly Track Our Health Behavior

An unsettling story is being played out in the field of tech. It touches the boundaries of privacy and personal freedom—a bonsai version of China’s plan by 2021 to assign a grade to all 1.3 billion citizens on their “social behavior.” More and more, tech AI companies are selling recruitment technology to both large employers and individuals (to choose a babysitter for example) that assess…

Study: Six to Eight Hours a Night the Sweet Spot for Healthy Sleep

A large, new study in the European Heart Journal (116,632 people across 21 countries) found that getting at least 6–8 hours of sleep a night is optimal, but getting more might not be. People who slept 8–9 hours had a 5 percent increased risk for cardiovascular disease or death; those who slept 9–10 hours had a 17 percent increased risk; and those sleeping more than…

Must-Reads from the Wellness World (Week of December 29, 2018)

New Office Hours Aim for Well Rested, More Productive Workers – The New York Times, December 26, 2018 A growing number of businesses are encouraging their employees to work when their bodies are most awake. The Loneliest Generation: Americans, More Than Ever, Are Aging Alone – The Wall Street Journal, December 12, 2018 Loneliness undermines health and is linked to early mortality—and Baby Boomers are…