Ice baths and marathons

The new year is always a time of new health resolutions, but exercising to ape the status of others, rather than focusing on one’s own health, can do more harm than good.

Tracking Australian wellbeing

Countries around the world are putting wellbeing at the heart of policy and budgeting. Australia’s Measuring What Matters framework is a strong start, but dashboards and data will only take us so far.

Move on up

Nearly one in four older adults with poor wellbeing were able to get their life back on track later on, according to a new Canadian study on aging which also found that people with better psychological wellbeing at their lowest point were almost five times more likely to improve their wellbeing over time.

Measuring health matters

Measuring What Matters has five wellbeing themes – healthy, secure, sustainable, cohesive, and prosperous – and The Australian Bureau of Statistics has just published the 2025 results.

Whatever happened to wellness?

The Albanese government devoted time and energy in its first term to developing a wellbeing agenda, but the battle against inflation and the new focus on productivity has pushed wellbeing back down its list of priorities.

ReNeuWell

Researchers from NeuRA and UNSW Sydney have launched a new app aimed at boosting the wellbeing and resilience of adults. ReNeuWell helps people to shift the focus from managing distress to actively promoting mental flourishing, offering a neuroscience-backed, personalised approach to mental health.

Working towards wellbeing

Bold policy shifts are needed to get Australia’s falling social, economic and environmental wellbeing back on track, according to new modelling from Monash University.

All is not well in Australia

The latest Wellbeing Index released by Australian Unity and Deakin University reveals that people’s satisfaction with life in Australia as fallen to its lowest level in the 21st century.

Five keystones of wellbeing

The “wellness” industry offers a thousand different solutions to our modern malaise, but true wellbeing is a product of the positive things we do in our lives, and can’t be bottled in an off-the-shelf product.

The joy of small things

Find joy in the little things is a common piece folk advice has been around for aeons, and modern research suggests that it really helps boost well-being.

Parkruns not pills

‘Social prescribing’ sees health professionals connect patients to non-medical services and physical activities to improve their health and wellbeing.

Poor report card for Aussie children’s wellbeing

While COVID-19 has long slipped from the headlines, the stress and anxiety of the pandemic still lingers, especially among young Australians, according to health experts at the University of South Australia.